Written question asked by Greg Clark (Conservative) on Wednesday, 12 March 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 14 March 2008. It was answered by Lord Coaker (Labour) on Wednesday, 19 March 2008 on behalf of the Home Office.

Crime: Detection Rates

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment she has made of the feasibility of identifying separately the number of (a) crimes reported to the police and (b) crimes discovered by the police.

Answer: The Home Office criteria for the recording of crimes by police is laid out in the Home Office counting rules for crime (HOCR) and also the national crime recording standard (NCRS). These are both public documents available at:"http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/countrules.html"The HOCR are updated every year from 1 April after consultation with police forces on issues that may need clarification or when new laws are enacted or old laws repealed.At present there are no plans to further separately identify the number of crimes reported to or discovered by the police.

Secondary information