Crime at all-time high as recorded offences hit 6.3m
CRIME rates have reached an all-time high – driven by a surge in fraud, rape and violence.
The Office for National Statistics yesterday said 6.3million crimes were recorded in the year to April – 4 per cent more than the previous high of 6.1million in 2019/20.
Fraud offences – up 17 per cent to 965,162 – were the main driver with police failing to get a grip on online scammers. More than four million Britons fell victim to con tricks in 2021/22, according to the ONS.
The agency said that violent offences were ‘exceeding levels seen before the pandemic’. Separate Home Office figures show that only 5.6 per cent of crimes recorded by police last year led to a formal charge, down from 7.1 per cent in 2020.
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the figures were ‘shocking’ and people were ‘sick and tired of nothing being done’. She added that ‘hundreds of thousands more criminals were getting away with appalling crimes’.
The most common reason for police closing a case – at a rate of one in three – was the failure to identify a suspect.
Sexual offences increased to the highest level since current ONS records began in 2002/03, rising 32 per cent to 194,683. More than 70,000 rape offences were recorded in 2021/22, a 26 per cent increase from the 55,678 in the previous year.
Home Office data shows that rape victims are waiting longer to find out if their alleged attacker will be hauled before the courts.
The average number of days taken to charge a rape suspect was 467, an increase from 395 before the pandemic in 2020.
Data from the Crown Prosecution Service, also released yesterday, showed that the conviction rate for rape cases fell to 68.3 per cent in the year to April, down from 71.2 per cent in 2020/21.
The ONS figures show that overall offending was 16 per cent up on 2020/21, when crime levels were affected by lockdown restrictions.
It said 909,504 domestic abuse offences were recorded over the past year, an increase of 8 per cent on 2020/21 and 12 per cent up on the prepandemic year of 2019/20. Knife crime rose by 10 per cent, with 49,027 offences.
Homicide rates were also up, with police logging 710 killings, a 25 per cent increase on 2020/21 when there were 570 such deaths.
Theft offences, including shoplifting and mugging, increased to 1.5million.
Diana Fawcett, of the charity Victim Support, said: ‘record rises in crime levels are always worrying – behind these statistics are real people, and being a victim of any crime can have a devastating and long lasting impact.
‘regardless of the reason for the increase, this huge rise in recorded crime coincides with victims facing agonisingly long waits for trial.
‘With the highest number of cases for 20 years coming into the criminal justice system, we need urgent action to address the backlog of cases, to ensure that those who’ve had the courage to report a crime get the justice they deserve.’
Earlier this year the Daily Mail launched a campaign calling for a major overhaul of how fraud is tackled, starting with the appointment of a designated minister.