Number of violent attacks rises but overall crime levels stable

Violent attacks increased more than 5 per cent last year, a new statistic that overshadowed a Home Office declaration yesterday that overall levels of crime remained stable.

Warnings that hooliganism would soar with the introduction of 24-hour drinking proved unfounded, despite a rise in drink-related offences in the small hours.

Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, claimed that crime levels had dropped by a third in a decade, but the Tories retorted that the public would not be fooled by "fiddled figures".

The British Crime Survey suggested that numbers of violent offences, including wounding, robbery and assault, went up by 5.2 per cent to 2,471,000 in 2006-07. Although the survey is regarded by ministers as the most reliable measure of crime trends, the Home Office tried to argue that the increase in violence was statistically insignificant.

It also reported a 10 per cent rise in vandalism, unchanged levels of violence against the person, a 1 per cent fall in domestic burglary and a 2 per cent drop in vehicle thefts. The number of robberies recorded by the police in England and Wales rose to 101,370, the highest level for three years. More than 194,000 drugs offences were recorded, a 9 per cent rise on the previous year, including 130,000 incidents of cannabis possession.

Recorded crime overall was down by 2 per cent, but two-thirds of people felt that crime had risen over the past two years.

Research showed the highest levels of wounding were in Manchester, Liverpool, Newport in south Wales, and Merthyr Tydfil. The highest burglary rates were in Nottingham and the highest robbery rates in Nottingham, Manchester and inner London.

Controversy surrounded separate statistics on the impact of round-the-clock licensing since its introduction in November 2005. They showed 940,522 violent crimes and cases of disorder and criminal damage were committed from 6pm to 6am in the year after pubs and clubs were allowed to open later. That is a negligible 0.7 per cent increase on the 933,701 recorded in the previous year.

A Home Office official said: "There was a lot of worry when we were changing the Licensing Act that we would be engulfed by mayhem and murder. We all know from our experience that has not happened."

But there was a sharp increase in violence between 3am and 6am, suggesting some fights were happening later because pubs and clubs were not closing at 11pm, although the total number of attacks was still low. The number of deaths by dangerous driving or while under the influence of drink or drugs reached its highest level for 30 years, increasing by 7 per cent over the year to 462.

Ms Smith argued that the chance of becoming a crime victim was at "historically low levels" and said there were "signs of real progress" in tackling violent crime.

But David Davis, the shadow Home Secretary, said: "Unfortunately for the Government, the public obstinately insist on believing their own experience... and simply know that crime is going up. All the fiddled figures in the world will not change their minds."