Further 9% fall in crime in England and Wales comes as figures show number of police officers is at lowest level since 2002

This article is more than 7 years old

This article is more than 7 years old

Crime in England and Wales has fallen by a further 9% over the past year, official survey results published on Thursday reveal.

Official statisticians say this latest substantial fall brings the crime rate down to its lowest level since the survey began in 1981 and to less than half the peak level it reached in 1995.

Separate figures of crime recorded by the police confirmed the significant drop: they fell 7% in the 12 months to March 2013 to 3.7m offences.

The Office for National Statistics said the fall in crime continued the downward trend of recent years, albeit at a slower rate than was seen in the 1990s.

Senior police officers said a 27% rise in reported fraud showed that criminals were adopting new tactics and moving online, as well as being a result of a new centralised recording system.

Home Office figures also published on Thursday reveal there are 14,186 fewer police officers than when the coalition government came to power in March 2010.

The number of full-time equivalent police officers was 129,584 in March 2013. This 4,516 drop in the past year is the third year of consecutive falls. The overall number of officers is at its lowest since 2002.

Home Office statisticians say the evidence for a clear link between crime figures and police officer numbers is contested.

The fall in crime has taken place across nearly all categories: there has been a 15% fall in car theft, a 7% fall in burglary, a 6% fall in violent crime and a 13% fall in vandalism.

Among the few categories to see a rise in incidents were theft from the person – mainly pickpocketing and snatch thefts – which rose by 9%, mainly in London, for a second consecutive year.

There was also a 1% rise in sexual offences to 53,340. Statisticians say this reflects a "Yewtree effect" – greater numbers of victims of sexual attacks have come forward to report historical offences to the police in the wake of the police investigation into Jimmy Savile.

The murder rate in England and Wales remained almost unchanged: 552 homicides were recorded in 2012-13 compared with 553 the previous year.

The fall in crime has been more than matched by a sharp 17% reduction in the number of anti-social behaviour incidents recorded.

Figures for fraud show that 229,000 incidents, including online fraud, were reported to the police and the National Fraud Authority in the past year. The figures give a profile for the first time of the scale and type of offence taking place online. For example, fraud involving online shopping and auctions reported to the authorities doubled from 23,750 to 45,114 incidents in the past year.

Advance fee frauds included 1,196 offences involving dating scams and 1,114 inheritance frauds. There were 11,048 offences involving computer misuse, including virus and denial-of-service attacks. Computer-hacking offences topped 4,500 reported incidents.

The deputy chief constable of Gwent police, Jeff Farrar, said the figures showed the likelihood of someone becoming a victim of crime was at its lowest level in more than 30 years: "A key success reflected in the figures is the significant reduction in the number of victims of antisocial behaviour, with 458,166 fewer offences compared with last year," he said.

"However, although police-recorded crime is down by 7%, we are seeing some emerging trends. Data shows that fraud is up 27%. Although this increase is partly down to the introduction of a more efficient centralised recording system, it also shows us that criminals are adopting new tactics and crime is moving away from more traditional forms to the online world.

"The need for policing to deliver safe and confident neighbourhoods and engage effectively with the public will remains so we are disappointed to also see in today's figures that theft against the person is up 9%. The major driver is the rising number of mobile phone thefts."

The home secretary, Theresa May, said the figures showed her police reform programme was delivering results and said the sustained fall in crime was a significant achievement: "Police forces have shown an impressive ability to rise to the challenge of making savings while still cutting crime," she said.

David Cameron hailed the figures as "good news". Speaking during a visit to Hammersmith police station in west London, the prime minister said: "I think we should congratulate the police. As a government we have asked them to do more with less resources. They have performed, I think, magnificently and I think all the work that has gone into crime prevention has helped as well.

"This is good news that Britain is getting safer as well as stronger."