Figures say overall crime is down, and ministers say these can be trusted.  The government says it does not know how long the undercounting has been going on - leading to concerns that figures on violent crime may have been wrong for up to a decade.  A former Home Office crime consultant told the BBC the government had been "hiding behind" its changes in the crime counting rules.   Professor Marian Fitzgerald, a criminologist at the University of Kent's Crime and Justice Centre, said the long-term trend of increasing violent crime was now "catching up" with the government.

 

The Conservatives said the new figures "fatally undermined" government claims that violent crime was in decline.  Shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve said: "They betray a government that is completely out of touch with what is going on, on our streets and in our communities."

 

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne called for the Office of National Statistics - rather than the Home Office - to be given direct responsibility for crime figures.

 

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith insisted all the crimes in question had been investigated by the police.  She told the BBC: "What the statisticians are clear about is that the increases in the most serious forms of violence have actually in terms of numbers been more than counteracted by the decreases in less serious violence."

 

The error was discovered when at least 18 out of 43 forces in England and Wales were asked to re-examine their figures, following the realisation that some serious assaults were being recorded in a lower category of offence.

 

 

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