Figures show that recorded crime has risen 31 per cent in Greater Manchester

Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester Beverley Hughes said: “We know that Greater Manchester is a challenging area to police, and these figures reflect the need for the Government to provide us with the resources and investment we need to be able to meet these challenges head on.”

Violent crime, robbery and sexual offences have seen the biggest rise, with slight increase in burglary, vehicle crime and shoplifting.

“Increases in complex crimes, such as sexual and violent crime put more pressure on our police service that is already worryingly overstretched.

“Inadequate funding continues to make it very difficult to maintain neighbourhood policing and allow our police officers to build the relationships with our communities that we know make a real difference.

“I am working with closely with The Mayor, Chief Constable, local authorities and our communities to make sure we are doing all we can to build safer and stronger communities in Greater Manchester.”

Home Office statistics released on Thursday, October 19, 2017, can be found here and highlight increases in the following areas in Greater Manchester:

• Violence against a person – 46 per cent increase
• Sexual offences – 31 per cent increase
• Burglary – 14 per cent increase
• Robbery – 53 per cent increase
• Theft offences – 15 per cent increase
• Vehicle crime – 17 per cent increase
• Shoplifting – 11 per cent increase

Greater Manchester Police Deputy Chief Constable Ian Pilling said: “Any increase in crime is a concern to us and our communities.  

“In August last year GMP received an inadequate grading for crime recording and since then we have worked to change our practices and processes and are ultimately recording more crimes than we used to. The vast majority of these extra crimes have been for minor offences such as low level antisocial behaviour, minor public disorder or low level assaults, where the victim did not want any further police action. We also believe that victims of sexual offences and other serious crimes are now more confident in coming forward, knowing that we will take them seriously and do everything we can to support them. This also results in extra crimes being recorded.

“This accounts for part of the increase, but we have also seen an increase in some of the crimes happening across Greater Manchester. Our officers and staff work incredibly hard round the clock but we have 2000 fewer officers in GMP than seven years ago. The inevitable consequence of this is that we cannot deal with everything and we have to prioritise tackling serious crime and supporting the most vulnerable people in our communities.

“Despite these challenges we are doing all we can to protect people and help keep them safe and I am grateful for the huge public support we receive in doing this.”