§ Norman BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many notifiable offences of(a) robbery and (b) burglary were recorded by the police on retail petrol stations in (i) 1999, (ii) 2000 and (iii) 2001; and if he will make a statement; [39855]
(2) how many police authorities record drive-offs as a discrete category of offence; and what plans he has to standardise recording procedure; [39856]
(3) how many offences of drive-offs from retail petrol stations were recorded by the police in (a),. 1999 (b) 2000 and (c) 2001; how many offenders were found guilty of the offence in each year; and if he will make a statement; [39858]
(4) how many offenders were found guilty, by sex and age, of (a) robbery and (b) burglry on retail petrol stations in (i) 1999, (ii) 2000 and (iii) 2001; and if he will make a statement. [39857]
§ Mr. DenhamRecorded crime and offender statistics collected centrally do not in general include the nature of offences so that offences of making off without payment (bilking), robbery and burglary from petrol stations cannot be distinguished from similar offences at other premises.
The number of robberies involving firearms in garages and the total number of robberies in business properties are given in the table.
Offences recorded, England and Wales Robberies involving firearms in a garage, Robbery of business service station property 1998–99 198 10,481 1999–2000 213 12,148 2000–01 219 12,394 We are determined to reduce the number of robberies across the country as a whole. That is why we have given five metropolitan forces, including the Metropolitan police, an additional £20 million specifically to assist their efforts in tackling robbery, and have set them the challenging target of a 14 per cent. reduction of robbery in our principal cities by March 2005. The additional funds have enabled those forces to introduce a number 717W of new initiatives and to reinforce good practice. We are working with those forces to enable us to identify good practice in tackling robbery which we will ensure is disseminated to all forces. We have also published a Robbery Toolkit which is available to all forces and those involved in crime reduction and community safety and will help them to work as effectively as possible in tackling robbery.