§ Bob SpinkTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many cases of violent assault there were against(a) rail workers, (b) benefits agency staff and (c) retail staff in the last 12 months for which figures are available; [54624]
(2) how many incidents of (a) shop lifting, (b) armed robbery and (c) assault there have been in high streets shops in the past 12 months;[54563]
(3) how many instances of violence to retail staff there were in the last 12 months for which figures are available; [54568]
(4) what percentage of violent crime was against shop staff in the last year for which figures are available; [54571]
(5) how many instances of retail crime there were in each of the metropolitan boroughs in the last 12 months for which figures are available; [54567]
(6) how many incidents of recorded crime in the last three years have been classed as retail crime, broken down by police force. [54565]
§ Mr. DenhamRecorded crime statistics do not normally identify the location of offences, or the occupation of victims. The one recorded crime which can be identified as retail crime is theft from a shop, and figures for each police force area for the last three years are given in the table.
Figures on the location of firearms robberies including offences where air weapons, imitation weapons and unidentified firearms were used indicate that there were 1,323 robberies in shops in the 2000–01 financial year. Including offences where air weapons, Imitation Weapons and Unidentified fire arms where used.
The Home Office, together with the Department of Trade and Industry and Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, will shortly be undertaking a major cross-Government survey of crime that affects retail and manufacturing premises across England and Wales. This study is receiving matching funds from the Treasury Evidence Based Policy Fund and will be the first Home Office survey of crime against manufacturers and retailers in England and Wales since 1994. More than 700W 3,000 premises will be surveyed in each of these sectors. The survey will collect detailed information on the circumstances of crime against business, levels of concern about crime, the overall social and economic impact of crime on businesses and levels of satisfaction with police response and advice on crime.
Recorded crime: between 1998–99 to 2000–01 in England and Wales. Theft from shops—number of offences Police Force Area 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 Avon and Somerset 7632 7958 8741 Bedfordshire 2934 3007 3105 Cambridgeshire 3372 3630 3743 Cheshire 4957 4883 4906 Cleveland 5913 6365 6228 Cumbria 2702 2584 2339 Derbyshire 3473 4316 4537 Devon and Cornwall 7007 6346 6414 Dorset 2995 3088 3011 Durham 2351 2944 3042 Essex (1) 6818 7116 6788 Gloucestershire 3285 3471 3697 Greater Manchester 16016 16308 16196 Hampshire 9874 10234 9674 Hertfordshire (1) 3054 3328 4060 Humberside 7638 7188 7487 Kent 8010 8059 8191 Lancashire 6922 6680 7123 Leicestershire 4381 4398 4184 Lincolnshire 2644 2709 2948 London, City of 580 619 650 Merseyside 8806 8777 9584 Metropolitan Police (1) 47074 48015 41713 Norfolk 3653 3480 3801 Northamptonshire 3637 3348 3107 Northumbria 9691 9719 10757 North Yorkshire 3597 4053 3949 Nottinghamshire 7857 8533 9226 South Yorkshire 7090 7202 7525 Staffordshire 5154 5981 6287 Suffolk 3092 3118 3404 Surrey (1) 2724 2957 3602 Sussex 7975 8115 7788 Thames Valley 8589 9628 10796 Warwickshire 2045 1976 2100 West Mercia 4818 5732 5792 West Midlands 15824 17891 18877 West Yorkshire 11806 11864 11317 Wiltshire 2718 2623 2509 Dyfed-Powys 1473 1656 1503 Gwent 3152 3213 2909 North Wales 2606 2708 2890 South Wales 6033 6674 6580 Totals: 281972 292494 293080 (1) There was a boundary change on 1 April 2000 in which some parts of the Metropolitan police area were transferred to Essex, Hertfordshire and Surrey, so that the police force areas followed county boundaries thereafter. The figures for these forces before and after this date are therefore not directly comparable.