Violent Crime Reduction Bill

The answer is neither. I would extend the British crime survey to take on board all the things it now misses, such as murder, sex crimes, crimes against under-16s and crimes against retail and other commercial premises. If the Home Secretary made the British crime survey work, we would pay attention to it. Some parts of it are useful, but the right hon. Gentleman should use statistics a little more as useful data, and rather less as excuses, if he will forgive me for saying so. As I was saying, offences of violence against the person have increased by 90 per cent. on recorded crime and robberies by 50 per cent. on recorded crime. That is what the police are told about, that is what they can do something about, and that is what we should pay attention to. When the Leader of the Opposition was Home Secretary, gun crime fell; since then, under the Labour Government, it has doubled. In addition, the use of cocaine has trebled and persistent youth offending has increased, as has the number of sex crimes. Just as serious is the fact that, at the same time, detection rates have been falling. Despite all the targets and all the talk of improving police efficiency, there are 900,000 more unsolved crimes each year than there were in 1998.