The Conservatives have blasted the government for hiding soaring levels of street robbery behind confusion over crime statistics.

Statistical "inflation" is to blame for a sharp jump in crime, claim senior Home Office officials today.

Recorded crime increased by seven per cent last year - according to the latest figures - and robbery leapt 28 per cent.

Forum Response: Safe Partnership

Malcolm Macleod, chief executive of Safe Partnership, told ePolitix.com: "It's interesting to see the 2001/2002 Crime Figures published alongside the British Crime Survey. A big caveat, though. Reported crime has actually risen in the period, and far too many people still live in fear of crime.

"Crime hasn't gone away and no amount of statistical presentation will make it go away. The period has seen new reporting methods and new survey designs, and these need to bed-in before anyone can take comfort from an apparently continuing downward trend since 1998/99."Resources for Crime Reduction are tightly stretched and Safe believe that the voluntary sector could do much more to help if properly funded. We are particularly concerned about burglary which is up 7 per cent. We know from experience that target hardening interventions work. We've been doing them for the last 15 years, driving repeat victimisation down to less than 1 per cent with our reactive schemes.

"We believe that we should widen that work, particularly in the 88 most deprived neighbourhoods. Police resources that would be less engaged on tackling burglaries could then be released to operate elsewhere, for example in the ten hot-spots mentioned by the minister on 12 July."

Forum Response: USDAW

A spokesman for USDAW told ePolitix.com: "We feel that crimes in shop stores whereby assistants are often attacked are deplorable.

"A lot of stores do not provide sufficient protection for their staff. The better stores make it clear that there is not a lot of cash within tills which is in itself a deterrent to potential robbers.

"We believe that an improvement and expansion of CCTV in stores offers the best protection for our members."

Forum Response: Crime Concern

Nigel Whiskin, chief executive of Crime Concern, told ePolitix.com: "The good news is that we are holding on to the reduction in crime achieved over the last five years".

"The alarming rise in street crime, mostly in 10 urban centres, is largely accounted for by offenders with drug problems and youngsters following the fashion crime of jacking mobiles - the mountain of unusable mobile phones is growing next to the mountain of unusable car radios."

"Even if the police were better at detecting offenders, the courts dealt with criminals quickly and we had the capacity to lock up more prolific offenders most crimes would go undetected and most offenders not imprisoned. To ensure success, we need more investment in crime reduction and community safety in our most hard pressed neighbourhoods with crime problems to get real long term cuts in crime levels and reduce the number of offenders."

Forum Response: Federation of Small Businesses

A spokesman for the FSB told ePolitix.com: "Crime is an issue that has risen on the small business agenda over the last few years.

"Our Lifting the Barriers Survey in May 2002 revealed that over 40 per cent of small firms felt that crime had a negative effect on their business.

"The FSB is calling for a policy of zero-tolerance towards petty crime against business property."

Forum Response: British Retail Consortium

Bill Moyes, director general of the BRC, told ePolitix.com: "These figures will come as no surprise to retailers. The BRC ninth annual crime survey showed that in 2001 there were 52 cases of physical violence per 100 outlets, compared with 29 per 100 in the previous year.

"Retail Crime is a constant priority for the industry and massive investment of resources over recent years has led to some significant successes. However, the retail sector is not immune to the forces at work in society at large and beyond the shop door.

"Retail crime is a symptom of wider street crime and over half of those arrested for shop theft are funding a drug habit. Outside the town centre SME retailers are particularly at risk from robbery, physical violence burglary despite tripling the amount spent on crime prevention measures.

"The issue needs to be tackled through effective, government-backed business and public community crime reduction partnerships. We are not complacent about retail crime and the social and criminal justice agencies cannot be either."