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Release: Crime Statistics, period ending December 2011

Released: 19 April 2012 Next edition: 19 July 2012
This product is designated as National Statistics All editions of this release

Contact

John Flatley

Crime Statistics and Analysis Division

crimestatistics@ons.gsi.gov.uk

Telephone: +44(0)207 592 8695

Categories: Crime, Crime in England and Wales, Crime Trends

Frequency of release: Quarterly

Language: English

Geographical coverage: England and Wales

Geographical breakdown: Local Authority and County

Survey name(s): Crime Survey for England and Wales

  • Latest figures from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) show no statistically significant change in overall crime while crimes recorded by the police fell by 3 per cent in 2011 compared with the previous year.
  • These findings continue recent trends with CSEW crime remaining fairly flat since 2004/05 and recorded crime showing small year on year reductions.
  • While there has not been a rise in overall crime, there were increases in some sub-categories. For example, the police recorded a 5 per cent increase in the other theft group and a 3 per cent increase in robbery.
  • Generally, other acquisitive crimes did not increase. The police recorded a 3 per cent fall in domestic burglaries and a 7 per cent fall in offences against vehicles while the survey showed no statistically significant change in comparable categories.

In this release

Presents the most recent crime statistics from survey and police recorded crime.

Other useful information:

Following the Home Secretary’s acceptance of the recommendations of the National Statistician’s Review of crime statistics in June 2011 the collation and publication of Crime Statistics moved to the ONS from 1st April 2012. For previous publications please see the Home Office website. 

Crime statistics will continue to be published four times a year in the ‘Crime in England and Wales: Quarterly first release’ series. Data sets will also continue to be updated simultaneously with these publications. Following the transfer to ONS the crime statistics publication programme will be developed. ONS will publish a document setting out its plans for the content and format of future publications and will provide an opportunity for users to comment.

The name of the survey used to collect the statistics has changed from the British Crime Survey to Crime Survey for England and Wales to better reflect the survey’s geographical coverage (England and Wales rather than Britain - Scotland has not been part of the survey since the late 1980s.

For information on how to interpret the crime statistics please see the User Guide to Crime Statistics for England and Wales.

For advance warning of future changes to the police recorded crime collection see methodological note.

Crime Statistics Advisory Committee

In line with the National Statistician’s recommendations an independent Crime Statistics Advisory Committee has also been formed to provide advice on issues related to the collection and presentation of these statistics. Please see the UK Statistics Authority website for further information and minutes of meetings.

Further sources of police recorded crime data

Historic police recorded crime data tables can be found on the Home Office website

Police forces also make provisional recorded crime data available at street level on the police website (Office for National Statistics are not responsible for the content of this website).

Further survey information

We produce a technical report providing information on survey design, weighting and survey response every survey year. The latest available is British Crime Survey (England and Wales) 2010-11 technical report. 

Anonymised datasets from the BCS in SPSS format are available on the UK Data Archive through the Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS). Researchers, including students, who need data for dissertations or practical work can use these datasets.

See the following websites for the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey and the Northern Ireland Crime Survey.

Contact

If you any queries regarding the Crime Statistics for England and Wales please email crimestatistics@ons.gsi.gov.uk  

The United Kingdom Statistics Authority has designated these statistics as National Statistics, in accordance with the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 and signifying compliance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

Designation can be broadly interpreted to mean that the statistics:

  • meet identified user needs;
  • are well explained and readily accessible;
  • are produced according to sound methods; and
  • are managed impartially and objectively in the public interest.

Once statistics have been designated as National Statistics it is a statutory requirement that the Code of Practice shall continue to be observed.

Content from the Office for National Statistics.
© Crown Copyright applies unless otherwise stated.

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