Violent crime has risen in England and Wales despite a drop in offences overall, Home Office figures revealed yesterday.

Public confidence in the criminal justice system has fallen significantly, with 16 to 17 per cent of people reporting “high levels” of anxiety about violent crime and antisocial behaviour.

There were 56 deaths as a result of gun crime in the year to the end of June, three more than in the previous year. Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, said that the rise in youth crime and the number of teenagers being murdered on the streets of the capital was “totally unacceptable”.

Generally, crime recorded by the 43 police forces in England and Wales fell by 7 per cent to 1.3 million offences between April and June compared with the same period last year.

Violence against the person — including serious assaults and sexual attacks — fell by 8 per cent to 256,000 over the same period compared with last year. Over the first six months of this year, however, violent crime rose by 8.5 per cent from 236,000 offences in the first quarter to 256,000 in the second, including an increase in serious violent offences from 4,000 to 4,400 and sexual crimes from 12,800 to 14,300.

The separate British Crime Survey, which interviews people over 16 about their experience of crime, showed a rise of 1 per cent in violent crime between July 2006 and June 2007 compared with the previous 12 months. This included a 2 per cent rise in offences causing injury. The Home Office said that the increases were not statistically significant, although Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, is planning to announce a strategy to tackle violent crime.

Vanessa Nicholls, director of crime and drugs strategy at the Home Office, told Ms Smith in July that though there had been an enormous reduction in crime, the trend had levelled out, which was cause for concern. There needed to be a robust response to serious violence and sexual offending, Ms Nicholls added.

The figures for recorded crime showed an 8 per cent fall in robberies to 23,000 in the second quarter of the year, a continuing fall in domestic burglary and vehicle crime, and a significant drop in cases of criminal damage. The fall in domestic burglary to 67,000 and offences against vehicles to 170,000 was largely due to more homes being equipped with burglar alarms and security devices being installed in cars.

Drug offences jumped by 14 per cent to 55,000, which the Home Office said was a result of the greater use by police of formal warnings for possession of cannabis.But despite the overall fall in crime, many people are still anxious about crime and have little confidence in the criminal justice system. In seven categories, including whether the system is effective in bringing offenders to justice, meeting the needs of victims, and reducing crime, public confidence has fallen.

Only 42 per cent of people believe that the system is effective in bringing criminals to justice, 40 per cent that it deals with cases promptly and efficiently and 34 per cent that it meets the needs of victims of crime.

The perception that the needs of victims are not being met will be particularly disappointing both for the Home Office and what is now the Ministry of Justice, which have spent years trying to ensure that victims are placed at the heart of the criminal justice system. Tony McNulty, the Police Minister, said: “I am encouraged that the BCS shows stability after historic falls and the police figures show that total recorded crime is down by 7 per cent. Reductions in violence against the person, domestic burglary and criminal damage all point to significant progress.”

Sir Ian said that the battle to halt the rise in youth violence in London was “extremely challenging” but he promised to put all of the force’s “considerable resources to try and stop it happening”. He added: “We need to find out why some young people feel safer in gangs than out of them. The battle is far from lost. I lived in Los Angeles 30 years ago, and what we have is a very different problem which we will get on top of.”

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