Crime stats show burglaries up by 14%

The survey of 45 000 households estimated there had been 9.6 million crimes in 2010/11, compared with 9.5 million the previous year.

Around one in 40 households had been victims of burglary or attempted burglaries in the last year, according to the survey.

It said the number of thefts of unattended mobiles, wallets and purses from pubs and household property increased by 10%.

The figures from the British Crime Survey (BCS) also pointed to a big rise in domestic violence, up 35% in a year.

However, officials said the number of domestic violence victims surveyed was very small which meant the figures were “prone to fluctuation”.

Three quarters of all domestic violence incidents involved repeat victims, the BCS figures showed.

This, along with a 38% increase in the number of assaults leading to minor injuries, fuelled a 6% rise in the number of violent crimes overall, with 2,203,000 violent incidents last year.

But the British Crime Survey figures contrast with crime figures recorded by police.

The police say crime fell by about 100,000 to 4.2 million over the last year compared with 4.3 million in 2009/10.

Domestic burglary was down 4% and knife crime fell by 3% to 32,714 incidents, while serious sexual offences rose by 4% to 45,326 – 11% higher than in 2008/9.

Explaining the difference between the BCS figures and the police data, David Blunt, the chief statistician at the Home Office, said: “On the recorded crime front, the reduction in burglaries is fairly small, it’s only down by about 10,000, so while it looks like there’s a divergence, there’s no strong evidence of a divergence between the two sources.”

Crime and Security minister James Brokenshire said: “We have consistently argued that crime is too high and that is why our policing reforms are so urgently needed.

But Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper argued the opposite, saying: “Now is not the time for the Government to take risks with community safety by cutting over 12,000 police officers. People want crime to fall further and the Government is doing nothing to help.”