Astonishing new figures show 90 per cent of crimes go unsolved,
as Labour attacks the Conservatives’ “abysmal record on law and
order”.
As part of the ‘Make Britain’s Streets Safe’ Mission launched
earlier this year, Labour vowed to reverse the collapse in the
proportion of crimes solved that we have seen under the Tories.
To help deliver this, the party is announcing it will introduce a
new requirement for forces to run direct recruitment of
detectives to tackle the huge national shortage, including
bringing in people who have worked in other fields - such as
business fraud investigation, technology or child
protection.
It comes as new analysis of the government’s latest crime
statistics shows a staggering 60 per cent drop in the overall
proportion of crimes charged since 2015, with:
- Almost 70,000 fewer crimes charged last year overall than in
2019
- Record high numbers of crimes being dropped without a suspect
even being identified (2.3 million crimes dropped with no suspect
being found, up almost 500,000 on 2021)
- More victims giving up on the criminal justice system than
ever before (1.6 million cases dropped, including almost one
million violent crimes and 36,000 rapes).
Despite what the Police Foundation describe as a “chronic
shortage” of trained detectives in the UK, with almost 7,000
vacancies, fewer than half of police forces have a scheme to
directly recruit detectives with relevant professional
backgrounds and skill sets. Labour would make it a requirement
for every police force to operate such a scheme.
The move is designed to improve the speed and quality of police
investigations, and comes as part of a broader package of
measures to reverse the collapse in the charge rate.
That package also includes action to increase the pool of Crown
Prosecutors who can deal with the growing backlog of serious
cases by allowing associate prosecutors to undertake that work,
and plans to put 13,000 more neighbourhood police and PCSOs on
the street to tackle the crime blighting communities.
Labour slammed the total lack of leadership from Tory government
ministers as charges and prosecutions have collapsed, including
failure to tackle excess bureaucracy and problems that are
holding back police investigations, and lack of action to
co-ordinate the police and CPS which has led to public
disagreements in recent months between Chief Constables and the
Director of Public Prosecutions about where current failings
lie.
One of Labour’s five missions in government will be to make
Britain’s streets safe – halving serious violent crime and
raising confidence in the police and criminal justice system to
its highest levels, within a decade.
MP, Labour’s Shadow Home
Secretary, said:
“After 13 years of Tory Government, over 90% of crimes are going
unsolved. That is the abysmal Conservative record on law and
order - more criminals being let off and more victims being let
down.
“For some serious crimes, like rape and robbery, the charge rate
is now so low it constitutes a national scandal. For far too long
in this country, too many crimes have been committed without any
consequences. Victims increasingly feel like no one comes and
nothing is done. Labour is determined this has to change.
“Labour will reverse the collapse in the charge rate, including
by speeding up recruitment of detectives, putting more
neighbourhood police on the beat and new joint arrangements with
the police and CPS to improve investigations and prevent
criminals walking free”.
Ends
Notes
A drastic collapse in charge rates has been recorded across a
number of the most serious crimes:
- Charges for sexual offences have dropped from 13.9% to just
3.6%; of which, rape charges have dropped from 10.9% to just 2.1%
- Charges for violence against the person have dropped from
23.3% to 3.6%
- Charges for possession of weapons offences have dropped from
62.5% to 27.7%
- Charges for robbery have dropped from 18.9% to
6.5%
- Charges for drug offences have dropped from 36.6% to
19.8%
Read more on Labour’s mission to make Britain’s streets
safe:
https://labour.org.uk/missions/making-britains-streets-safe/
Policy detail
Our Neighbourhood Policing Programme will put 13,000 more police
and PCSOs on the streets including 3,000 officers ringfenced from
the remaining Government planned uplift, and recruiting 3,000
additional officers, 4,000 additional PCSOs and 3,000 additional
specials on top of the Government’s existing plans.
Labour’s extra officers will be funded through a Police
Efficiency & Collaboration programme, establishing:
- Centralised standard-setting for procurement (at least £225m)
- Increased collaboration on shared services and specialist
functions (at least £145m)
