Government figures have shown a fall in the number of violent offenders being caught in Lancashire, while violent crime across the country has doubled.
In Lancashire, just 61 of the violent crimes reported are being solved, down from 71 just eight years ago.
Eric Ollerenshaw, prospective Conservative MP for Lancaster and Fleetwood, said: “Violent crime is one of the biggest threats to our community.
“Horrific, violent attacks are becoming too common and the chance of them being solved is falling. We need to release our police officers from all this form-filling and Government targets, and get them out, onto the streets, tackling this problem.”
Commenting, Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve, said: “Despite the Government’s promise to tackle crime and the causes of crime and 60 Home Office Bills in ten years, violent crime has doubled under Labour.
Violent crime has doubled under Labour.
Dominic Grieve MP
“Yet these new figures show that more people are getting away with it. That literally adds insult to injury for the countless victims of violent crime up and down the country.”
- Overall and sanction detection rates for violence against the person offences by police force area: 2000/01 to 2006/07.*
| Force Area | 00/01 | 01/02 | 02/03 | 03/04 | 04/05 | 05/6 | 06/07 |
| Cheshire | 87 | 81 | 69 | 66 | 59 | 52 | 52 |
| Cumbria | 86 | 77 | 73 | 66 | 55 | 62 | 64 |
| Greater Manchester | 69 | 66 | 64 | 58 | 54 | 58 | 55 |
| Lancashire | 71 | 62 | 61 | 50 | 56 | 60 | 61 |
| Merseyside | 72 | 64 | 60 | 64 | 68 | 54 | 55 |
* Source (MS Excel Spreadsheet):
http://www.parliament.uk/deposits/depositedpapers/2008/DEP2008-1397.xls
