US Edition 
Crime soars 107% as cyber offences included for the first time - as it happened
For the first time, Office for National Statistics figures now include fraud and cyber offences - here was our live coverage of the release and the reactions
• Crime figures include cyber crime for the first time
• Overall number of crimes in England and Wales soars by 107%
• Separate data shows 25% surge in violent offences
• Gove needs to be tough on crime and tough on the causes
• Cyber criminals drain £20m from UK bank accounts
• Hate crime rises by fifth, official figures show
• Britain’s stance on cyber crime is like driving a car without airbags
• Police officers routinely fiddle crime figures, MPs are told
Latest
Summary
Today's crime figures have shone a new light on the true scale of crime in England and Wales.
Put together, the two measures show a 107 per cent increase on last year when cyber crime and fraud were not included in the estimate.
In recorded crime, violence against the person and sexual offences are also up.
11.46
The first estimates of the scale of fraud and cyber offences show how the internet is "changing the nature of crime" in the UK, a senior police officer said.
Jeff Farrar, National Police Chiefs' Council lead for crime recording and statistics, said officers were working hard to tackle the threat but warned it "presents a growing challenge".
He said: "The ONS field trial between May and August on experiences of fraud and cyber crime demonstrates how use of new technology and the internet is changing the nature of crime in the UK.
"Cyber crime exemplifies how the demands on the police service are both changing and increasing at a time when budgets continue to be placed under significant pressure."
Mr Farrar said it was "encouraging" that the overall rate from the Crime Survey of England and Wales shows incidents are decreasing and that the gap between the study and police recording of offences "continues to narrow"
He said: "At the same time police recorded crime has risen by 5 per cent. This directly reflects the efforts being made by forces to improve consistency in crime recording.
"Victims now have increased confidence in reporting sexual offences. We have also introduced new solutions that make it easier to report fraud offences through Action Fraud."
Steve White, chairman of The Police Federation of England and Wales, warned "total crime" will continue to increase without "long-term commitment to sustainable police budgets".
He said: "Recorded crime has risen by 5 per cent; violence against the person is up by a quarter; sexual offences are up 41 per cent and fraud is up 9 per cent.
"Possession of a knife or bladed instrument is up 9 per cent and this is particularly worrying as it reverses the trend of recent years.
"Every violent or sexual offence has its victim, often traumatised, with each grieving person far more than a statistic, but without long-term commitment to sustainable police budgets, total crime will simply go on rising.
"The public deserve better and we are asking for the resources we need, to provide the service they deserve. Until that happens, we can expect to see more gloomy figures like these."
11.33
On average one in 12 adults is a victim of fraud and one in 22 is a victim of cyber fraud, the figures show.
The survey also revealed the number of sexual offences, including rape, reported to the police rose by 41 per cent from last year and is at the highest level since comparable records began in 2002.
There was a 25 per cent rise in violence against the person reported to the police, including in the most serious categories resulting in injury.
11.24
Violence against the person is an area where the police have seen the biggest increase in offences.
While the number of murders has fallen over the twenty-first century, violence-related crime has increased - with the last year seeing a 16 per cent increase in violence with injury, and a 33 per cent increase in violence without injury.
This chart put together by Ashley Kirk shows how violence against the person has spiked in recent years.
Note: 2013-14 and 2014-15 figures are for July-June, whereas in earlier years the period counted was April-March.
11.16
The figures presented today are complex and confusing, but a true picture of the scale of crime in the UK - for so long obscured by crime stats - is now beginning to emerge.
Here's our Home Affairs Correspondent David Barrett explaining exactly how the figure of a 107 per cent rise in crime has been arrived at:
The figures out today go some way to showing the true extent of crime in England and Wales for the first time.
Following years of criticism - due to cyber crime and other fraud being missed out of official data - the Office for National Statistics has carried out new research showing the total number of crimes is double what was previously thought.
There were 5.1 million estimated cyber crimes and frauds last year, it said, plus 2.5 million offences under the Computer Misuse Act – hacking, identity theft, malware, and so on.
Add these to the 6.5 million crimes recorded in the year to the end of June by the long-running Crime Survey of England and Wales (CSEW) and you get a whacking 14.1 million total.
Comparing that with the previous CSEW total of 6.8 million and you get a 107 per cent increase.
Of course, these crimes existed previously - but they just weren’t monitored by the government.
Technically it’s not a “rise”, it’s a revelation, showing us the true picture that for so long has been obscured, omitted and ignored.
If you think this is complex, hang on to your hat.
The picture is made even more murky by a separate set of data based on how many crimes are actually recorded by the police.
After accusation that police have been “fiddling the figures” officers are now far more likely to be told to note down all crimes more accurately.
There were 4.3 million offences recorded in England and Wales, a 5 per cent increase overall.
It was driven by a 25 per cent rise in violent crime, or an extra 163,398 offences, including a 16 per cent increase in the most serious ones which actually involved an injury.
Sex crimes, too, saw another big surge in recorded data, up 41 per cent to 95,482.
The jump in sexual offences is part of a trend over the last few years driven by the so-called “Savile effect” after the impact of the scandal surrounding the BBC entertainer Jimmy Savile, who was exposed as a prolific paedophile after his death.
The effect of the case has been to encourage victims the police are more likely to take them seriously and properly investigate, leading to increased reporting of sex crimes.
11.15
Alistair Carmichael, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said: "It is remarkable that at a time when cybercrime is soaring and fraudsters are finding ever more inventive ways to get access to our personal details, our prime minister and his home secretary as seriously considering weakening encryption that allows our banks to keep our information secure."
11.11
Meanwhile, separate research by Victim Support has indicated that one in three fraud victims is at least 65 years old.
The charity received 39,272 referrals from police following such crimes in the year to September.
More than one in three of the victims was 65 or over, despite this age group making up only 18 per cent of the UK population, while 19 per cent were at least 75.
The charity's director Lucy Hastings said: "We know that the vast majority of fraud goes unreported - largely because victims are too embarrassed to come forward, or are afraid of ridicule."
11.06
Glen Watson, of the ONS, adds some context: "These new estimates should be seen in the context of a reduction over the past 20 years in the more traditional forms of crime, from 19 million incidents a year in 1995 to under 7 million a year today."
11.00
Here's the breakdown showing exactly how crime has shot up 107 per cent from last year:
10.54
The Minister for Policing, Crime, Criminal Justice & Victims, Mike Penning, has now made a statement following the latest crime stats.
He said:
Police reform is working and crime has fallen by 8 per cent year-on-year, according to the independent Crime Survey for England and Wales, and by more than a quarter since 2010. People, communities and property across the country are safer as a result.
Crime is falling and it is also changing – and we are committed to tackling fraud and cyber crime. This is not a new threat, and the Government has been working to get ahead of the game.
Since 2010, we have created the National Crime Agency, invested £860 million in the National Cyber Security Programme and established Action Fraud to support police by identifying the links between complex scams.
We need to go further. And we will. We are working in partnership with industry and consumers to ensure crime continues to decrease. The number of people experiencing computer viruses has fallen in recent years, and plastic card fraud is down by more than a quarter since 2009/10, largely as the result of the introduction of Chip and PIN.
Having an accurate national picture is critical to informing our ongoing response. Today’s figures represent world-leading work by the ONS, supported by the Home Office, to reveal something we have always known but were previously unable to quantify.
We also continue to see a rise in police recording of violent and sexual crimes. The Office for National Statistics has been clear that this rise reflects improvements in recording practice, rather than an increase in itself – and this is something we welcome.
Tackling these horrific crimes is a priority, and we have introduced new laws that mean anyone caught in possession of a knife for a second time will now face a mandatory minimum sentence in prison.
10.49
More from David Barrett on this in a moment, but the new headline figure is that crime has risen a staggering 107 per cent, if you include all the figures presented today. Crime in England and Wales has more than doubled, it appears.
10.38
More than half of fraud and cyber crime victims suffered financial loss, the survey found.
Of that number, 78 per cent received financial compensation and 62 per cent were fully reimbursed.
The most common cyber crimes, offences committed under the Computer Misuse Act, were where the victim's device was infected by a virus.
It also includes people's emails or social media accounts being hacked.
The CSEW, published quarterly by the Office for National Statistics, reflects experience of crime and is separate from police-recorded crime figures which only show how many offences were reported.
10.33
And here's another one.
Recorded crime shows that of victim-based crimes selected below, the biggest increases have been sexual offences and violence against the person.
Between June 2014 and June 2015, there has been a 41 per cent increase in sexual offences, and a 25 per cent increase in violence against the person.
Theft from the person and robbery had the biggest decreases this year, falling 13 per cent and 11 per cent respectively.
10.21
Right, enough of the big blocks of text, here is an outline of the figures in graphical form put together by our data man Ashley Kirk:
10.19
According to the ONS the estimates for fraud and cyber crime are significantly higher than those suggested by the police recorded figures.
"There are a number of reasons why the CSEW estimate is so much higher than the figures recorded by the police," the survey stated.
"The profile of cases covered by the CSEW cover the full spectrum of harm or loss.
"Reporting rates are likely to be lower in cases where there is low or no harm, but merely inconvenience, to the victim."
The latest police figures show just under 600,000 fraud offences were reported to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB), a rise of 9 per cent compared with the previous year.
10.13
KPMG’s Cyber Security practice senior manager Louise Pordage says today's inclusion of cyber crime in official stats is a "vital first step" to tackling the problem:
While the figures released today may appear high, I am certain that cyber crime remains one of the most under reported areas in our crime statistics. There is little clarity around the impact of cyber crime against the UK economy, and of course the statistics released today only consider crimes against the person rather than corporate crime.
Getting a better view of cyber crime matters to individuals, corporations and the government. It also drives home the point that we all need to consider our security online and take sensible precautions to protect ourselves.
Our world is becoming digital and so is organised crime. The incorporation of these figures into the Crime Survey of England and Wales is a vital first step towards a more robust reporting regime for cyber crime, and an important recognition that such crimes can have every bit as much of an impact on our lives as more conventional crime.
10.11
More from number cruncher David Barrett:
If the computer offences were included in the new headline figures it would mean crime had more than doubled to 14.1 million offences.
Overall violence against the person recorded by police rose by a quarter to 830,000 incidents, the data showed.
Possession of a knife or sharp instrument rose by nine per cent to 10,154 incidents.
Sex crimes recorded by police showed a 41 per cent jump - an extra 27,600 offences - continuing a trend seen over several years reflecting increasing willingness among victims to come forward to police.
In the year to the end of June police recorded 569 murders, a rise of 44 on the previous year.
Mr Flatley said the number of homicides was subject to fluctuation.
09.58
The figures also follow a warning from the National Crime Agency yesterday that millions of pounds have been drained from British bank accounts after cyber criminals unleashed a "particularly virulent" virus.
The NCA is working alongside Europol and the FBI, among other agencies, to track down an eastern European gang believed to the responsible.
09.58
Meanwhile, the number of sexual offences recorded by police in England and Wales have increased by 41 per cent in the past year.
This is the equivalent of an additional 27,602 offences in the 12 months to June - and comes as the number of rapes and other sexual offences reached its highest level since 2002/03.
09.53
The Crime Survey of England and Wales, which is based on interviews with members of the public about their experiences of crime, found overall crime has fallen by 8 per cent from last year with an estimated 6.5 million offences.
It is the lowest level since the survey began in 1981.
Separate police recorded crime figures, which are compiled in a different way, showed an increased of 5 per cent with 4.3 million incidents.
09.37
Today's startling figures follow a controversial report out yesterday that said victims of cyber crime should be "low priority" if they fail to take security steps.
The study commissioned by the City of London Police and the City of London Corporation, which runs the Square Mile, suggested officers should approach electronic crimes with “realism” and warn victims the cases would never be properly investigated.
09.30
Here's our first take from the Telegraph's Home Affairs Correspondent David Barrett, who is at the release:
The annual number of crimes in England and Wales has soared by 70 per cent after more than five million cyber crimes and frauds were included in the total for the first time.
New research by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found there were 5.1 million electronic crimes in the year to the end of June - which have never previously been measured in official government statistics.
Nearly four million people were affected, of whom 2.6 million suffered financial loss as a result.
It means the overall number of crimes has risen sharply to 11.6 nmillion, including 6.5 million from the Crime Survey of England and Wales in the year to the end of June.
Among crimes recorded by police, there was a sharp rise in violent assaults which led to injuries, with 54,650 more crimes, a 16 per cent increase.
Overall police recorded crime rose by five per cent year-on-year, to 4.3 million offences.
Jon Flatley, the ONS head of crime statistics, said: "Clearly from these figures some crime has moved online."
The ONS research on cyber crime has been published for the first time following widespread criticism that large chunks of crime such as identity theft, computer hacking, card fraud and "phishing" were absent from official totals.
Another new piece of research from the ONS showed there were a further 2.1 million offences under the Computer Misuse Act - mainly attempts to access confidential information.
But Mr Flatley said he had an "open mind" about whether these would be included in the overall crime totals in the future.
09.25
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the release and reaction to the latest crime Office for National Statistics crime figures.
Our man David Barrett is there, poised, and ready to crunch the numbers as soon as they are released and then here we will bring you all the reaction that follows.
It is expected crime levels will soar, as cyber crime is included for the first time.