HC Deb 11 February 2004 vol 417 cc1503-5W
Mr. Hoyle

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the crime clear-up rates in Lancashire police force area broken down by(a) constituency and (b) local authority area in each year since 2000. [153509]

Ms Blears

The available information is given in the tables. Figures for crimes detected by the police are not broken down by constituency or local authority areas. However, they are available at Basic Command Unit (BCU) level. BCUs broadly equate to former police divisions or districts. In Lancashire, BCUs do not correspond with local authorities. There are six BCUs, compared to 14 local authority areas.

Detection figures for recorded crime offences are available at BCU level for five key offences only; violence against the person, robbery, burglary in a dwelling, theft of a motor vehicle, and theft from a vehicle.

Detection rates for all crime, recorded by Lancashire Police
Offences detected (percentage)
1999–20001 29
2000–012 27
2001–022 26
2002–032 27
1 Revised Home Office instructions, which clarified the recording of detections, were introduced on 1 April 1999. These instructions provided more precise and rigorous criteria for securing a detection, with the underlying emphasis on the successful result of a police investigation. As a result of the revised detections guidance (in which some previous methods of detection were no longer counted), the numbers of crimes detected, and figures derived from them, will have been affected.
2 Detection figures may also have been affected by the adoption of the principles of the National Crime Recording Standard (NCRS), as this may have affected the number of crimes recorded.

The NCRS was officially implemented across England and Wales in April 2002. Lancashire Police adopted the Standard prior to this, in August 2000.

Basic Command Unit—Detection rates recorded for five key offences, by Lancashire Police from 1999–2000 to 2002–03
Violence against the person detection rate:
Basic Command Unit/ Police force 1999–2000 (percentage) 2000–01 (percentage) 2001–02 2002–03
Lancashire
Lancashire Central 80 75 56 56
Lancashire Eastern 80 67 61 56
Lancashire Northern 75 67 61 62
Lancashire Southern 80 75 67 72
Lancashire Western 74 67 60 55
Pennine 83 78 67 70
Robbery detection rate:
Basic Command Unit/ Police force 1999–2000 (percentage) 2000–01 (percentage) 2001–02 2002–03
Lancashire
Lancashire Central 35 25 30 29
Lancashire Eastern 23 28 30 35
Lancashire Northern 46 35 19 36
Lancashire Southern 29 45 17 33
Lancashire Western 21 14 22 27
Pennine 33 25 22 28

Burglary dwelling detection rate
Basic Command Unit/Police force 1999–2000 (percentage) 2000–01 (percentage) 2001–02 2002–03
Lancashire
Lancashire Central 17 18 19 17
Lancashire Eastern 21 15 22 21
Lancashire Northern 15 18 16 19
Lancashire Southern 17 16 15 20
Lancashire Western 13 19 20 16
Pennine 14 13 17 19

Theft of a motor vehicle detection rate:
Basic Command Unit/ Police force 1999–2000 (percentage) 2000–01 (percentage) 2001–02 2002–03
Lancashire
Lancashire Central 17 19 19 22
Lancashire Eastern 18 17 18 17
Lancashire Northern 15 20 19 23
Lancashire Southern 13 15 15 20
Lancashire Western 16 13 16 22
Pennine 17 13 14 20

Theft from a motor vehicle detection rate:
Basic Command Unit/ Police force 1999–2000 (percentage) 2000–01 (percentage) 2001–02 2002–03
Lancashire
Lancashire Central 8 7 7 9
Lancashire Eastern 11 5 8 8
Lancashire Northern 7 6 8 6
Lancashire Southern 9 8 9 7
Lancashire Western 8 8 4 7
Pennine 8 5 8 11

Note:

See notes for previous table