§ Mr. EvansTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many incidences of(a) theft from vehicles, (b) armed robbery, (c) criminal damage, (d) common assault, (e) vehicle theft and (f) vandalism have been reported in each police area in Wales in each year since 1997. [58028]
§ Mr. DenhamThe number of recorded crimes in each of these categories is given in the table, copies of which have been placed in the Library. Vandalism is included in the figures for criminal damage.
There was a change in counting rules for recorded crime on 1 April 1998. Numbers of recorded crimes before and after this date may not be directly comparable.
It should be noted that recorded violent crime is subject to changes in reporting and recording. For example, the 2001 British Crime Survey found that, over England and Wales as a whole, reporting to the police of common assault rose from 29 per cent in 1999 to 39 per cent in the year 2000. Also, the British Crime Survey has shown that, in England and Wales as a whole, the number of common assaults recorded in the survey decreased by 14 per cent between the 1999 and 2000 calendar years, whereas common assaults recorded by the police increased by an estimated nine per cent. Common assaults recorded by the police may therefore not necessarily be a reflection of the real level of this offence.
§ Mr. LawsTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what his estimate is of the annual change in the major categories of criminal offences in(a) England, (b) each English Police Authority in each year since 1985–86; and if he will make a statement. [56222]
§ Mr. Denham[holding answer 21 May 2002]Annual changes in the major categories of recorded crimes have been published in table 2.7 of successive editions of "Criminal Statistics England and Wales", which are available in the Library. This is with the exception of the year ending 1998–99, for which no estimate could be made owing to the change of counting rules for recorded crime which came into effect on 1 April 1998.