MP, Labour's Shadow Home
Secretary, responding to the latest
ONS data on violent crimes released today, said:
"The rise in homicides is deeply troubling. With the police
now dealing with over a million violent offences a year, there
can be no room for complacency about rising violent
crime.
"And yet the Tories have attempted to dismiss rising
crime data as all due to better police recording. This
cannot be the case with homicides.
"Instead of making excuses, the Government should stop
cutting police budgets and give forces the resources they need to
keep people safe. Labour in Government will restore 10,000 police
officers and face up to the issue of rising crime."
Ends
Notes to editors:
· The
25% rise in homicides in year to March 2017 includes the victims
of the Hillsborough tragedy.
· Excluding
these, the underlying number of homicides is up 8% in the
12-month period.
· The
police recorded 1.2 million (1,167,998) violence against the
person offences in the year ending March 2017, an increase of 18%
compared with the year ending March 2016 (992,246 offences) and
the first year that violence against the person offences peaked
over 1 million (ONS, Nature of Violent crime in England and
Wales, YE March 2017, 8 February
2018, https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/thenatureofviolentcrimeinenglandandwales/yearendingmarch2017).
