HC Deb 23 March 2004 vol 419 cc783-4W
Colin Burgon

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what discussions his Department has had with Serco regarding the future of the Forensic Science Service. [161230]

Ms Blears

None, but as part of the Outline Business Case Home Office advisers are conducting market soundings with a cross-section of commercial organisations and investors.

1 There was a change of counting rules for recorded crime on 1 April 1998, which had the effect of increasing the number of crimes counted. Numbers of offences for years before and after this date are therefore not directly comparable.

2 The Metropolitan police and City of London forces introduced the principles of the National Crime Recording Standard (NCRS) in April 2002. Broadly, the NCRS had the effect of increasing the number of crimes recorded by the police. This has impacted particularly in violent crime. Therefore, following the introduction of the Standard, numbers of recorded crimes are directly comparable with previous years.

Numbers of violent crimes are also collected at CDRP level. The available information is given in the table.