STREET crime and mugging incidents in England and Wales are heading towards the 100,000 a year mark after a rise of 8 per cent last year, according to official figures published today.

The surge in attacks on the streets was driven by a 16 per cent increase in robbery in London and other big increases in some counties. Today’s figures also disclose a 10 per cent rise in gunpoint robberies and an increase in crime where a handgun was used.

Overall there was a 2 per cent rise in violent crime to 1.2 million offences in 2005-06. But all crime recorded by the 43 police forces in England and Wales fell by 1 per cent to 5.5 million offences.

The British Crime Survey, which interviews 45,000 individuals, showed that the total number of crimes rose by 1 per cent to 10.9 million compared with a peak of 19.4 million in 1995.

Today’s figures come after John Reid announced a purge of senior Home Office officials prompted by a devastating Whitehall study that found the department failing in leadership, strategy and delivery.

The Home Secretary will reveal details of his overhaul of the criminal justice system including plans to make violent and sex offenders serve longer in prison before they can be considered for early release. He is also bringing in emergency legislation to allow foreign national prisoners to serve sentences in their home countries.

Mr Reid blamed the rise in robbery from 90,747 to 98,204 in 2005-06 on the desire of criminals for high-fashion technology such as the latest mobile phones and MP3 players. He said: “I share the concerns of many people that the numbers of violent offences recorded by the police have increased, particularly robbery.

“This is largely driven by a rise in the numbers of young people carrying expensive goods, such as mobile phones and MP3 players.”

Jon Simmons, head of statistics at the Home Office, said that the 8 per cent rise in robbery was “real”. He said that it was due mainly to a massive 16 per cent surge in street crime in London, which he agreed was staggering.

But the figures disclose that other forces, including many in rural areas in England and Wales, reported significant increases. In Bedfordshire robbery soared by 28 per cent, in Gloucestershire by 24 per cent and in both Warwickshire and Northamptonshire by 22 per cent.

The figures show the first sustained fall in murders since the 1960s when the number of offences began to climb. There were 765 murders in the year, a fall of 12 per cent on the previous year. The figures included the 52 victims of the London bombings on July 7 last year.

The number of murders was still higher than in 1997, the year that Labour came to power, when the total was 739.

Overall, violent crime recorded by police has more than tripled since then, with the number of offences now at almost 1¼ million. Violent crime rose by 2 per cent, although serious woundings, which officials said gave the best reflection of violent crime trends, fell by 4 per cent to 18,825.

But the figures show that the use of handguns in crime rose 7 per cent to 4,652 offences and that there was a 16 per cent rise year-on-year in serious injuries from firearms incidents.

Harassment, including stalking, was up by 11 per cent to 245,337 offences. House burglaries recorded by police fell by 7 per cent from 2005-06 to just over 300,000, a fall that has continued since 1996, when the figure stood at 602,000.

The Government can claim similar success with vehicle crime recorded by police in England and Wales, which fell by 3 per cent to 721,469. Vehicle crime has now almost halved since 1996.

Both police-recorded crime figures and the results of the British Crime Survey are showing falls in household burglary and vehicle-related theft. But the fall in both is to a large extent the result of better security features in houses and vehicles.

Drug offences rose by 23 per cent to 178,000, mainly because of a huge increase in official warnings for carrying cannabis. Such warnings rose from 88,000 to 120,000. Trafficking in controlled drugs increased by 5 per cent.

The figures show a 5 per cent rise in the number of crimes detected by the police, although the biggest increase was in on-the-spot fines for disorder, which rose 142.8 per cent. Overall, 1.3 million of the 5.5 million recorded offences in England and Wales resulted in someone being punished.

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