Crime study unit faces sell-off

THE Home Office Research and Planning Unit, one of the most respected centres of academic crime studies in Europe, is being lined up for privatisation, writes Nick Cohen.

A government-commissioned study on the possibility of contracting out the work of the 35 researchers - who, in the past, have attempted to ensure that government crime policy had a rational base - has concluded that the private sector could take over theunit's functions.

Management consultants KPMG have identified the opinion poll companies MORI and Harris, Southampton and Cambridge Universities and Social and Community Planning Research, which produces the annual British Social Attitudes Survey, as potential bidders.

Home Office union leaders alleged that the research unit was being punished for coming up with evidence that ministers did not want to hear.

In the Eighties, the unit was at the centre of Douglas Hurd's and Kenneth Baker's attempts to reduce the prison population and find ways of managing offenders in the community.

But since the arrival of Michael Howard its findings have been less in tune with ministerial thinking. Recent research showed a link between unemployment and crime. After Mr Howard made great play of the menace of criminals committing offences while on bail, the unit showed that "bail banditry" had not got noticeably worse in the past 10 years.

David Faulkner, a former senior Home Office adviser on crime, who is now at Oxford University, said: "I'm afraid politicians are less interested in findings which do not conform with their dogmatic views."

By suggesting that commercial organisations could take over the unit's work, the Home Office is taking privatisation to the heart of policy formulation.