A report by the National Audit Office has concluded that both Enfield's & Haringey's police commands are under-recording crime and failing to recording crime properly.

16 out of Londons 32 Boroughs were given the bottom grade of red in a National Audit Office Assessment of the National Crime Recording Standard, which means that there are "serious problems to be resolved", and worryingly Enfield is one of them. 14 police commands included Haringey were graded amber, which means "[only] moderate performance, further work needed in key areas".

The NAO examined how many incidents has been closed as non crimes when they should have been recorded as crimes. On a force wide level the report found that 20.5% of crimes had been recorded as non-crimes.

On an individual Borough level, the NAO found that Enfield had only recorded 76% of crimes correctly. For Haringey the figure was somewhat better at 85%. The numbers mean that in Enfield 1-in-4 crimes, and in Haringey 1-in-7 crimes, is incorrectly recorded or not recorded as a crime at all!

The level of recorded crime used for crime statistics is dependent on the crime being recorded accurately as a crime and into the correct crime category.

Peter Forrest, Conservative GLA Candidate for Enfield-Haringey, said:

"It is extremely worrying that we do not know whether the Police are recording crimes properly. Indeed, it would appear that there is significant under-recording if crimes are re-categorised as 'non-crimes'.

The Police judge how to allocate their resources based on the crimes that are recorded. If they are failing to record them properly then how can we have confidence that the Police are setting the right policing priorities?"

ENDS.

Notes to Editors:

1. The Audit of National Crime Recording Standards for the MPS was presented to the Planning Performance and Review Committee of the Metropolitan Police Authority on the 10 July 2003. The paper is available on the MPA website at: http://www.mpa.gov.uk/committees/ppr/2003/030710/06.htm

2. Those Boroughs graded red were:

BOROUGH % of crimes

recorded correctly

Croydon 79.5

Lewisham 79

Camden 77

Tower Hamlets 76

Havering 76

Enfield 76

Waltham Forest 75

Barking 74

Brent 74

Southwark 69

Kensington and Chelsea 69

Westminster 66

Lambeth 64