Deeply troubling crime figures – Diane Abbott

Diane Abbott MP, Shadow Home Secretary, responding to the latest ONS crime statistics release, said:

“Once again, these are deeply troubling crime figures under this government.  

“Members of the public and police officers are both increasingly concerned about the growth of serious crime including knife crime.  But Ministers are in denial, refusing to accept that their cuts to police forces have had any impact either on crime levels or the ability to apprehend the criminals.

“The government is failing in one of its most basic duties, to protect its own citizens. These reckless cuts must end.”

Ends

Notes to editors:

• ·         Overall police recorded crime is up 7% to 5.1m offences
• ·         CSEW estimates there were 11m offences (up from 10.8m in 2017; including fraud and computer misuse) or 6.4m (up from 6.2m; excluding fraud and comp misuse)

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/crimeinenglandandwales/yearendingdecember2018

Violence

• ·         There has been a:
  • o   19% increase in violence recorded by the police (1.6m offences)
  • o   6% increase in police recorded homicide offences (from 690 to 732 offences) – excluding London and Manchester terror attacks homicides increased 12% from 655 to 732 offences
  • o   6% increase in police recorded offences involving a knife or sharp instrument (to 40,829 offences)

Theft/fraud

• ·         There has been a:
  • o   11% increase in police recorded robbery offences (to 82,566 offences)
  • o   8% increase in overall theft offences estimated by the CSEW (to 3,751,000 offences)
  • o   12% increase in fraud offences estimated by the CSEW (to 3,648,000 offences)