Fear of crime rises as crime figures fall

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 17th Jul 2008

Commenting on today's crime figures, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Huhne said:

"The public has lost faith in the crime figures. The Government tells them crime is falling but a rising number of people - now two thirds - think it is getting worse. If crime and the fear of crime are to be tackled, Labour and the Tories must stop posturing on penalties and start focusing on what works, which is getting more police on the street and catching criminals.

"The contrast between falling crime and rising fear of crime is a product of Labour and the Tories, ably supported by sections of the media, seeking to exploit a politics of fear for their own ends.

"The responsibility for crime statistics must be taken away from the Home Office and given to the Office of National Statistics as a matter of urgency.

"It shows just how slow the Government has been to tackle knife crime that it has only just started recording knife offences and still does not survey crimes concerning under-16s, even though this group has seen rapidly increasing hospital admissions for stab wounds.

"Unlike most journalists, ministers still cannot tell us how many murders were committed using knives last year. It is shocking and troubling that 13.4% of those aged 16 to 24 years old have been victims of violence, according to these figures.

"Only one in four crimes that people can be bothered to report to the police are actually cleared up, including less than half of violent crimes. Increasing the detection rate will have a far greater impact on crime than any bidding war in the tabloids about who can set the toughest sentences.

"Ministers are quick to trumpet their record on crime but in reality crime has been falling since the mid-90s, before Labour came to power, as it has across Western Europe. The only western European country where crime is rising is Belgium."