Crime: Surveys

Justine Greening
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when his Department expects to reach a conclusion on the appropriateness of extending the British Crime Survey to include those who are aged under 16 years old; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. McNulty
[holding answer 24 April 2007]: Extending the British Crime Survey to include those aged under 16 years old was one of the recommendations of the independent review of crime statistics led by Professor Adrian Smith that reported in November 2006. Smith recommended the Home Office should draw on the advice of experts in making such changes and there should be careful piloting so that the effect of such a change could be properly assessed before the extension is incorporated into the main BCS sample. We intend to commission work in the near future from experts in sampling and conducting surveys to provide advice on how this work could be taken forward. We expect to reach a conclusion on this work in the autumn of 2007.