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Drug-related Crime

Volume 454: debated on Wednesday 13 December 2006

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of all offences committed were drug offences in (a) Cornwall, (b) the South West and (c) England were drug offences in each year since 1995; and how many such offences were recorded in each area in each year. (108256)

The available information is given in the following table.

Drug offences as a proportion of recorded crime

Cornwall

South west region

England

Drug offences

Percentage recorded crime

Drug offences

Percentage recorded crime

Drug offences

Percentage recorded crime

1995

n/a

n/a

1,938

0.5

19,750

0.4

1996

n/a

n/a

1,842

0.5

20,596

0.4

1997

n/a

n/a

1,705

0.5

21,627

0.5

1998-99

n/a

n/a

9,471

2.4

126,196

2.6

1999-2000

n/a

n/a

9,637

2.4

113,346

2.2

2000-01

n/a

n/a

8,922

2.3

105,107

2.1

2001-02

1,287

4.4

9,628

2.3

111,968

2.1

2002-03

1,303

3.4

10,404

2.2

133,055

2.3

2003-04

1,363

3.6

10,997

2.4

134,002

2.3

2004-05

1,127

3.0

10,956

2.5

136,348

2.5

2005-06

1,130

3.3

13,184

3.0

168,992

3.2

Notes:

1. Prior to April 1998, ‘trafficking in controlled drugs’ was the only drug offence included in the recorded crime series.

2. Data for drug offences by Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships were not available prior to 2001-02.

3. The introduction of the revised counting rules in April 1998 expanded offence coverage. This included the addition of ‘possession of controlled drugs’ and ‘other drug offences’. These data are not comparable with earlier years.

4. Numbers on recorded crime were affected by changes in reporting and recording following the introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard in April 2002. These data are not comparable with earlier years.