Oral Answers to Questions

Barbara Keeley Excerpts

Monday 9th July 2012 Commons Chamber

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

1. What overall change in the level of crime has been identified by the British crime survey since May 2010.

[Barbara Keeley (Worsley and Eccles South) (Lab)]

17. What overall change in the level of crime has been identified by the British crime survey since May 2010.

[The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mrs Theresa May)]

The crime survey shows that overall crime has remained broadly stable since May 2010. Police-recorded crime fell 3% in the year ending December 2011 compared with the previous 12 months, but as I have told the House previously, crime is still too high, and that is why we are making a number of reforms to policing to ensure that police are free to fight crime.

[Mrs May]

The hon. Lady bases her question on a premise that I do not accept and which is not accepted by the Home Affairs Committee or, indeed, by Her Majesty’s inspectorate of constabulary, which in its report on “Policing in austerity” recently stated that

“there is no evidence of a correlation between the change in number of officers and the change in total recorded crime.”

[Barbara Keeley]

Greater Manchester Chief Constable Peter Fahy says that crime reduction is achieved by neighbourhood policing and by the police strengthening their relationships with local people. The number of police officers on visible policing lines in Greater Manchester has fallen by 300 in the past two years, so what effect does the Secretary of State expect that to have on crime levels in the area?

[Mrs May]

As I just pointed out to the hon. Member for Feltham and Heston (Seema Malhotra), what we see is that there is no simple link—this is supported by HMIC and by the Home Affairs Committee—between officer numbers and crime figures. In Greater Manchester, police officer numbers have fallen by 4%, but overall crime has fallen by 6%.