News Davis speaks out over crime figures
Howden MP David Davis has spoken out against Government claims that the crime-fighting landscape in Britain has been revolutionised over the past ten years.
Addressing the House of Commons last Thursday, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said that in a decade the Government had provided record levels of funding, created new powers and partnerships, and set targets.
She said that car crime had halved, meaning more than 1.8 million fewer incidents. On average, the chances of becoming a victim of burglary were around once every 40 years, compared with every 25 years a decade ago.
This improvement was said to be testament to how effective tackling unemployment, drug and alcohol misuse was, and showed what could happen when schools and health services, local authorities, police and neighbours worked together.
But last week Shadow Home Secretary David Davis hit back: "I have to tell the Home Secretary that very few members of the public think that the Government's crime policy is a success," he said.
"If she thinks it is a success, heaven help the country when she thinks it a failure.
"Some crimes are going down, but the evidence is that this has little to do with the Government, and according to the Select Committee on Home Affairs, it has nothing to do with Government spending.
"The Government must take responsibility for overall recorded crime going up by 300,000 and, more importantly, for the most serious crimes going up sharply."
Published on 2nd August 2007 in News.
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