To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 25 April 2007, Official Report, columns 1136-40W, on burglaries: Greater London, why (a) recorded crime data are published on a financial year basis and (b) conviction data are published on a calendar year basis; and if he will make a statement. (135576)

[holding answer 8 May 2007]: In 1997-98, agreement was reached to collect and publish the recorded crime data on a financial year basis. This was to reflect the movement to an increasingly performance-related culture. Police forces were already publishing financial year data in their chief constables’ annual reports and the decision to move also removed the unnecessary effort by the police of providing calendar year data centrally.

The annual Command Paper “Criminal Statistics, England and Wales” which contains data on convictions, has been published on a calendar year basis for many years and there has been no decision to change this. Since the decision to publish recorded crime data on a financial year basis, there has not been a demand to align the period covered by both publications.