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Speech by Jon Collins, Leader, Nottingham City Council at Council Meeting 10th September 2007
Thank you Lord Mayor and can I start by saying that I’m pleased to have the opportunity to discuss the progress being made by the Crime and Drugs Partnership in tackling crime in Nottingham and in implementing the Safe for Nottingham Strategy 2005–2008.
Last year Nottingham’s Crime and Drugs Partnership made significant progress with all crime down by nearly 22% or 16,104 crimes a year since the 2003 council elections. (From 74150 crimes in the year to May 2003, down to 58,046 in the 12 months to July this year),
Against our Government target of a 26% reduction in British Crime Survey comparator crimes by 2008 from a baseline of 2003/4, progress has also been good with a 20.4% reduction recorded to the end of July this year.
Last year alone, BCS comparator crime fell by nearly 9% and while short of the CDP target it was the biggest reduction seen amongst Nottingham’s comparator Crime and Drugs Partnerships, many of who saw increases in crime last year. So for example,
• Liverpool saw an 8% fall,
• Newcastle a 4% fall,
• In Lincoln CDP crime fell by 2%,
• But in Manchester and Plymouth it rose by 1%,
• In Cardiff, Leicester, Southampton and Exeter it was up 4%,
• In Coventry it was up 5%,
• and Portsmouth up 6%.
Other areas where progress has been made against the 2003/4 baseline include;
• Dwelling burglaries down by 27.6% or 2053, fewer offences,
• Thefts from vehicles down by 22.7% or 1965 fewer offences,
• Thefts of vehicles down by 51.5% or 1915 fewer offences,
• Vehicle interference down by 62% or 1822 fewer offences,
• Robbery down by 6.8% or 123 fewer offences.
The CDP has also made good progress against most of the headline targets identified in the Strategy. For example,
• The frequency of offending by young people supervised by the Youth Offending Team has fallen by over 40% far exceeding its target,
• Repeat victimization has reduced by nearly 15% since 2004/05
• And while, changes in survey methodology makes longer term comparisons difficult, there has been a reduction in the fear of crime by almost 5% and a 4% increase in residents satisfaction with their neighbourhood in the last year.
I am however concerned about performance in two areas.
The first is violent crime.
We have continued to make progress with the most serious violent crime and specifically incidents that are life threatening or involve guns or knifes. So for example;
• The number of gun discharges down from 51 in 2003, leading to 23 injuries and 2 deaths, to 13 discharges, 7 injuries and 1 death last year,
• And the number of violent incidents where a knife was used down slightly from 562 in 2003/4 to 555 last year.
Wounding is also down by nearly 9% and for the first time below the 2003/04 baseline and there has been a 42% reduction in the number of violent incidents recorded outside the City Centre’s top 10 worst licensed premises.
However, while robbery remains below baseline, last year saw 186 more offences than in the previous year. Furthermore, common assault increased ahead of baseline with an extra 520 offences recorded.
There are reasons for these changes.
Common assault is now an arrestable offence its use has been encouraged as a way of preventing low-level violence escalating into more serious incidents. Similarly better arrangements for tackling domestic violence have led to a big and welcome increase in the number of reported offences.
Nevertheless, violent crime is rightly a major concern for the public and more needs to be done.
That’s why the partnership will in the coming weeks develop an action plan and delivery group to reduce wounding, assault and robbery. This is an approach that has had a significant and welcome impact on burglary and car crime over the last 18 months and I am therefore confident its an approach that can work to tackle low level violent crime.
The second is drug related offending.
Good progress has been made in expanding the numbers of people entering drug treatment, up by 23% from a baseline of 1696 in 2004/05 to 2089 last year. What’s more, the proportion of arrestees testing positive for Class A drugs now stands at 35.7%; 13% fewer than in 2005/06.
However, while sanction detections for the supply of class A drugs are higher this year than last, the total remains well below baseline. And although there were 293 arrests last year for the supply of Class A drugs, many communities recognise drug dealing as a major threat and see tackling it as a big priority.
Last year the CDP agreed extra funding to support the Police tackle drug dealing and this has helped support extra patrols in hot-spot areas.
However, in my view, there is still room for more effective work to tackle drug crime. For this reason, I will continue to press the Partnership and police to increase their focus both on detection and on the treatment and management of offenders.
Finally, I want to say a few words about the context and history of crime in Nottingham.
It is clear that we have made progress albeit from a high base.
All crime is down by around 22% since May 2003 and the latest figures suggest that with a 20.4% cumulative reduction in BCS comparator crime, Nottingham is closing the gap with other similar cities and edging closer to achieving its target of a 26% reduction by April 2008.
However members may recall, because I mentioned it last year, that the highest ever levels of crime in Nottingham and the gap with other Cities that we are trying to close, arose in the mid 1990’s.
Indeed, crime both nationally and locally really took off from the late 1970’s and more than doubled by mid 1990’s. In fact, to be accurate, in 1979 there were 2.5 million crimes in Britain and by 1993 that had risen to over 5.5 million.
And of course I picked those years deliberately because that was when the Conservatives ran the country. In fact during the 18 years the Tories were in office,
• Crime doubled, car crime doubled, burglary doubled
• Violent crime went up by 170%, robbery went up by 400%
• The chance of being a victim of violent crime trebled
• Convictions fell by a third
• Police numbers fell every year from 1993
And as the trend increased nationally, so it did in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire. In fact in Nottinghamshire, crime rates increased from 73.8 crimes per hundred thousand population in 1978/79 to 161.2 crimes per hundred thousand population in 1992/93.
As the former leader or the conservatives Michael Howard is recorded in Hansard on 24th May, 2000 as saying,
“For the period as a whole from 1979 to 1997 crime doubled under the Tories. It is an accurate figure – it did. It more than doubled between 1979 and 1993.”
And as Simon Hughes MP eloquently put it at the Lib Dem Party Conference in 2000.
“Maggie Thatcher came to power in 1979 and violent crime rose in that year.
Violent crime happened to rise that year. It also rose in 1980, 81 and 82. In 1983, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90. Every year under Thatcher. And under John Major violent crime rose in 1991 – and 1992, 93, 94, 95, 96 and 97.
Crime figures may not be the perfect measurement, but I think you could call that a trend. How dare the Tories lecture the country on crime when violent crime rose every year for 18 years – and total crime doubled?”
Lord Mayor, I make these points not just as party political knock about.
We all accept that crime is high and more needs to be done.
But while most of us recognize the progress that’s been made and the hard work that’s gone into achieving this, some choose not to.
The Conservatives are quick to criticise; we’ve seen that in the questions they’ve asked at the beginning of today’s meeting.
Questions that contained not one word of recognition for the progress that’s been made, of support for the Police, of encouragement to the partnership in the work that it does for this City. And not one word of recognition either that Crime Doubled under the Tories in the 1980’s and 1990’s and that the reductions we are making today are from a high inherited from their Government
Lord Mayor,
Over the last year the CDP has delivered real and significant progress.
Crime overall is down, burglary’s down, gun crime’s down. And while we need to tackle the rise in low-level violent and drug related crime, we should be prepared to welcome improvement when we get it.
The Safe for Nottingham Strategy isn’t perfect but the priorities and targets are the right ones and are accepted and shared by all the partners.
I therefore welcome this report and look forward to the Partnership building on and sustaining the progress already made since April this year towards achieving next years targets.
Supplementary Question
Does the Chairman of the Police Authority also accept that since the last City Council election in May 2003, all crime is down by 22% or 16,104 crimes a year and that;
• Dwelling burglaries down by 27.6% or 2053, fewer offences,
• Thefts from vehicles down by 22.7% or 1965 fewer offences,
• Thefts of vehicles down by 51.5% or 1915 fewer offences,
• Vehicle interference down by 62% or 1822 fewer offences,
• Robbery was down by 6.8% or 123 fewer offences.
Would he also confirm that the highest ever levels of recorded crime per 100,000 population in Nottinghamshire and the biggest gap ever experienced between crime rates locally and nationally was in 1992/93 when we had a Conservative Government.
Would he confirm that under the Tories crime more than doubled in Nottinghamshire from 73.8 crimes per hundred thousand population in 1978/79 to 161.2 crimes per hundred thousand population in 1992/93 while nationally, violent crime increased by 170% and robbery increased by 400% during their time in office.