No, we have not metamorphosed into the Daily Mail. Indeed, we live in an age of historically low crime; the last Crime Survey for England and Wales suggests it fell by 9% in the year to June 2017, and has been falling since 1995. In Scotland, the latest police records put reported crime at its lowest level since 1974.
In England and Wales, though, the latest records point to a quite steep rise in some crimes: a 22% rise in knife crimes, 11% in firearms, 17% in vehicle theft and 9% in burglaries. These congregate in London (where Kingston-on-Thames has the lowest crime rate, according to the Met’s “Crime Data Dashboard”) and the big conurbations. The Dyfed-Powys police area has the UK’s lowest number of reported crimes (25,114 a year), followed by Cumbria and North Yorkshire.
In Scotland, measured by local authority area, crime is lowest in Orkney (1,005 crimes), Shetland (1,417) and Na h-Eileanan Siar (the Outer Hebrides). In Northern Ireland, Ballyclare comes bottom, with 71 recorded crimes in 2016.
Moneysupermarket.com’s latest study of millions of insurance claims found not a single one for burglary in more than 123 postcodes over the past five years, including Llandrindod Wells (left) Coleraine in Co Londonderry and Lamberhurst, Kent, where, I’m assuming, the locksmiths have gone bust.
