Government crime research slammed

Home Office spent �46m on crime research in the last two years.

A group of leading criminologists is calling for an academic boycott of government research.

The researchers, from King's College, London, say the flow of accurate information to the public is being "deliberately disrupted or withheld".

The findings were published in a report highlighting occasions on which it said the Home Office had ignored or manipulated research on crime.

A Home Office spokesman said: "We do not recognise this report's findings."

Bad news 'buried'

The report, produced by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at Kings College in London, also claims the government is failing to live up to its promise of providing evidence-based policies.

Professor Reece Walters, who co-authored the report, said: "Home Office suppression of criminological research that contradicts ministerial policy and opinion is a feature of this arm of government.

"The Home Office remains silent on all those topics that have the potential to reflect poorly on government and is not an institution that represents the British public."

The Home Office has resorted to fixing both the process and publication of research to meet the political needs of the time Professor Tim Hope Former Home Office researcher

The report claims former Home Secretary John Reid paused research on gun crime in 2007 with the aim of "burying bad news".

It says that the research, conducted by Chris Lewis at Portsmouth University, was poised to reveal the ease with which criminals could access firearms in Britain.

The authors say: "If the pause was a manoeuvre to block research damning the government, then it was an overt act of suppression and cover-up.

'Proper scrutiny'

"If it was an action taken to improve the internal functioning of the Home Office Research Development and Statistics Directorate (RDS) then it was a declaration of inefficiency, or indeed, incompetence."

Policy Director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, Will McMahon, said the report raised "important questions" about the transparency of government funded crime research and the need for mechanisms to ensure that research funded by the tax payer is open to proper scrutiny.

Professor Tim Hope, who has conducted research for the Home Office in the past, said: "Having placed such a premium on evidence based policy the government has failed to live up to that promise. It has resorted to fixing both the process and publication of Home Office research publication to meet the political needs of the time."

The Home Office spokesman said: "Home Office-funded research on crime is carried out to the highest scientific standards and is subject to rigorous independent and external peer review."

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