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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 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 that 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.

4 Sep 2006 : Column 1949W

In 2002 the Government published the “Rape Action Plan”, in response to the thematic inspection into the investigation and prosecution of rape cases. A 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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4 Sep 2006 : Column 1952W

Table 2: Detection rates( 1) for other sexual offences (excluding rape) 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	76	68	62	48	33	29	29	22	29
Bedfordshire	70	54	55	57	45	44	29	41	31
Cambridgeshire	71	67	74	60	51	38	32	30	31
Cheshire	94	90	84	87	79	58	49	40	35
Cleveland	77	78	85	81	85	69	60	51	47
Cumbria	90	88	87	86	72	57	51	46	51
Derbyshire	80	79	66	55	66	48	49	37	33
Devon and Cornwall	84	87	90	82	62	48	39	33	33
Dorset	82	75	67	58	53	47	33	31	35
Durham	91	80	93	81	n/a	59	77	69	37
Dyfed-Powys	94	96	95	93	95	91	52	46	48
Essex	68	64	67	57	55	43	40	36	31
Gloucestershire	80	69	72	67	64	42	38	35	34
Greater Manchester	70	72	65	62	58	54	46	30	35
Gwent	95	87	94	91	90	83	81	57	48
Hampshire	79	102	76	66	62	59	44	36	31
Hertfordshire	69	80	72	65	75	54	55	41	43
Humberside	66	60	43	46	38	41	33	30	37
Kent	85	80	78	59	59	49	43	29	32
Lancashire	81	76	75	62	52	61	48	41	44
Leicestershire	78	63	58	46	n/a	35	33	28	33
Lincolnshire	124	84	78	73	68	33	40	41	38
London, City of	74	59	40	38	67	45	35	44	45
Merseyside	81	72	66	69	56	53	47	41	38
Metropolitan Police	62	46	34	33	34	34	35	25	34
Norfolk	91	82	72	51	50	37	46	38	68
Northamptonshire	92	81	84	81	70	53	62	52	39
Northumbria	71	68	58	58	52	51	49	35	47
North Wales	90	93	90	67	58	38	45	42	46
North Yorkshire	77	87	71	74	69	59	54	50	51
Nottinghamshire	76	62	57	47	46	48	46	47	48
South Wales	87	86	84	82	78	59	52	36	34
South Yorkshire	82	84	78	77	67	51	53	38	35
Staffordshire	80	68	37	40	39	55	52	41	36
Suffolk	85	75	72	60	54	57	40	43	45
Surrey	69	110	59	45	45	43	44	34	36
Sussex	76	60	57	48	50	43	41	31	37
Thames Valley	76	61	53	49	44	34	36	29	34
Warwickshire	93	78	62	51	60	48	34	42	42
West Mercia	82	79	69	61	51	49	50	41	48
West Midlands	68	63	60	54	55	44	38	30	34
West Yorkshire	84	74	80	73	67	55	39	32	28
Wiltshire	84	87	68	40	52	42	42	37	41
(1) Offences detected in current year may have been initially recorded in an earlier year, so some percentages may exceed 100. (2) Expanded offence coverage and revised counting rules came into effect on 1 April 1998. (3) Revised detections guidance was implemented on 1 April 1999. (4) The data in this table take account of the introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard in April 2002. These figures are not directly comparable with those for earlier years. (5) The Sexual Offences Act 2003, introduced in May 2004, altered the definition and coverage of sexual offences. n/a—Not available.

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