Business leaders welcome crime statistics review

The Home Office said that a major cross-party review of crime statistics would be carried out "to increase public understanding of crime trends". The review of crime data in England and Wales would involve MPs from all parties as well as statisticians and media representatives.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke said the review had been set up because of a "lack of understanding by the public about the levels and type of crime."

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) immediately called for crime against businesses to be recorded separately. The organisation believes that the current situation - where police do not record "business crimes" - means that the scale of the problem is not understood and that resources are not allocated to tackle the issue.

According to the FSB, 58% of businesses were victims of crime in the past year and crime. It also claimed that estimates had shown that crimes against commercial organisations were twice as common as those committed against individuals and households.

Higher priority

The FSB's home affairs spokesman David Croucher said: "We agree with the Home Secretary that crime statistics are currently confusing. We welcome the review and look forward to contributing to it.

"Many of our members feel that crime against business is not taken seriously. This is because crime against business is not a key performance indicator for the police. As a result there is no pressing need for the police to direct resources towards dealing with this vital issue.

"It is high time that crime against business was moved up the priority list of the law enforcement system and this review is the right time to do it. Small firms employ thirteen million people and better business crime prevention will ensure that these jobs are safeguarded."

When announcing the review, Charles Clarke said: "I have been concerned for some time that Home Office crime statistics have been questioned and challenged. This has got to the point that most people seem confused about what is happening to crime in this country.

"This is why I have established an independent cross-party group of experts to look at this issue. I have asked the group to feel free to advise me in whatever way they feel appropriate to help us increase public confidence in our measures of crime."

Latest figures

The Home Secretary added: "The picture's become muddy and it is difficult to see anything approaching the truth. I feel that it's very important to move to a different state of affairs.

"Despite the fact that most crime categories are falling, fear of crime is still too high and public perception is often at odds with reality. That is why we need to look again at the statistics and find out why people do not believe them."

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson Alistair Carmichael said: "We welcome the setting up of an independent group to look at ways of improving public confidence in the statistics. Crime figures should be accurate and easy to understand. The current system fails on both counts."

Official crime figures released this week showed that the number of robberies recorded by police leapt to 23,500 from 21,200 compared to the same period in 2004. Drugs offences rose by 19% to 41,000 while violence against the person rose 4% overall.

However, total recorded crime fell 1% to 1,376,200 incidents up to September 2005. House burglary fell 7% to 75,000 and car thefts and break-ins dropped by 4% to 176,000.

The separate British Crime Survey for the year to the end of September suggested overall crime fell 2%, and violent crime fell by 5%.