Majority of Burglaries Unattended by Police in Somerset

A total of 67% of burglaries went unattended by Avon and Somerset Police last year, despite a government promise to attend all of them, an investigation by the Liberal Democrats has revealed.

Yeovil Lib Dems said it showed the Conservative government was making yet more “empty promises” on crime and letting burglars and other criminals off the hook.

In total, a shocking 2,296 of domestic burglaries in Avon and Somerset went unattended by a police officer in 2023. That compares to just 1,115 where a police officer did attend the scene. 

Staggeringly, the latest Home Office statistics show that three in four burglaries went unsolved in the year ending September 2023, or 213,814 burglaries over that period.

The figures were revealed through a series of Freedom of Information requests by the Liberal Democrats to all police forces in England, with 24 forces providing full responses.

They show that 25,938 domestic burglaries went unattended by police across England and Wales in 2023 - accounting for 20% of all cases recorded.

This is despite a claim from the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) last June that all domestic burglaries were being attended by police.

Former Conservative Home Secretary Suella Braverman welcomed the claim at the time, saying she was delighted that police had “fulfilled their commitment to attend all domestic burglaries.”

The Liberal Democrats are calling for a legal Burglary Response Guarantee under which all domestic burglaries would be attended by the police and properly investigated.

This would be accompanied by a return to proper community policing, where officers are visible, trusted and focused on tackling neighbourhood crime like burglaries.

Adam Dance, the Liberal Democrats’ Parliamentary candidate for Yeovil, said: 

“This empty promise from Conservative ministers is leaving our community to pay the price with scores of burglaries going unsolved.

“Burglaries are a disguting crime to have to endure and it can leave people in our area feeling vulnerable in their own homes. The ongoing failure to investigate and attend every burglary is letting criminals off the hook while victims are abandoned and let down.

“The Liberal Democrats would bring in a legal guarantee to ensure burglary victims are visited by a police officer and their cases properly investigated. It is the very least that the public expects and deserves.”