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4 Sep 2006 : Column 1948W—continued

Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the detection rate for (a) rape and (b) other sexual offences was in each police force area in England and Wales in each year since 1997. [84914]

Mr. Coaker: The information requested is given in the following tables.

Since 1997 there have been a number of significant changes to the way that sex offences are defined and recorded by the police. These make it impossible to compare in a direct way recent figures with those from earlier years. Changes include:

(i) A revision to the counting rules for recorded crime and the expanded coverage which came into effect on 1 April 1998;

(ii) The revised detections guidance issued in April 1999;

(iii) The introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard in April 2002;and;

(iv) The Sexual Offences Act 2003 in May 2004, which altered the definition and coverage of sexual offences, in particular, indecent exposure is now classified as a sexual offence.

The existing statistical evidence suggests that both the changes to detections guidance and the introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard (NCRS) had a marked impact on the reduction in detection rates for rapes since 1997. The Home Office is currently researching in detail recent changes in detection rates in rape cases in England and Wales, including variation between forces.

In 2002 the Government published the “Rape Action Plan”, in response to the thematic inspection into the investigation and prosecution of rape cases. A
4 Sep 2006 : Column 1949W
follow-up inspection took place earlier this year, and its findings and recommendations will be published in the autumn. This will inform us how far the recommendations of the “Rape Action Plan” have been implemented by the police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

4 Sep 2006 : Column 1950W

“Guidance on the Investigation of Serious Sexual Offences” was published by Centrex and the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) in 2005. The guidance presents detailed recommendations for all stages of an investigation, from when the crime is reported to when an offender is identified and charged.

Table 1: Detection rates( 1) for rape offences by police force area
Police force area	1997	1998-99( 2)	1999-2000( 3)	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03( 4)	2003-04	2004-05( 5)	2005-06
Avon and Somerset	86	74	62	43	27	22	21	18	22
Bedfordshire	70	56	43	34	25	29	21	23	23
Cambridgeshire	79	62	56	50	46	29	15	21	22
Cheshire	100	98	87	86	81	48	29	28	28
Cleveland	89	91	73	59	65	41	31	22	38
Cumbria	97	93	91	70	74	64	30	30	35
Derbyshire	93	73	52	38	39	35	33	31	30
Devon and Cornwall	92	89	96	77	49	30	19	26	18
Dorset	94	78	50	36	39	25	17	17	17
Durham	93	95	85	91	n/a	68	71	60	26
Dyfed-Powys	95	91	89	109	76	91	25	35	18
Essex	79	65	64	50	33	32	29	27	25
Gloucestershire	89	69	66	70	57	31	28	29	19
Greater Manchester	85	74	64	58	55	46	32	30	31
Gwent	100	91	92	98	93	80	78	52	40
Hampshire	79	99	65	58	53	41	34	26	21
Hertfordshire	88	96	78	66	62	50	50	38	41
Humberside	65	58	33	37	33	23	20	22	23
Kent	92	85	90	57	56	38	27	22	22
Lancashire	91	83	79	53	47	52	35	37	35
Leicestershire	72	43	37	37	n/a	26	28	23	19
Lincolnshire	124	82	87	67	50	40	28	31	24
London, City of	0	0	0	50	22	100	0	0	0
Merseyside	90	78	69	66	53	47	43	35	24
Metropolitan Police	58	32	28	24	27	29	33	25	36
Norfolk	68	94	37	35	36	24	18	21	23
Northamptonshire	96	82	95	70	64	53	37	32	33
Northumbria	85	68	61	50	43	36	30	25	29
North Wales	89	92	85	59	35	26	29	27	25
North Yorkshire	87	105	62	73	59	43	41	41	34
Nottinghamshire	83	55	46	51	36	34	27	36	27
South Wales	99	93	88	91	90	62	53	60	29
South Yorkshire	96	79	88	75	72	40	38	30	24
Staffordshire	86	68	39	38	35	40	32	30	26
Suffolk	74	73	29	36	30	30	26	21	25
Surrey	56	48	45	28	42	32	35	26	32
Sussex	80	55	47	34	35	26	24	15	21
Thames Valley	90	59	52	26	32	27	18	24	22
Warwickshire	79	79	55	52	30	27	19	25	19
West Mercia	91	87	64	56	44	37	35	31	27
West Midlands	77	68	59	53	45	41	32	25	29
West Yorkshire	90	83	76	71	55	42	31	25	25
Wiltshire	96	73	68	31	46	37	41	32	33

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