164 muggings a day in London

A report by independent watchdogs shows that, although street crime has come down from its record high levels of early 2002, it is still higher than at any other time in recent history.

It will say that the massive effort to reduce muggings and robberies, involving hundreds of thousands of hours of police time, has produced only a 15 per cent reduction in London.

Scotland Yard figures show that Lambeth is the worst of the 32 boroughs for street crime and that, per head of population, Richmond-is the least dangerous.

The full report - published tomorrow by Her Majesty's Inspectors of Constabulary, Probation and Prisons - is the first independent evaluation of the street crime initiative announced by Tony Blair and Home Secretary David Blunthem a valuable asset they can easily sell.

It is expected to show that the first six months of the police campaign against street crime - when officers got out of their cars and went on the beat in mugging hotspots - produced a steady fall to an average of 163 muggings a day. But there was a rise in the next six months, leading to the average for the year being 164.

The report will also warn that the clear-up rate for street crime is still too low. In London only 9.04 per cent of all street crimes were classified as "cleared-up" last year, far lower than the 14 per cent average for all crimes, but a rise from the 2001-2 figure of 8.7 per cent.

Fewer than one in 10 street robberies in London end with someone being charged or cautioned, the worst figure in the country. And, despite the rise in the clearup rate, the fall in numbers of street crimes meant fewer crimes were classifiedas cleared up and fewer muggers went to prison in 2002-3 than in 2001-2.

Scotland Yard figures show that, although street crime fell by 36 per cent in Lambeth from April last year to March 2003, residents stand a one in 51 chance of being mugged each year, compared with a one in 488 chance in Richmond.

Boroughs that were not part of the street crime initiative had much smaller falls in muggings - and in the case of Islington, Hammersmith and Fulham and Merton suffered increases.

Although the total fall in London was 15 per cent, Haringey, Ealing, Hillingdon, Havering, Wandsworth and Greenwich had falls in single figures, possibly because resources were concentrated on the worst affected areas, mainly Southwark, Lambeth, Westminster, Camden and Hackney, where falls ranged from 15 per cent to 36 per cent.