ESS concerned by the rise in violent crime
An increase in violent crime has worried the committee which leads the States’ fight against poverty.
The latest report measuring indicators of poverty, which was published just before the end of the year, included an increase in the three-year rolling average of violent crimes recorded.
The figure was 139 per 10,000 people for the period 2020-22 but rose to 151 per 10,000 people for the period 2021-23.
‘Crime can have a major impact on both individuals and the wider community and plays a part in assessing how deprived an area may potentially be,’ said the Employment & Social Security Committee.
The increase was not unexpected, however, after the Police reported a spike in violent crimes last year, with 1,097 cases recorded.
The Indicators of Poverty report included information about crime, employment, health, disability, housing, living environment and access to services, all of which have an influence on the incidence of poverty in the island. The report showed that dozens more people were living in insecure housing compared to 12 months earlier.
The percentage of the island without secure housing was up from 1.8% in 2022 to 1.9% last year, a total of more than 1,200 people.
Data on household income, also included in the report, revealed an increase in the number of people living in relative poverty, defined as an income less than 60% of median earnings, or £21,396 in cash terms last year.
A total of 18.9% of the population had a household income below this level, whereas in 2021 the figure was 18.6%.
ESS president Peter Roffey had not yet had the opportunity to digest the latest report but what he had read so far left him ‘looking at a mixed picture’.
‘I’m going to need to study the report in some depth before I fully understand all of the nuances. It is reporting on a period which covers the impact of the pandemic which will probably have skewed the figures considerably.’
There was a slight increase in the proportion of the working age population receiving incapacity, severe disability or unemployment benefits or carer’s allowance, from 3.6% to 3.7%, the second-highest figure for at least a decade.
The report also examined winter mortality rates, which calculate the average number of deaths over the winter months which are in excess of the average number of deaths in non-winter months.
The three-year average excess winter mortality rate was 15.2% between 2021 and 2023, a sharp increase on the figure of 7.1% between 2020 and 2022.
Some standards in the classroom seemed to be heading in the right direction.
Education reported that 10% of Year 6 children had a reading ability below average in 2023, compared to 19% the previous year, while the proportion of the year group with below-average maths was down from one-third to one-quarter.
