TORY PHONEY STATS ON CRIME EXPOSED

7.29.50pm UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 24th Mar 2005

The Conservatives are using misleading statistics to manipulate public concerns about crime, it has emerged.

Michael Howard has placed advertisements in local papers claiming that violent crime has "gone up in the Newbury area"; but the figures given are for the Thames Valley area as a whole, not specific to West Berkshire which has one of the lowest violent crime rates anywhere in the Thames Valley.

Commenting, David Rendel MP said:

"Violent crime increased by 168% when Michael Howard and the Conservatives were last in power.

"In 1992 they promised to increase local police numbers. Instead, while Michael Howard was Home Secretary, local police numbers were cut.

"All they can do now is spread misleading information and hope people will forget their record. Michael Howard is being deeply irresponsible by trying to stoke public fears about crime when the police have done such an excellent job in bringing violent crime down in Newbury.

"Irresponsible remarks of this kind do not help the police do their job. I am committed to a policy of more police on the streets locally so that we can boost the work of the police in fighting crime and the fear of crime.

"Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrat-run council has introduced CCTV and a community warden scheme which have had a real effect in bringing down crime and the fear of crime, in contrast to the irresponsible manipulation of statistics by the Tories."

ENDS

NOTES:

1) The Chief Constable has pointed out that more violent crimes are now recorded than was previously the case, as a result of the National Crime Recording Standard in 2002. With reference to the Conservative advert, he says: "It's an abuse of statistics, rather than a use of statistics, and, as such, is calculated to raise people's fear of crime in quite an unjustifiable way." (Quoted in Oxford Mail, 22 March 2005)

2) Home Office crime figures for West Berkshire are available online, at www.crimestatistics.org.uk. They show that violent crime against the person is down in our area and is well below the national average (1.7 offences per 1000 population compared to 3.9). Overall crime levels have remained steady.

3) When the Conservatives were last in power local police numbers were cut from 3,772 in 1992 to 3,695 in 1997 (Thames Valley Police numbers obtained from the Home Office)

4) The Conservative Manifesto 1992 promised to increase police numbers by 1000. Instead there was a cut in numbers of 469 nationwide.

5) Violent crime rose every year from 1979 to 1997 (the Tory years), from 129,285 recorded crimes in 1979 to 347,064 violent crimes in 1997 - a 168% rise.

6) The Liberal Democrats would recruit an extra 10,000 police, paid for by scrapping the Government's ID card scheme. Locally, the CCTV scheme introduced by the local Council has been praised by the independent Audit Commission: "We found a general consensus that CCTV had been effective in reducing crime and anti-social behaviour in Newbury." (March 2002 report on Community Safety in West Berkshire)