Twenty million business crimes 'unrecorded'

The figures emerged after ministers published estimates of the number of crimes committed against retailers and manufacturers. The Commercial Victimisation Survey revealed that retailers suffered 20,844,000 incidents in 2002, with manufacturers bearing a further 552,000.

In comparison, police recorded just 5.6 million offences in 2004-05. Also, crimes against businesses were excluded from the Government's flagship report on crime - the British Crime Survey (BCS) - which ministers claim is the most reliable barometer of crime levels.

A fortnight ago the BCS estimated there were 10.8 million crimes in England and Wales last year. To add further to the confusion, an estimate published by the Home Office one month ago put the number of crimes against children and adults at 14.7 million in 2003/04.

Violent attacks

The Home Office's Commercial Victimisation Survey estimated that 46% of shopkeepers reported losses of between £1,001 and £10,000, and 8% lost more than £10,000. The median cost of each shop burglary was £1,350.

Interviews with 6,500 retailers and manufacturers between 2001 and 2003 showed one retailer lost £180,000 in one burglary. The median cost of vandalism to retailers was £250, and robbery £120.

One manufacturer reported an incident of vandalism cost their company £7 million. The median cost of vandalism to manufacturers was £200, and for burglaries it was £1,000. Among manufacturers, 48% had suffered burglaries costing more than £1,000.

Headline results of the survey, first published in 2003 and in more detail last November, found a quarter of shopkeepers suffered assault, robbery, attempted robbery or threats at least once a year. Of those, 52% were victimised six or more times in just 12 months.

The survey showed violent attacks on shopkeepers rose 3% between 1994 and 2002 to 23%. The initial figures also highlighted that nearly three-quarters (74%) of retailers have suffered some sort of crime, along with 53% of manufacturers.

Single figure?

A Home Office spokeswoman said: "The Government takes business crime very seriously. We recognise the cost and disruption that crime causes to business - as well as the knock-on effects for communities and consumers.

"We have already helped 12,500 small shops in deprived areas to install crime prevention measures and business crime advisers in the regional offices are working with the Home Office business crime team to co-ordinate work at a local level.

"A key part of our strategy is to encourage business to work closely in partnership with the police and local authorities. It is vital we work in partnership so that we can cut crime affecting business and the wider community."

She added that it would be "unhelpful" to add the results of the most recent Commercial Victimisation Study to Home Office estimates of crimes against adults and children for around the same period - around 12 million. Doing so would actually produce a grand total of 31,783,000 crimes.

The spokeswoman said: "These figures are produced by different methodologies and a different timeframe. It is problematic to add them together to get a single crime figure because they have a number of overlaps.

"It's not helpful to policymakers to add these together in terms of what it actually tells us about where crime is going."