Crime 'costs firms £18.8bn a year'

THE COST of crime to business is a 'staggering' £18.8bn a year, according to the British Chambers of Commerce, which has issued a wake-up call to the Government.

It said Ministers and MPs do not realise how serious the position is because business crime is not identified in overall national crime statistics, so there are no performance indicators or targets for the police and Home Office. The £18.8bn figure is said to be the first time the cost to business of crime has been quantified.

'The social and economic costs are staggering, yet crimes against business are widely seen as victimless crimes,' said David Lennan, director-general of the BCC. 'Politicians, the police and the general public assume that all businesses are profitable and insured.' He said many small firms are 'preoccupied with survival' and many lack the resources to afford expensive security measures or higher insurance premiums.

Businesses that are not a direct target for criminals suffer if a town or district is perceived as unsafe, because businesses, employees, and potential residents are less likely to relocate there and tourists stay away.

The report, BCC Business Crime Survey 2001, will form the basis for a BCC lobby of Home Secretary David Blunkett and his officials to stop skewing official data towards reporting crime on individuals and in residential areas. Businesses are more than twice as likely to be victims of crime than individuals, BCC claims.