New British Crime Survey and police-recorded figures show a 7% fall in crimes in 2009 compared to 2008, despite the recession.

The dramatic drop in overall crime was accompanied by further falls in the levels of gun and knife crime, including a 21% fall in fatal stabbings.

The latest British Crime Survey (BCS) results show a 1% rise in violent crime but Home Office statisticians say this was not statistically significant and the overall levels of violent crime remained stable.

The figures show that the risk of being a victim of crime remains historically low at 22%. The number of people who said the police were doing a good or excellent job rose from 53% to 56%.

The figures also show that the number of people who believe they are suffering from a "high level" of anti-social behaviour has fallen from 17% to 15%, the lowest figure since the measure was introduced almost a decade ago.

In effect, that meant that fewer people were complaining about abandoned cars, rowdiness or drunken behaviour in public places, drug dealing, gangs of teenagers, litter and vandalism. There was a slight rise in the number of people complaining about noisy neighbours.

All main categories of crime were down except sexual offences, which were up by 2%, according to the police figures.

The British Crime Survey found that muggings were down 21% over the year and burglary and vandalism also fell.

The numbers show that violent crime technically rose by 1%, but officials who calculate the figures say that it was not statistically significant.

The government uses two main measures of crime in England and Wales - actual offences recorded by the police and the BCS, which is a rolling survey of 45,000 people's experiences of crime, whether or not they reported the incident.

According to the BCS figures for the calendar year to the end of 2009, burglary fell 12%, vandalism 12% and vehicle-related theft 11%.

Recorded crime by the police shows recorded violence fell by 3% and drugs offences were down 4%.

Police forces also recorded an 11% drop in criminal damage and a 5% fall in muggings and robberies.

Domestic burglary went down 3% and there was a 16% drop in offences against vehicles, which includes attempting to break into a car.

Provisional figures included in the report show a 3% fall in gun-related crime recorded by the police in the year to December 2009. Firearms offences accounted for less than 1% of all crime.

Overall, police recorded 4.4 million crimes, down from almost 4.8m a year before.

Violent crime falling says new study

Further new figures released have thrown an incendiary into the election debate on violent crime.

Analysis of hospital data for England and Wales, by academics at Cardiff University, shows there were 64,000 fewer violence-related attendances in emergency departments last year than in 2001 - a fall of just over 15%.

This contrasts with Conservative claims that violent crime has increased by 44% since 2002. It also appears to contradict Liberal Democrat analysis that hospital admissions for assault are rising.

The figures from the Cardiff study neatly track the downward trend in violence identified by the British Crime Survey (BCS), adding new weight to the argument that, for most people, England and Wales are less violent places than they were a decade ago.

Mark Easton has more here.


Election Pledges:

Labour:

Protect "frontline" police from budget cuts in 2011-2013; ensure that if a police forces fails consistently, either its chief constable will be replaced or it will be taken over by a neighbouring force; oppose elected police authorities or commissioners; "no-nonsense" one-to-one support for the 50,000 most "dysfunctional" families; automatic parenting orders on those whose teenage children breach an Asbo; guarantee an initial response to any complaint about anti-social behaviour within 24 hours and give complainers a named case worker who will report back on progress; make restorative justice available wherever victims approve it, bringing home to criminals the consequences of their crimes; add 15,000 prison places by 2014; give local people a vote on what community service offenders should do; ensure that serious offenders are added to the DNA database "no matter where or when they were convicted"; retain for six years the DNA profiles of those arrested but not convicted.

Liberal Democrats:

Increase police numbers by 3,000 over five years; scrap identity card scheme; make police authorities directly elected, with powers to sack and appoint the Chief Constable, set local policing priorities, and set budgets; annual fitness tests for police officers; replace form-filling with new technology; create a National Crime Reduction Agency to spread best practice through the force; review police officers terms and conditions; seek advice from Law Commission and Plain English Campaign to make paperwork more simple; reduce the use of short sentences and encourage use of community sentencing to reduce prison overcrowding; increase use of "restorative justice", forcing criminals to confront their behaviour.

Conservatives:

Replace police authorities with directly-elected police commissioners, with responsibility for strategy and budgets; strengthen stop and search powers to tackle knife crime; give police the power to publicly identify offenders; change the law so that anyone acting "reasonably" to stop a crime or apprehend a criminal is not arrested or prosecuted; increase police and local authorities’ powers to remove licences from, or refuse to grant licences to problem bars; allow the police to use "instant sanctions" to deal with anti-social behaviour, without criminalising young people unnecessarily; reduce paperwork needed for stop and search procedures; increase prison capacity above Labour’s plans, in order to scrap the early release scheme; use private and voluntary sector groups to improve the rehabilitation of offenders, and pay providers by results; allow courts to specify minimum and maximum sentences for certain offenders; scrap ID cards and identity database.