PM and Patel used crime figures in misleading way, says watchdog
THE GOVERNMENT presented crime figures in a “misleading way”, the boss of the statistics watchdog has said.
The UK Statistics Authority opened an investigation after it received complaints over allegations the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary falsely claimed crime had fallen under their leadership.
In the House of Commons earlier this week, Boris Johnson said: “We have been cutting crime by 14 per cent”. Last week a Home Office press release said latest data showed “crime continues to fall under this Government”, quoting Priti Patel as saying it demonstrated the Government’s approach “was working”.
In a letter to Alistair Carmichael, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman who raised the issue, the authority’s boss Sir David Norgrove said: “I agree that the Office for National
Statistics’ measures of crime must be used accurately and not misrepresented.
“In this case, the Home Office news release presented the latest figures in a misleading way.
“Likewise, the Prime Minister referred to a 14 per cent reduction in crime, which is the change between the year ending September
2019 and the year ending September 2021. This figure also excludes fraud and computer misuse, though the Prime Minister did not make that clear.
“If fraud and computer misuse are counted in total crime as they should be, total crime in fact increased by 14 per cent between September 2019 and September 2021.
“We have written to the Home Office and to the offices of the Prime Minister and Home Secretary to draw their attention to this exchange.”
Mr Carmichael said: “This is a damning verdict from the official watchdog.” The watchdog works to “promote and safeguard official statistics to serve the public good”, including “regulating the quality and publicly challenging the misuse of statistics”. It can intervene if a politician or government department has misused or misrepresented figures.