This report from Policy Exchange is the latest in Policy Exchange’s landmark Policy Programme for Prosperity.

Providing a detailed breakdown of the costs of crime and a series of proposals of how to reduce them – the report has calculated that the tangible costs of crime to the United Kingdom are about £170bn or around 6.5% of GDP. Of these costs, about £38bn are inflicted on businesses, £31bn on the public sector, and about £63bn against individuals.

Accounting for the further costs of behavioural changes by businesses and individuals in response to a heightened fear of crime, the annual cost of crime to British society is estimated to be even greater – at £250 billion or 10% of GDP a year.

To tackle crime and the burden it imposes, Policy Exchange calls for an end to the permissive paradigm in criminal justice policy and makes 20 recommendations for change.

The report is backed by Sir Sajid Javid, former Chancellor of Exchequer and Home Secretary, who writes an Introduction to the paper. Andrew Haldane CBE, former Chief Economist of the Bank of England, also writes a Foreword in support of the paper.

The tangible costs of crime in the UK amount to about £170bn per annum, or about 6.5% of GDP.

The report recognises that there is no scope to increase overall public spending – and defence spending must take priority. Any extra money spent on the criminal justice system must be financed by cuts in other sorts of public spending. But there are two reasons why spending on our proposals should come high up the list of priorities for public spending:

• First, our proposals will strengthen the economy and thereby yield a return. They should be regarded as a form of public investment.
• Second, the proposals put forward by Policy Exchange are a form of defence spending. The external threat to the United Kingdom is no longer purely from conventional warfare. It is hybrid and includes the sponsorship of terrorism, cyber warfare, attacks on critical infrastructure, and campaigns to widen divisions in our society – all activities which undermine the public’s confidence in the nation’s security at home. Maintaining a strong criminal justice system is fundamental to British interests and to countering the threats to the nation which originate both at home and abroad.