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Crimes of Violence: Cambridgeshire

Mr. Moss: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many incidents of (a) grievous bodily harm and (b) actual bodily harm were recorded by each police division in Cambridgeshire in each of the last 10 years. [306354]

Mr. Hanson: Cambridgeshire is divided into three basic command units (BCUs): central, northern and
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southern. These were set up in 2000-01, so data at this level are not available prior to this year.

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

The introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard in April 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 was estimated to have artificially increased recording of violence against the person by 23 per cent.

From 1 April 2008 there were also changes in offence classification which for the first time collected separate
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information on grievous bodily harm (GBH) without intent (rather than as part of a broader 'other wounding' category) and a clarification in the counting rules for grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent. This led to a step change in the levels of most serious violence for some police forces. This means figures for 2008-09 are not comparable with those for earlier years.

Data for GBH offences for each BCU in Cambridgeshire are given in Table A (1999-2000 to 2001-02) and Table B (2002-03 to 2008-09).

Data for actual bodily harm (ABH) offences for each BCU in Cambridgeshire are given in Table C (1999-2000 to 2001-02) and Table D (2002-03 to 2008-09).

Table A: Number of recorded offences of grievous bodily harm by basic command unit (BCU) in Cambridgeshire, 1999-2000 to 2001-02
BCU	Offence	1999-2000( 1)	2000-01	2001-02
Central	More serious wounding or other act endangering life	-	44	41
Northern	More serious wounding or other act endangering life	-	107	89
Southern	More serious wounding or other act endangering life	-	76	71
Total Cambridgeshire	More serious wounding or other act endangering life	196	227	201
(1) BCUs were set up in 2000-01 so data at this level are not available prior to this year.

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Table B: Number of recorded offences of grievous bodily harm by basic command unit (BCU) in Cambridgeshire, 2002-03 to 2008-09
BCU		2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07( 1)	2007-08	2008-09( 2)
Central	More serious wounding or other act endangering life	58	53	53	54	56	56	-
	Inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent	-	-	-	-	-	-	111
	Inflicting grievous bodily harm without intent	-	-	-	-	-	-	48
	Racially or religiously aggravated inflicting GBH without intent	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
	Total GBH	58	53	53	54	56	56	160
Northern	More serious wounding or other act endangering life	113	150	111	96	66	77	-
	Inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent	-	-	-	-	-	-	149
	Inflicting grievous bodily harm without intent	-	-	-	-	-	-	69
	Racially or religiously aggravated inflicting GBH without intent	-	-	-	-	-	-	4
	Total GBH	113	150	111	96	66	77	222
Southern	More serious wounding or other act endangering life	56	74	78	44	54	41	-
	Inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent	-	-	-	-	-	-	124
	Inflicting grievous bodily harm without intent	-	-	-	-	-	-	43
	Racially or religiously aggravated inflicting GBH without intent	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
	Total GBH	56	74	78	44	54	41	168
Total Cambridgeshire	More serious wounding or other act endangering life	227	277	242	194	176	174	-
	Inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent	-	-	-	-	-	-	384
	Inflicting grievous bodily harm without intent	-	-	-	-	-	-	160
	Racially or religiously aggravated inflicting GBH without intent	-	---	-	-	6
	Total GBH	227	277	242	194	176	174	550
(1 )Cambridgeshire BCUs were revised in 2006-07, so figures from 2006-07 are not comparable with previous years (2 )A clarification of counting rules in April 2008, in relation to GBH with intent, led to a step change in the levels of GBH offences for some police forces. The offence of more serious wounding or other act endangering life was also disaggregated. Therefore, figures for 2008-09 are not comparable with previous years.

Table C: Number of recorded offences of actual bodily harm by basic command unit (BCU) in Cambridgeshire, 1999-2000 to 2001-02
BCU		1999-2000(1)	2000-01	2001-02
Central	Less serious wounding	-	375	413
	Racially or religiously aggravated less serious wounding	-	4	4
	Total ABH	-	379	417
Northern	Less serious wounding	-	818	799
	Racially or religiously aggravated less serious wounding	-	35	23
	Total ABH	-	853	822
Southern	Less serious wounding	-	677	523
	Racially or religiously aggravated less serious wounding	-	17	14
	Total ABH	-	694	537
Total Cambridgeshire	Less serious wounding	2,105	1,870	1,735
	Racially or religiously aggravated less serious wounding	72	56	41
	Total ABH	2,177	1,926	1,776
(1) BCUs were set up in 2000-01 so data at this level are not available prior to this year.

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