CRIME RATE IN ENGLAND AND WALES FALLS 15% TO ITS LOWEST LEVEL IN 33 YEARS

Fall is one of biggest in history of Crime Survey of England and Wales and is driven by a 22% fall in violent crime

The crime rate in England and Wales fell by an unexpected 15% to an estimated 7.5m offences, its lowest level since the official survey began 33 years ago.

The fall is one of the biggest in the history of the authoritative Crime Survey of England and Wales and was driven by a 22% fall in violent crime, a 25% fall in some types of household theft and a 15% fall in vandalism.

The Office of National Statistics said the 15% fall in the overall crime rate meant that crime had fallen by 25% since 2007/08 and by 60% since its peak level in 1995.

The second official measure of crime, the contested police recorded crime figures, which have lost their national statistics status, showed a much smaller annual fall of 2%. Statisticians said this was possibly the result of a renewed focus on the quality of crime recording by the police following the political controversy over their integrity.

However, the police recorded crime figures reveal a continued upward pressure in specific crimes thought to be related to economic hardship, particularly shoplifting, which rose by 6% across England and Wales last year.

But this masked a growing north-south pattern, with the underlying figures showing rises in shoplifting of 20% in the West Midlands, of 19% in Nottinghamshire and 16% on Merseyside.

The police figures also show the first fall for two years in the smartphone street thefts with the category of thefts from the person, which includes pickpocketing,falling by 2% last year.