Mike Penning

Oxford Mail:

Policing and Criminal Justice Minister

As Policing and Criminal Justice Minister, it is my job to keep on top of all emerging trends in crime and to equip the police to deal with them.

So it is important for the readers of the Oxford Mail to be reassured that I am very well aware of the statistics showing a big rise in sexual offences and domestic abuse in the area last week.

And they can be equally reassured that there is no reason to think that this is a representation of a new pattern of offending. Instead, ever more victims of sexual offences and domestic abuse are coming forward to report these previously underreported crimes – this is something I welcome.

It shows they have faith in Thames Valley officers to be able to deal with the offences sensitively and effectively.

For, as we all know, nobody does a more important job in Oxford and its surrounding towns and villages than the police.

They are there to keep people safe, protect communities and keep crime down, and they put themselves in harm’s way to do it.

That is why it is so important for people across Oxfordshire to be given all the information required to hold the police to account. And that’s one of the reasons we introduced a police and crime commissioner – to give everyone a direct say in how their communities are policed.

And that is also why I instructed the police to change the way they recorded crime.

To be totally frank, it just wasn’t good enough.

The independent Office for National Statistics and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary told us as much – as did the gap between the statistics the police were collecting themselves and those collected independently by the Crime Survey for England and Wales.

I want to reassure people in Oxfordshire – whether they live in Oxford, Abingdon or Wallingford – that where statistics are going up it does not mean there has been a sudden outbreak of crime on the streets of your communities.

What they mean is that the police are now doing a better job at recording what you are telling them when you ring up to report a crime.

The Office for National Statistics has already told me it is confident the figures are more accurate and that it is not a reflection of rising rates of crime. But you don’t just have to take my word for it – or even the word of the ONS.

The Crime Survey is collected directly from the experiences of normal people the length and breadth of England and Wales.

And it has consistently shown crime falling since 2010, with overall levels of crime now at historically low levels.

Nothing is more important to me than seeing crime fall.

So my door is always open to Chief Constable Francis Habgood or Police and Crime Commissioner Anthony Stansfeld if they want to tell me about changing trends of crime.

And my statisticians at the Home Office will be keeping a very close eye on the newly-improved police statistics to ensure that we remain on top of any emerging trends.

So I can reassure the people of Oxfordshire that crime has fallen consistently since 2010 and of my determination to ensure that carries on well into the future.