Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

Would that that were the case. There is no doubt that the additional places that we have provided, and will continue to provide—at twice the rate of the Administration that the hon. Gentleman supported—have contributed to the fact that, whereas between 1979 and 1997 crime doubled, since 1997 crime has gone down by at least 35 per cent. on whatever measure one wishes to use, including under the British Crime Survey. Similar reductions in violent crime have also taken place. I invite him to look at that study, which was done entirely independently.