Supplementary memorandum submitted by
the Department for Transport
In the course of giving evidence to the Committee
on 19 April, I promised to write with further details on a number
of points. Two are items that I can deal with immediately. On
the others, I shall write again as soon as the information is
available. Taking them in order :—
— The new South West franchise: I explained
that the new franchise will require the operator to gain Secure
Station Scheme accreditation for enough stations to account for
80% of the total franchise footfall. Mr Martlew asked what percentage
is already covered in this way. The answer is 67%;
— Crimes against the person: Mr Stringer
asked about statistics on crimes against the person. The figures
are set out in the attached table;
— The new post being created in the
Department's Rail Group to co-ordinate policy on stations: the
detailed job description for the post is in the process of being
drawn up and will be ready shortly. I will make sure that a copy
is sent to the Committee Clerk as soon as it is available;
— Results of research into crime at
stations: I explained that it will be later this year before the
preliminary results from this research are available. Again, I
will make sure that the results are sent to the Committee as soon
as possible.
| BTP Area | 1998-99
| 1999-2000 | 2000-01
| 2001-02 | 2002-03
| 2003-04 | 2004-05
|
| | |
| | | |
|
| London North | 659 | 742
| 809 | 920 | 1,126
| 1,334 | 1,632 |
| London South | 1,849 | 2,160
| 2,107 | 1,837 | 2,265
| 2,350 | 2,509 |
| London Underground | 1,456 |
1,575 | 1,471 | 1,424
| 1,880 | 2,295 | 2,622
|
| North Eastern | 243 | 204
| 285 | 306 | 495
| 605 | 625 |
| Scottish | 345 | 396
| 348 | 406 | 545
| 631 | 617 |
| North Western | 466 | 551
| 526 | 604 | 654
| 787 | 786 |
| Western | 388 | 461
| 497 | 594 | 691
| 725 | 957 |
| Force Total | 5,406 | 6,089
| 6,043 | 6,091 | 7,656
| 8,727 | 9,748 |
Notes
Crime at stations is not recorded separately. The figures
in the table therefore cover all relevant crimes in the relevant
category reported to the BTP. For the purposes of the table, "crimes
against the person" are defined as violence against the person,
sexual offences and robbery.
A change in counting rules occurred in 1998. This was built
upon by changes in the National Crime Recording Standards (NCRS)
in 2002, introduced by the Home Office. All police forces in England
and Wales were required to adopt the NCRS. It had the effect of
increasing the number of recorded crimes by an average of 22%
in all forces in England and Wales. BTP adopted this standard
on 1 April 2002. The principle of NCRS is that if, on the balance
of probability, a crime has been committed it is recorded as a
crime. The standard has made crime recording more victim-focused.
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