Home Office caught lying

Serious violence and murder near pubs and clubs in the early hours rose by almost 130 per cent in the year after licensing laws were relaxed.

But the Home Office omitted the figure from its report into the impact of 24-hour opening, claiming it was "not statistically significant".

Ministers have now been forced under Freedom of Information laws to reveal the missing data, which was simply replaced with a blank space when the research was published in July.

The rise of 127 per cent was recorded across 18 police regions in city centre locations or near pubs and clubs between 3am and 6am.

It covered the most serious types of violent crime, including murder, attempted murder, manslaughter and wounding.

Only the government can claim that increased murder and violence is not statistically significant. I have to wonder what planet these people are on. The fact that they didn’t include the data means that they knew what it meant and they didn’t want the public knowing.