Labour is today highlighting the Tories’ failure to crack down on
criminals, as new analysis from the party shows arrests have
fallen by over 50% since the Conservatives took office.
By 2010 police were making 1.3 million arrests per year. But by
2021, that number had more than halved to just over 600,000.
This comes despite more than a million additional incidents being
reported to the police during that period - up from 4.3 million
in 2010 to 5.4 million in 2021.
As arrest rates fall, response times are going up. Despite a lack
of published statistics, a recent analysis of FOI requests by the
Police Foundation shows that between 2010 and 2018, response
times to 999 calls increased by 32 per cent.
Meanwhile, 24 per cent of 101 calls are not answered within the
waiting time target - and 12 per cent are not answered at all,
according to the latest available statistics.
Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary ,
said:
“Protecting law and order should be any government’s first
priority. Yet just as the Prime Minister disregards the law in
Number 10, his government is failing to back police to enforce it
on our streets.
“Communities across the country are becoming increasingly
frustrated when nothing is done about crime and anti-social
behaviour. When the public report crimes, they expect a quick and
strong response. But despite the best efforts of policing, Priti
Patel’s Home Office is completely letting everyone
down.
“Labour will back our police to take action, introducing local
Neighbourhood Prevention Teams to crack down on community crime
at its source. Britain deserves better.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
- Home Office statistics on the
number of persons arrested over time are available here -
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-powers-and-procedures-stop-and-search-and-arrests-england-and-wales-year-ending-31-march-2021
- Statistics on total police recorded
crime are available here (Table A4) -https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/crimeinenglandandwalesappendixtables
Year ending March 2010 - 4,338,295
Year ending March 2021 - 5,434,568
- Police Foundation analysis of
response times from FOIs identified that response times to 999
calls increased by 32 per cent between 2010 and 2018 - https://www.police-foundation.org.uk/project/strategic-review-of-policing/
(FINAL REPORT - pp. 51/52)
- Analysis of 101 call handling data
by CoPaCC found that 23.7 per cent of 101 calls were not handled
within the target time, and 11.8 per cent of calls were not
answered - https://policinginsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/CoPaCC-Police-Contact-Management-Demand-Analysis-Report-V1.0.pdf
