Worst police forces fail to solve more than 90 per cent of burglaries

Suella Braverman was accused of ‘losing control’ on crime after new figures revealed at least 100,000 burglaries went unsolved last year.

Almost three-quarters of the 137,000 burglary reports were dropped without a suspect, according to new figures from the Liberal Democrats.

The City of London and Cumbria forces were the worst culprits, failing to solve 93 and 91 per cent of cases respectively. Cumbria Police dropped 938 out of the 1,008 cases reported.

The Metropolitan Police suffered the highest number of burglary reports at 37,726. They subsequently only solved 26,974 of them – just over 70 per cent, and a sharp drop on the 85 per cent solved in 2021.

Other major police forces, including West Midlands, Merseyside and West Yorkshire, were also guilty of closing thousands of cases without identifying a suspect.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman was accused of ‘losing control’ on crime after new figures revealed at least 100,000 burglaries went unsolved last year

Cleveland Police were the most successful of the 26 forces who responded to the Freedom of Information requests, solving 92 per cent of all burglaries.

In October the National Police Chiefs’ Council confirmed all home burglaries would be attended by police.

Chairman Martin Hewitt said: ‘Wherever you live in England and Wales you can be confident the police will attend if you experience the invasion of a home burglary. This should see more burglaries solved and more offenders prosecuted.’

Last night the Home Secretary was urged to back a new statutory guarantee which would ensure all burglaries are attended by the police and properly investigated.

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael said: ‘Burglars are getting away with it while victims are denied justice.

‘The Conservative Party has lost control of crime because the Home Secretary is only interested in PR stunts and headlines instead of doing the hard graft, tackling the criminal gangs sowing fear in local communities.’

A Home Office spokesman said: ‘We welcome the recent figures from the Crime Survey for England and Wales which show that burglary is down by 34 per cent since December 2019.

‘The Home Secretary made clear to Police Chiefs that forces must attend all domestic burglaries. We support the commitment from forces that they will deliver this pledge and expect them to implement it as soon as practically possible.’