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Crimes of Violence

Volume 502: debated on Monday 7 December 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many incidents of grievous and actual bodily harm were recorded by police in (a) England and (b) North East Cambridgeshire in each of the last 10 years. (303643)

The Home Office does not hold data for the constituency area North East Cambridgeshire, as this does not correspond with a Crime and Disorder

Reduction Partnership or Cambridgeshire Police Basic Command Unit.

Data for grievous bodily harm (GBH) and actual bodily harm (ABH) offences for England for 1999-2000 to 2008-09 are given in Table A.

There was a major change in police recorded crime recording in 2002 that means that figures from 2002-03 are not comparable with figures prior to this year.

The introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard in 2002 brought in a more victim-focused reporting system, where victim accounts had to be accepted unless there was credible evidence to the contrary. In its first year, this is estimated to have artificially increased recording of violence against the person by 23 per cent. (it is also thought to have increased figures in the following year as the standard bedded in but precise estimates of this effect are not available).

From 1 April 2008 there were also changes in offence classification, introducing the new category of GBH without intent, and a clarification in the counting rules for GBH with intent which meant that in some forces there was a significant shift in recording away from ABH to GBH with intent. This means figures for 2008-09 are not comparable with those for earlier years.

Table A: Recorded crime for grievous bodily harm (GBH) and actual bodily harm (ABH) offences in England, 1999-2000 to 2008-09

Offence

1999-20000

2000-01

2001-02

2002-03

2003-04

2004-05

2005-06

2006-07

2007-08

2008-09

GBH

5

More serious wounding or other act endangering life

13,835

14,452

15,202

16.113

17,746

17,801

17,045

15,667

13,596

5A

Inflicting grevious bodily hard (GBH) with intent

21,253

8F

Inflicting grevious bodily harm (GBH) without intent

16,170

8H

Racially or religiously aggravated inflicting grevious bodily harm without intent

376

ABH

8A

Less serious wounding

189,441

185,312

198,418

320,157

401,917

458,372

486,052

454,638

406,251

8D

Racially or religiously aggravated less serious wounding

2,618

3,112

3,369

4,197

4,685

5,134

5,799

5,405

4,614

8G

Actually bodily harm and other injury

351,550

8J

Racially or religiously aggravated actual bodily harm and other injury

3,759

Total GBH and ABH

205,894

202,876

216,989

340,467

424,348

481,307

508,896

475,710

424,461

393,108

Notes:

1. There was a major change in police recorded crime recording in 2002 that means that figures from 2002-03 are not comparable with figures prior to this year. The introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard in 2002 brought In a more victim-focused reporting system, where victim accounts had to be accepted unless there was credible evidence to the contrary.

2. Offence classifications 5A, 5B and 5C were introduced from 1 April 2008 and replace classification 5. Classification 5A was influenced by a clarification in recording rules that had the effect of significantly increasing levels of recording in some forces. Figures for 2008-09 for classification 5A should be viewed as provisional as a current inspection by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary may give rise to further revisions from forces. Classification 5A also includes some other offences of endangering life as well as GBH with intent, though GBH with intent is the major part of this category.

3. Offence classifications 8F, 8G, 8H, 8J and 8K were introduced from 1 April 2008 and had previously been recorded as part of classifications 8A or 8D.