Official Statistics

Crime against businesses: headline findings from the 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey

Updated 28 November 2023

Applies to England and Wales

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1. Introduction

This is the first release of data from the 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey (CVS), which examines the extent of crime against businesses in England and Wales. The CVS was previously run in 1994, 2002 and 2012, and is planned to be repeated in 2014.

The 2013 CVS focused on premises in four industry sectors defined by the UK Standard Industrial Classification 2007 (SIC). These were sections A (agriculture, forestry and fishing), G (wholesale and retail trade), I (accommodation and food services activities) and R (arts, entertainment and recreation). Between them, these four sectors account for just over one-third of all business premises in England and Wales.

Two of the four sectors included in the 2013 survey were also included in the 2012 survey. This has allowed comparisons with 2012 for the wholesale and retail and the accommodation and food sectors, while enabling a broader understanding of the types of crimes that affect other business sectors by including the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector and the arts, entertainment and recreation sector for the first time. These decisions were made following discussions with the CVS Steering Group and in response to user needs.

As the development of the methodology and coverage of the CVS continues, results presented in this release comparing data from different survey years should be treated with caution due to the small sample size of the survey. All sectors have small sample sizes and, as such, have wide confidence intervals. In order to determine real changes in the business population, there would need to be large changes in estimates. It is therefore likely that true trends will only become apparent over the longer term.

This release covers the following topics:

• extent of crime against business premises for the core CVS crime types:
  • burglary
  • vandalism
  • vehicle-related theft
  • robbery
  • assaults and threats
  • theft
  • fraud
• online crime
• metal and fuel theft; chemical and livestock theft
• organised crime
• reporting of incidents to the police
• methodology of the 2013 CVS

The dates of forthcoming publications are pre-announced and can be found via the UK National Statistics Publication Hub.

In addition to this release, there will be a release of detailed findings from the 2013 CVS, published by the Home Office in summer 2014.

For further information about the Commercial Victimisation Survey please email crimestats@homeoffice.gov.uk.

2. Crime against wholesale and retail premises

2.1 Introduction

Respondents to the 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey (CVS) from premises in the wholesale and retail sector were asked if the business at their current premises had experienced any of a range of crime types in the 12 months prior to interview and, if so, how many incidents of crime had been experienced. In addition, the 2013 CVS also collected information on other crime types, such as online crime and metal theft, and reporting rates. These, alongside comparisons with 2002 and 2012 figures, are presented here.

Results for all CVS sectors, including the wholesale and retail sector, are presented in Section 5, ‘Crime against business premises 2012 and 2013 CVS’.

2.2 Key facts

Over half of crimes experienced by retailers in 2013 were thefts by customers.

Of the 5.9 million incidents of crime experienced by the wholesale and retail sector, 55 per cent were theft by customers (3.3 million incidents), i.e. shoplifting.

The overall fall in crime between 2012 and 2013 in this sector was not statistically significant.

The number of incidents experienced by this sector according to the 2013 CVS was lower (5.9 million) than for the 2012 CVS (7.7 million), however the difference is not statistically significant and so it is not possible to say whether there has been a real fall (see note 1 at the end of this section).

However, there was a fall in the proportion of premises experiencing crime in this sector.

The proportion of wholesale and retail premises that were victimised has fallen from 53 per cent in 2012 to 45 per cent in 2013, a statistically significant decrease.

Large retailers experienced higher crime rates than smaller retailers.

Those premises with 50 or more employees had a higher rate of crime (177,699 incidents per 1,000 premises) than those with fewer than 50 (12,530 incidents per 1,000 premises).

2.3 Data tables

Figures on the number of incidents, incidents per 1,000 premises, number of victims and proportion of premises that experienced crime by business size for the wholesale and retail sector, can be found in the 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey headline figures tables.

2.4 Extent of crime against wholesale and retail premises

The estimates presented here are based on interviews with respondents at 935 wholesale and retail sector premises. Data are then weighted to ensure that the sample is representative of businesses in this sector in England and Wales as a whole.

As shown in Table 1, wholesale and retail premises experienced 5.9 million crimes in the year prior to interview. Of these, four out of five incidents were thefts and, specifically, over half (55%) of the 5.9 million incidents were due to theft by customers (3.3 million incidents). This is a similar proportion to 2012 when theft by customers accounted for 53 per cent of all incidents against wholesale and retail premises. Thefts by customers also accounted for the highest rate of all crime types against the wholesale and retail sector, with 9,484 incidents per 1,000 premises in the 12 months prior to interview.

Table 1: Experiences of crime in the last 12 months, wholesale and retail sector, 2013 CVS, England and Wales

	Number of incidents (000s)	Number of incidents of crime per 1,000 premises	Number of victims (000s of premises)	% of premises experiencing	Average number of incidents of crime experienced by each victim (premises)
All burglary (inc. attempts)	91	266	41	12	2
Vandalism	103	301	31	9	3
All vehicle-related theft	24	69	13	4	2
All robbery (inc. attempts)	167	487	13	4	12
Assaults and threats	318	928	29	8	11
All theft	4,727	13,794	95	28	50
All fraud	485	1,415	36	11	13
ALL CVS CRIME	5,915	17,261	155	45	38

Source: Home Office, 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey headline figures tables.

Wholesale and retail premises experienced a relatively high level of victimisation with almost half (45%) of premises experiencing a crime in the 12 months prior to interview. Around one-fifth (21%) of premises experienced theft by customers (see note 2 at the end of this section) and 9 per cent experienced vandalism, which was the second most common crime experienced by this sector.

Premises in the wholesale and retail sector experienced high rates of repeat victimisation, with each victim in this sector experiencing an average of 38 incidents in the last year. Thefts were associated with the highest rates of repeat victimisation with each theft victim experiencing an average of 50 incidents of this crime type in the last year.

As previously shown by the 2012 CVS, rates of crime (i.e. number of incidents per 1,000 premises) generally increased with the number of employees at the premises. Those in premises with 50 or more employees had a higher rate of crime than those with fewer than 50 (see Figure 1). This difference was driven by higher rates of theft for those premises with 50 or more employees (from 3,930 incidents per 1,000 premises with fewer than 10 employees to 143,001 incidents per 1,000 premises with 50 or more employees) and fraud (from 835 incidents per 1,000 premises with fewer than 10 employees to 18,466 per 1,000 premises with 50 or more employees).

Figure 1: Number of incidents of crime per 1,000 premises experienced by the wholesale and retail sector in the last 12 months, by number of employees at premises, 2013 CVS

Chart notes:

Source: Home Office, 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey headline figures tables.

By combining results for the smallest premises, as in Table 2 below, it is clear that larger premises were at increased risk of both thefts and fraud, when compared with premises with less than 50 employees.

Table 2: Number of incidents per 1,000 premises for most common crime types, by premises size, wholesale and retail sector, 2013 CVS, England and Wales

	All theft	All fraud	ALL CVS CRIME
0 to 49 employees	9,985	913	12,530
50+ employees	143,001	18,466	177,699
All business sizes	13,794	1,415	17,261

2.5 Other results from the survey

Online crime

Respondents from this sector who used computers at their premises were asked about their business’ experience of the following types of online crime:

• hacking: having a computer system accessed without permission
• online theft of money: having money stolen electronically (for example, through online banking)
• phishing: having money stolen after responding to fraudulent messages or being redirected to fake websites
• online theft of information: having confidential information stolen electronically (such as staff or customer data)
• website vandalism: having a website defaced, damaged or taken down
• viruses: having computers infected with files or programmes intended to cause harm

The 2013 CVS estimates there were 234,000 incidents of online crime against businesses in the wholesale and retail sector in the 12 months prior to interview. The most commonly experienced online crimes were computer viruses, with 214,000 incidents in the year prior to interview, making up 91 per cent of all incidents of online crime against this sector.

Around eight per cent of all wholesale and retail premises experienced at least one type of online crime in the last year, with seven per cent experiencing a virus and two per cent experiencing hacking in the 12 months prior to interview. Victimisation of the other types of online crime asked about was less widespread.

When considering levels of online crime it should be noted that not all business premises use computers and so cannot become victims of online crime. Only those respondents from this sector who used computers at their premises were asked about their business’ experience of online crime. Overall, computers were used by more than 5 out of 6 (84%) of premises in the wholesale and retail sector. Incidents of online crime are not included in the overall count of CVS crime as these questions are only asked of half the sample and there is a risk of double-counting with other crime types, such as theft or fraud.

Although described here as crimes, it is worth noting that not all of these incidents would be recorded as a crime by the police. Whether receiving a phishing email or being infected by virus is counted under police recorded crime depends on whether the incident was targeted at a specific victim, or any financial loss was incurred, as per the Home Office Counting Rules.

Reporting rates

The 2013 CVS asked those respondents who had experienced crime in the past year whether the police came to know about the most recent incident of each crime type experienced.

Where sample sizes were large enough to look at reporting rates for the wholesale and retail sector, the CVS showed that reporting rates varied considerably by the type of offence. Estimates show that incidents of burglary were well reported with around 82 per cent of incidents of burglary with entry and 66 per cent of incidents of attempted burglary being reported to police for this sector, as shown in Figure 2 below. It is likely that high reporting rates for these crime types are related to the need for victims to obtain a crime reference number from the police in order to make an insurance claim.

Figure 2: Proportion of incidents experienced by premises in the wholesale and retail sector reported to the police, for selected crime types, 2013 CVS

Chart notes:

Source: Home Office, 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey headline figures tables.

Figure 2 also shows that reporting rates were comparatively low for crimes such as theft by employees (where 31 per cent of the most recent incidents were reported to the police). Around a third of the most recent incidents of thefts by unknown persons (33%), vandalism (35%) and assaults and threats (36%) were reported to police.

Comparison with 2012

Premises from the wholesale and retail sector were included in the 1994, 2002, 2012 and 2013 Commercial Victimisation Surveys. However, due to differences in the how this sector is classified under the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC), and changes to the methodology between surveys, estimates for this sector from the 2013 CVS can only be directly compared with the 2012 survey.

The 2013 CVS shows there were 5.9 million incidents of crime experienced by premises in the wholesale and retail sector in the year prior to interview. This compares with 7.7 million incidents shown by the 2012 survey, however the difference is not statistically significant meaning it is difficult to make any conclusions on the real change between the two years. Given the relatively small sample size, estimates will be prone to fluctuations making it difficult to establish a real trend in either direction, especially given that there are currently only two data points. The situation will become clearer once more data becomes available from future surveys. (See note 3 on the sample size of the CVS at the end of this section).

The largest statistically significant decrease between 2012 and 2013 was for fraud by employees, down from 242 incidents per 1,000 premises to 33 per 1,000 premises. Thefts by employees (down from 643 incidents per 1,000 premises to 372 incidents per 1,000 premises) and thefts by customers (10,445 to 9,484 incidents per 1,000 premises) were also lower in 2013 compared with 2012, however these differences were not found to be statistically significant.

Although there were no statistically significant increases between the 2012 and 2013 surveys, the decreases described above were balanced by increases in other types of fraud and thefts:

• Fraud by unknown persons increased from 388 incidents per 1,000 premises in 2012 to 823 per 1,000 premises in 2013
• Thefts by unknown persons increased from 139 incidents per 1,000 premises in 2012 to 234 incidents per 1,000 premises in 2013.

These findings are reflected in Figure 3 below, for the combined crime types (for example, all fraud).

Figure 3: Number of incidents of crime per 1,000 premises experienced by wholesale and retail premises in the last 12 months, with associated 95% confidence intervals, 2012 and 2013 CVS

Chart notes:

Note: Bars on chart represent 95% confidence intervals.
Source: Home Office, 2012 and 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey CI and comparison tables.

The proportion of wholesale and retail premises which were victimised has fallen from 53 per cent in 2012 to 45 per cent in 2013, with around 51,000 fewer premises being a victim of crime in 2013 than in 2012. The largest decreases in victimisation rates were for vandalism (down from 16 per cent to 9 per cent of premises) and theft by unknown persons (down from 13 per cent to 7 per cent). All of these differences were found to be statistically significant.

The proportions of incidents reported to police for the most prevalent crime types have remained at a similar level for this sector when comparing 2012 and 2013 figures, with no statistically significant difference in estimates between the two surveys, as shown in Table 3.

Table 3: Proportion of most recent incidents reported to police, by crime type, 2012 and 2013 CVS, England and Wales

Wholesale and retail premises
	2012		2013		Statistically significant difference
	%	Unweighted base	%	Unweighted base
All burglary (inc. attempts)
Burglary with entry	87	92	82	83
Attempted burglary	62	66	66	61
Vandalism	46	180	35	96
All vehicle-related theft
Theft of vehicles	-	9	-	9
Theft from vehicles	62	50	-	37
All robbery (inc. attempts)	-	49	-	46
Assaults and threats	29	142	36	110
All theft
Thefts by customers	41	274	42	237
Thefts by employees	28	84	31	65
Thefts by others	-	25	-	27
Thefts by unknown persons	26	171	33	83
All fraud
Fraud by employees	-	34	-	24
Fraud by others	42	85	59	72
Fraud by unknown persons	-	49	-	43
Online crime	-	33	-	31

Chart notes:

1. It is not possible to show percentages for combined crime groups (e.g. all burglary, all theft) as the questions on reporting are asked only of the most recent incident experienced in the last 12 months and this cannot be identified across these groups.
   Source: Home Office, 2012 and 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey CI and comparison tables.

Figures on the number of incidents, incidents per 1,000 premises, number of victims and proportion of premises that experienced crime by business size for the wholesale and retail sector estimated from the 2012 and 2013 CVS, can be found in the 2012 and 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey CI and comparison tables.

Comparison with 2002

A comparison between the wholesale and retail sector in 2002 and 2012 was carried out for the Crime against businesses: Detailed findings from the 2012 Commercial Victimisation Survey report, published in June 2013. Analysis was based on a subset of the 2012 CVS data in order to make it directly comparable with the 2002 dataset (see the report for more details). The analysis showed there were around 14.5 million fewer crimes against wholesale and retail business premises in 2012 than in 2002 (down from around 21.5 million to around 7 million).

Comparison with other sources

Similar to the CVS results, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) Retail Crime Survey 2013 results show that theft by customers made up the majority of crime against retailers (82%) and fraud accounted for the second highest proportion of all retail crimes, with 16 per cent of all incidents attributed to this crime type. This reflects the CVS finding that the most common crime types experienced by the wholesale and retail sector are thefts and frauds.

However, while there are similarities between the CVS and BRC results in terms of the crime types affecting the sector, the trend in the number of incidents and the magnitude of crimes against this sector differ between the CVS and other sources of crime figures. This is due to differences in coverage and methodology between sources, which result in different, yet complementary, perspectives on crimes against businesses.

According to the BRC survey, customer theft has increased in the past year from 612,819 incidents in 2011 to 2012 to 631,391 in 2012 to 2013. An increase is shoplifting offences is also seen in the latest police recorded crime statistics published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). These show that the number of offences rose from 302,245 offences in the year to September 2012 to 313,693 offences in the year to September 2013, an increase of 4 per cent. However, the increase in the number of offences recorded by the police could be due to an increase in the proportion of shoplifting incidents that come to the attention of police, or changes to police recording practices.

CVS results are based on wholesalers as well as retailers, whereas the BRC survey covers only retailers. In addition, whereas the CVS is sampled at premises level, the BRC samples respondents at enterprise level and so differences may be due to incidents not being reported to head offices (for those retailers with head offices), or differences in recording practices at the premises and enterprise level. Therefore, when comparing results of the BRC survey with the CVS, users should bear in mind differences in methodology and coverage between the two surveys.

In addition, victims captured in the CVS are only asked if they reported their most recent incident to the police, not all incidents. Therefore, results could be subject to recall error, where respondents recall the most prominent (rather than most recent) incident which could also push up the figures. It is also possible that some CVS victims may say they report to the police but actually reported to their internal security, for example.

Further findings

Overall estimates for all of the CVS sectors combined, including for online crime, metal theft and reporting rates are available in the Crime against business premises 2012 and 2013 CVS section.

Section notes:

1. The sample size of this sector is relatively small and, as such, any comparison of estimates between 2012 and 2013 should be treated with caution.
2. Theft by customers is a subset of all theft.
3. The CVS has a small sample size relative to other crime surveys. For example, the Crime Survey for England and Wales 2012/13 estimates were based on interviews with 34,880 adults. Estimates for the 2013 CVS are based on a total of 4,041 interviews; 1,133 of which were with the wholesale and retail sector.

3. Crime against accommodation and food premises

3.1 Introduction

Respondents to the 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey (CVS) in the accommodation and food sector were asked if the business at their current premises had experienced any of a range of crime types in the 12 months prior to interview and, if so, how many incidents of crime had been experienced. In addition, the CVS also collected information on other crime types such as online crime and metal theft as well as organised crime and reporting rates. Overall results for premises in the accommodation and food sector are presented here, together with reporting rates and a comparison between the 2012 and 2013 CVS results for this sector.

Results for metal theft, fuel theft and organised crime for all CVS sectors combined, including the accommodation and food sector, are presented in the Crime against business premises 2012 and 2013 CVS section.

3.2 Key facts

Assaults and threats were the most common crime type against this sector in 2013.

Overall, there were 575,000 crimes against accommodation and food premises in the last year. Of these, 42 per cent (240,000 incidents) were assaults and threats.

Crime against the accommodation and food sector fell between 2012 and 2013.

The number of incidents experienced by this sector according to the 2013 CVS was lower (575,000) than for the 2012 CVS (985,000) and was driven by a large fall in the number of thefts.

Evidence to suggest that repeat victimisation fell between 2012 and 2013.

Despite a fall in the number of crimes during this period, a similar proportion of premises in the accommodation and food sector had experienced at least one incident of crime in each year (43% in 2012 and 42% in 2013).

Larger premises experienced higher rates of crime than smaller premises.

The rate of crime against premises with 50 or more employees was 14,533 incidents per 1,000 premises compared with 4,241 per 1,000 premises experienced by premises with fewer than 50 employees.

3.3 Data tables

Figures on the number of incidents, incidents per 1,000 premises, number of victims and proportion of premises that experienced crime by business size for the accommodation and food sector, can be found in the 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey headline figures tables.

3.4 Extent of crime against accommodation and food premises

The accommodation and food sector includes businesses such as hotels, restaurants, take-away food shops and licensed clubs, pubs and bars. The estimates presented here are based on interviews with respondents at 1,133 accommodation and food sector premises. Data are then weighted to ensure that the sample is representative of businesses in this sector in England and Wales as a whole.

Respondents to the 2013 CVS were asked if the business at their current premises had experienced any of a range of crime types in the 12 months prior to interview and, if so, how many incidents of crime had been experienced.

There were 575,000 crimes against accommodation and food premises in the last year, and 42 per cent of premises in the sector had experienced at least one incident of crime (of any type) in this period (see Table 4). Each victim in the accommodation and food sector had experienced an average of 11 incidents in the previous 12 months.

Table 4: Experiences of crime in the last 12 months, accommodation and food sector, 2013 CVS, England and Wales

	Number of incidents (000s)	Number of incidents per 1,000 premises	Number of victims (000s of premises)	% of premises experiencing	Average number of incidents per victim (premises)
All burglary (inc. attempts)	25	201	15	12	2
Vandalism	115	913	20	16	6
All vehicle-related theft	3	23	1	1	2
All robbery (inc. attempts)	7	58	3	2	3
Assaults and threats	240	1,904	19	15	13
All theft	143	1,137	21	17	7
All fraud	41	329	10	8	4
ALL CVS CRIME	575	4,565	53	42	11

Source: Home Office, 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey headline figures tables.

Assaults and threats were the most common crime type, making up 42 per cent of all incidents against this sector (240,000 incidents). Fifteen per cent of premises in this sector had experienced at least one incident of assaults and threats. Victims of assaults and threats experienced a relatively high level of repeat victimisation, compared to victims of other crime types, with an average of 13 incidents in the 12 months prior to interview.

Seventeen per cent of premises had experienced thefts and 16 per cent had experienced vandalism with the average number of incidents experienced by victims of each of these crime types were 7 and 6 respectively.

As shown in Table 5 and Figure 4 below, larger premises experienced higher rates of crime than smaller premises. The rate of crime against premises with 50 or more employees was 14,533 incidents per 1,000 premises compared with 4,241 per 1,000 premises experienced by premises with fewer than 50 employees.

Robbery and vehicle-related theft are the exceptions here, but this is likely to be influenced by the low number of incidents of these crime types experienced by this sector.

Table 5: Number of incidents of crime per 1,000 premises, by premises size, accommodation and food sector, 2013 CVS, England and Wales

Number of incidents per 1,000 premises
	0 to 49 employees	50+ employees
All burglary (inc. attempts)	181	827
Vandalism	883	1,830
All vehicle-related theft	23	9
All robbery (inc. attempts)	58	58
Assaults and threats	1,705	8,007
All theft	1,082	2,831
All fraud	309	971
ALL CVS CRIME	4,241	14,533

Source: Home Office, 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey headline figures tables.

This difference in rates by premises size appears to be driven by higher rates of assaults and threats, theft and vandalism between the premises with fewer than 10 employees and those with 10 to 49 employees (Figure 4). The rates of assaults and threats were also much higher for premises with 50 or more employees than for smaller premises (3,182 incidents per 1,000 premises with 10 to 49 employees compared to 8,007 incidents per 1,000 premises with 50 or more employees).

Figure 4: Number of incidents of crime per 1,000 premises experienced by the accommodation and food sector in the last 12 months, by number of employees at premises, 2013 CVS

Chart notes:

Source: Home Office, 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey headline figures tables.

A small proportion of premises experienced robbery and vehicle-related theft regardless of premises size. However, for the other crime types, larger premises experienced more incidents per 1,000 premises than smaller premises.

3.5 Other results from the survey

Online crime

Online crime covers a range of crime types carried out over computer networks. Respondents from this sector, who used computers at their premises, were asked about their experience of various types of online crime. See the Technical Annex for the types covered in the survey and for further details of online crime.

When considering levels of online crime it should be noted that not all business premises use computers and so cannot become victims of online crime. Overall, computers were used by 70 per cent of premises in the accommodation and food sector.

The 2013 CVS shows that there were an estimated 13,000 incidents of online crime against businesses in the accommodation and food sector in the 12 months prior to interview. Computer viruses accounted for around two-thirds (64%, 8,000 incidents) of all online crime against this sector. Around 7,000 premises in this sector had experienced one or more incidents of online crime, equivalent to 6 per cent of all accommodation and food premises.

Reporting rates

The CVS asked those respondents in the accommodation and food sector who had experienced crime in the past year whether the police came to know about the most recent incident of each crime type experienced.

Where base sizes were large enough to look at reporting rates for the wholesale and retail sector, the CVS showed that reporting rates varied considerably by the type of offence. For accommodation and food premises, incidents of burglary with entry were by far the most likely to be police (81 per cent were reported to the police). Around half (46%) of incidents of assaults and threats, the most common crime type experienced by the sector, were reported to police.

Reporting rates were lower for crimes such as thefts (where 20 per cent of the most recent incidents of thefts by unknown persons, 24 per cent of thefts by employees and 29 per cent of thefts by customers were reported to the police) and vandalism (36%), as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5: Proportion of incidents experienced by premises in the accommodation and food sector reported to the police, for selected crime types, 2013 CVS

Chart notes:

Source: Home Office, 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey headline figures tables.

Note that, as small numbers of premises experienced certain crime types (for example, fraud by employees) it is not possible to provide estimates for all types of crime.

Comparison with 2012

Premises from the accommodation and food sector were included in both the 2012 and 2013 surveys. Therefore it is possible to make comparisons between the two years.

The total estimated number of crimes against the accommodation and food sector fell from 985,000 in 2012 to 575,000 in 2013. The main driver of this was a fall in the number of incidents of theft, which fell from 465,000 in 2012 to 143,000 in 2013. In particular, there were large falls in the number of thefts by employees (from 184,000 to 29,000) and thefts by unknown persons (from 117,000 to 15,000).

The rate of crime against the accommodation and food sector also fell between 2012 and 2013, from 7,361 incidents per 1,000 premises to 4,565 per 1,000 premises. In 2012, thefts were the most common crime type experienced by the accommodation and food sector (3,471 incidents per 1,000 premises). However, the large fall in thefts between 2012 and 2013 meant that assaults and threats became the most common crime type experienced by the sector in 2013 (1,904 incidents per 1,000 premises). Premises experienced a similar rate of incidents of assaults and threats in both years, as shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6: Number of incidents of crime per 1,000 premises experienced by the accommodation and food sector in the last 12 months, with associated 95% confidence intervals, 2012 and 2013

Chart notes:

Note: Bars on chart represent 95% confidence intervals.
Source: Home Office, 2012 and 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey CI and comparison tables.

Although the rate of overall crime decreased, the proportion of premises experiencing crime in the accommodation and food sector remained similar between 2012 and 2013 (43% and 42% respectively). As the prevalence rate was relatively similar across most crime types, this suggests that the decrease in crime is due to a reduction in repeat victimisation. For example, although the number of incidents of theft decreased between 2012 and 2013, the proportion of premises that experienced theft remained the same in both years (17%).

Given the relatively small sample size, estimates will be prone to fluctuations and, as such, any comparison of estimates between 2012 and 2013 should be treated with caution, especially given that there are currently only two data points.
(See note 4 on the sample size of the CVS at the end of this section).

Further findings

Overall estimates for all of the CVS sectors combined, including for online crime, metal theft and reporting rates are available in the Crime against business premises 2012 and 2013 CVS section.

Section notes

1. The CVS has a small sample size relative to other crime surveys. For example, the Crime Survey for England and Wales 2012 to 2013 estimates were based on interviews with 34,880 adults. Estimates for the 2013 CVS are based on a total of 4,041 interviews; 1,133 of which were with the accommodation and food sector.

4. Crime against arts, entertainment and recreation premises

4.1 Introduction

Premises from the arts, entertainment and recreation sector were covered by the Commercial Victimisation Survey (CVS) for the first time in 2013. Respondents to the 2013 CVS from this sector were asked if the business at their current premises had experienced any of a range of crime types in the 12 months prior to interview and, if so, how many incidents of crime had been experienced. In addition, the CVS also collected information on other crime types such as online crime, metal theft and organised crime.

Results for metal theft, fuel theft and organised crime for all CVS sectors combined, including the arts, entertainment and recreation sector, are presented in the Crime against business premises 2012 and 2013 CVS section.

4.2 Key facts

Almost half of premises in the arts, entertainment and recreation sector had experienced crime in 2013.

Forty-five per cent of recreation premises had experienced at least one incident of crime in the 12 months prior to interview and overall there were 196,000 crimes against this sector.

Theft was the most common crime type experienced.

Thefts made up 28 per cent of all incidents against the arts, entertainment and recreation sector. Vandalism and assaults and threats each made up 23 per cent and 22 per cent of all incidents respectively. However, the pervasiveness of each of these crime types, rather than one clearly most common type, perhaps reflects the diversity of business types in this sector.

Larger premises experienced higher rates of crime than smaller premises.

The rate of crime against premises with 50 or more employees (16,144 incidents per 1,000 premises) was around four times the rate experienced by premises with fewer than 50 employees (4,071 per 1,000 premises).

4.3 Data tables

Figures on the number of incidents, incidents per 1,000 premises, number of victims and proportion of premises that experienced crime by business size for the arts, entertainment and recreation sector can be found in the 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey headline figures tables.

4.4 Extent of crime against arts, entertainment and recreation premises

The arts, entertainment and recreation sector (hereafter referred to as the ‘recreation’ sector) includes a wide range of businesses such as sporting facilities, gyms, gambling or betting facilities and theatres. The estimates presented here are based on interviews with respondents at 888 premises. Data are then weighted to ensure that the sample is representative of businesses in this sector in England and Wales as a whole.

Respondents to the 2013 CVS in the recreation sector were asked if the business at their current premises had experienced any of a range of crime types in the 12 months prior to interview and, if so, how many incidents of crime had been experienced.

As shown in Table 6, there were 196,000 crimes against recreation premises in the last year, equivalent to 4,660 incidents of crime per 1,000 premises. Thefts were the most common crime type making up 28 per cent of all incidents against this sector (55,000 incidents) followed by vandalism and assaults and threats which made up 23 per cent (45,000 incidents) and 22 per cent (44,000 incidents) respectively. As the range of business types in this sector is particularly diverse it is perhaps not surprising that no individual crime type stands out as the most common.

Table 6: Experiences of crime in the last 12 months, arts, entertainment and recreation sector, 2013 CVS, England and Wales

	Number of incidents (000s)	Number of incidents per 1,000 premises	Number of victims (000s of premises)	% of premises experiencing	Average number of incidents per victim (premises)
All burglary (inc. attempts)	27	633	7	16	4
Vandalism	45	1,076	8	20	5
All vehicle-related theft	1	17	1	1	1
All robbery (inc. attempts)	1	13	0	1	2
Assaults and threats	44	1,043	5	13	8
All theft	55	1,305	7	18	7
All fraud	24	572	3	7	8
ALL CVS CRIME	196	4,660	19	45	10

Unweighted base: 888 premises
Source: Home Office, 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey headline figures tables.

Almost half (45%) of premises in the recreation sector had experienced at least one incident of crime in the 12 months prior to interview and, on average, each victim of crime had experienced 10 incidents during this period. One-in-five premises (20%) had experienced vandalism and a similar proportion (18%) had experienced theft (Table 6). Victims of each type experienced an average of five incidents of vandalism and seven of theft. Thirteen per cent of premises had experienced assaults and threats, with an average of 8 incidents per victimised premises.

The rates of crime against recreation premises increased with the number of employees, with those premises with 50 or more employees having a far greater rate of crime than those with fewer than 50, as shown in Table 7 and Figure 7.

Table 7: Number of incidents of crime per 1,000 premises, by premises size, arts, entertainment and recreation sector, 2013 CVS, England and Wales

Number of incidents per 1,000 premises
	0 to 49 employees	50+ employees
All burglary (inc. attempts)	579	1,682
Vandalism	1,044	1,700
All vehicle-related theft	17	33
All robbery (inc. attempts)	11	54
Assaults and threats	807	5,644
All theft	1,148	4,365
All fraud	465	2,666
ALL CVS CRIME	4,071	16,144

The difference in rates by premises size were driven by a much higher rate of assaults and threats for premises with 50 or more employees (5,644 incidents per 1,000 premises) compared with those with 10 to 49 employees (1,095 incidents per 1,000 premises) and fewer than 10 employees (741 incidents per 1,000 premises; see Figure 7). The rates of theft and fraud were also much higher for premises with 50 or more employees than for smaller premises.

Figure 7: Number of incidents of crime per 1,000 premises experienced by the arts, entertainment and recreation sector in the last 12 months, by number of employees at premises, 2013 CVS

Chart notes:

Source: Home Office, 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey headline figures tables.

The proportion of premises experiencing crime also increased with business size. For example, 15 per cent of premises with fewer than 10 employees had experienced theft, compared with 23 per cent of premises with 10 to 49 employees and 34 per cent of premises with 50 or more employees.

Online crime

Online crime covers a range of crime types carried out over computer networks. Respondents from this sector who used computers at their premises were asked about their experience of various types of online crime. See the Technical Annex for the types covered in the survey and for further details of online crime.

When considering levels of online crime it should be noted that not all business premises use computers and so cannot become victims of online crime. Overall, computers were used by 93 per cent of premises in the recreation sector.

The 2013 CVS shows that there were an estimated 12,000 incidents of online crime against businesses in the recreation sector in the 12 months prior to interview. Viruses accounted for around a half (51%) of all online crime against this sector.

Around 7,000 premises in the recreation sector had experienced one or more incidents of online crime, which equated to around 1-in-6 premises in this sector (16%).

Further findings

Overall estimates for all of the CVS sectors combined, including for online crime, metal theft and reporting rates are available in the Crime against business premises 2012 and 2013 CVS section.

As this sector was only introduced to the CVS in 2013, it is not possible to make comparisons with previous years for this sector.

5. Crime against agriculture, forestry and fishing premises

5.1 Introduction

Premises from the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector were covered by the Commercial Victimisation Survey (CVS) for the first time in 2013. Respondents to the 2013 CVS from this sector were asked if the business at their current premises had experienced any of a range of crime types in the 12 months prior to interview and, if so, how many incidents of crime had been experienced. In addition, the 2013 CVS also collected information from this sector on other crime types such as metal and livestock theft.

Overall results, including levels of chemical and livestock theft, are presented here for premises in the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector. Results for metal theft, fuel theft and organised crime for all CVS sectors combined are presented in the Crime against business premises 2012 and 2013 CVS section.

5.2 Key facts

Just under a third of agriculture, forestry and fishing premises experienced crime in 2013.

There were around 130,000 crimes affecting around 30 per cent of agriculture, forestry and fishing premises in the last year.

Vandalism and theft were the most common crime types experienced in this sector.

Vandalism made up 30 per cent of incidents, while thefts made up around a quarter (26%) of all incidents against agriculture, forestry and fishing premises in 2013.

Larger premises experienced higher rates of crime than smaller premises.

The rate of crime against premises with 50 or more employees (5,308 incidents per 1,000 premises) was at least three times the rate experienced by premises with fewer than 50 employees (1,462 per 1,000 premises).

5.3 Data tables

Figures on the number of incidents, incidents per 1,000 premises, number of victims and proportion of premises that experienced crime by business size for the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector, can be found in the 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey headline figures tables.

5.4 Extent of crime against agriculture, forestry and fishing premises

The estimates presented here are based on interviews with respondents at 1,085 agriculture, forestry and fishing sector premises. Data are then weighted to ensure that the sample is representative of businesses in this sector in England and Wales as a whole.

The majority of premises interviewed from the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector describe farming as the main activity at the premises. Of the 861 farming premises, around half farmed animals, a quarter were crop farmers and a further quarter farmed both animals and crops.

As shown in Table 8, there were around 130,000 crimes against agriculture premises in the last year. Just under a third (30%) of these were incidents of vandalism and a quarter were incidents of theft.

Table 8: Experiences of crime in the last 12 months, agriculture, forestry and fishing sector, 2013 CVS, England and Wales

	Number of incidents (000s)	Number of incidents per 1,000 premises	Number of victims (000s of premises)	% of premises experiencing	Average number of incidents per victim (premises)
All burglary (inc. attempts)	26	287	13	15	2
Vandalism	40	443	9	10	4
All vehicle-related theft	6	69	5	5	1
All robbery (inc. attempts)	1	9	0	0	3
Assaults and threats	15	163	4	4	4
All theft	35	388	8	9	4
All fraud	10	115	3	3	3
ALL CVS CRIME	133	1,475	27	30	5

Unweighted base: 1,085 premises
Source: Home Office, 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey headline figures tables.

This sector experienced relatively low rates of crime for certain crime types, for example fraud by others (27 per 1,000 premises), theft of vehicles (19 per 1,000 premises) and robbery (9 per 1,000 premises over the year).

Just under a third (30%) of agriculture premises experienced at least one incident of crime in the 12 months prior to interview. The most prevalent crime type was burglary which 15 per cent of premises experienced.

Two per cent of premises experienced theft of a vehicle. While this proportion is relatively low compared to other crime types captured by the CVS for this sector, the proportion is higher than the proportion of vehicle theft incidents experienced by households. The Crime Survey for England and Wales estimated that 0.3 per cent of households experienced theft of a vehicle in the year to September 2013. Figures for overall vehicle-related theft, which includes both theft of a vehicle and theft from vehicles, were similar for businesses in the agriculture sector and vehicle-owning households (both around 5%).

These estimates are reflected in repeat victimisation against agriculture premises, with each victim in this sector experiencing an average of 5 incidents in the previous 12 months.

As shown in Table 9, rates of crime were higher at agriculture premises with a larger number of employees. Those in premises with 50 or more employees experienced more crime than those with fewer than 50. This difference in rates by premises size appears to be driven by higher rates of burglary (1,745 per 1,000 premises) and vandalism (1,212 per 1,000 premises) for those premises with 50 or more employees.

Table 9: Number of incidents of crime per 1,000 premises, by premises size, agriculture, forestry and fishing sector, 2013 CVS, England and Wales

Number of incidents per 1,000 premises
	0 to 49 employees	50+ employees
All burglary (inc. attempts)	282	1,745
Vandalism	441	1,212
All vehicle-related theft	67	623
All robbery (inc. attempts)	9	16
Assaults and threats	163	209
All theft	385	1,150
All fraud	114	353
ALL CVS CRIME	1,462	5,308

Premises with less than 10 employees that had experienced crime in the last year were more likely to have experienced vandalism (432 per 1,000 premises) or theft (343 per 1,000 premises) than other crime types (Figure 8).

Figure 8: Number of incidents of crime per 1,000 premises experienced by the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector in the last 12 months, by number of employees at premises, 2013 CVS

Chart notes:

Source: Home Office, 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey headline figures tables.

Chemical and livestock theft

CVS respondents in the agriculture sector only were asked whether any chemicals had been stolen from the premises in the last year. This could include theft of fertilisers or other chemicals used to treat crops or livestock that are stored on the premises. Less than one per cent of respondents from this sector had experienced chemical theft in the last 12 months.

In addition respondents, from this sector only, were asked whether livestock or animals that belong to the business at those premises had been stolen in the last year. Four per cent of respondents from premises with livestock in the agriculture sector reported they had been victims of livestock theft in the last 12 months.

Findings from National Farmers Union rural crime survey

The National Farmers Union (NFU) Mutual analysed data collected in their survey of claims experiences, combined with claims data, in order to produce their annual rural crime survey findings.

The latest findings for 2013 showed that tools, quad bikes and fuel were the most commonly targeted items, metal theft is falling and livestock theft rising, compared with findings from the 2012 survey.

Further findings

Overall estimates for all CVS sectors combined, including for online crime, metal theft and reporting rates are available in the Crime against business premises 2012 and 2013 CVS section.

As this sector was only introduced to the CVS in 2013, it is not possible to make comparisons with previous years for this sector.

6. Crime against business premises 2012 and 2013 CVS

6.1 Introduction

Results from both surveys are presented in this section, combining the four sectors surveyed in 2013 with the two sectors that were only surveyed in 2012. Therefore, the sectors covered in this section are:

• wholesale and retail (from the 2013 survey)
• accommodation and food (2013)
• arts, entertainment and recreation (2013)
• agriculture, forestry and fishing (2013)
• manufacturing (2012)
• transportation and storage (2012)

Results are combined in this way to give a broad picture of crimes as currently possible against business premises in England and Wales.

Estimates from the 2012 CVS are also available in Crime against businesses: Headline findings from the 2012 Commercial Victimisation Survey are also available online.

6.2 Key facts

Forty per cent of premises in the six CVS sectors experienced crime.

Combined estimates from the 2012 and 2013 CVS show that there were 7.3 million crimes against businesses in the six industry sectors covered by the two surveys. This compares with 8 million incidents of crime against individuals and households estimated from the Crime Survey for England and Wales between October 2012 and September 2013.

The vast majority of crimes were against wholesale and retail premises.

The 5.9 million crimes experienced by the wholesale and retail sector represent 81 per cent of all crimes against the 6 sectors.

Thefts were the most common crime.

Thefts were by far the most common type of crime experienced (5.1 million incidents), making up 70 per cent of all incidents of crime against the 6 sectors.

Agriculture and manufacturing premises experienced the lowest rates of crime.

Of the 6 sectors, the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector experienced the lowest rate of overall crime (1,475 incidents per 1,000 premises), though this was only slightly lower than that experienced by the manufacturing sector (1,500 incidents per 1,000 premises).

Repeat victimisation was highest in the wholesale and retail sector.

Of the six sectors, premises in the wholesale and retail premises experienced the highest rate of repeat victimisation, with an average of 38 incidents per victimised premises. Other sectors experienced between 5 and 15 incidents per victimised premises.

Reporting rates varied by crime type.

Incidents of burglary were well reported with around 83 per cent of incidents of burglary with entry and 58 per cent of incidents of attempted burglary being reported to police. Comparatively, reporting rates were low for crimes such as thefts by employees (30%), and online crime (11%).

6.3 Data tables

Figures on the number of incidents, incidents per 1,000 premises, number of victims and proportion of premises that experienced crime by sector and business size, can be found in the 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey headline figures tables.

6.4 Overall extent of crime

The estimates presented here are based on interviews with respondents at 4,041 premises from the 2013 survey and 1,841 premises from the 2012 survey. Data are weighted to ensure that the sample is representative of businesses in the six sectors covered by the CVS in England and Wales as a whole.

Combined estimates from the 2012 and 2013 CVS show that there were 7.3 million crimes against businesses in the 6 industry sectors covered by the 2 surveys (Table 10). This compares with 8 million incidents of crime against individuals and households estimated from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) between October 2012 and September 2013 and is lower than the number of incidents estimated from the 2012 survey alone (9.2 million).

Table 10: Experiences of crime in the last 12 months, all six CVS sectors, 2012 and 2013 CVS, England and Wales

		Number of incidents (000s)	Number of incidents of crime per 1,000 premises	Number of victims (000s)	Proportion of premises that experienced crime (%)	Average number of incidents of crime experienced by each victim (premises)	Unweighted base
2013 CVS	Wholesale and retail	5,915	17,261	155	45	38	935
2013 CVS	Accommodation and food	575	4,565	53	42	11	1,133
2013 CVS	Arts, entertainment and recreation	196	4,660	19	45	10	888
2013 CVS	Agriculture, forestry and fishing	133	1,475	27	30	5	1,085
2012 CVS	Manufacturing	164	1,500	33	30	5	962
2012 CVS	Transportation and storage	324	5,824	22	40	15	879
	# All 6 CVS sectors	7,306	9,543	309	40	24	5,882

Source: Home Office, 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey headline figures tables.

Two out of every five (40%) premises in the six sectors covered by the 2012 and 2013 CVS had experienced at least one of the main crime types covered by the survey in the 12 months prior to interview. The proportion of business premises experiencing crime in the last year is almost 3 times the proportion of households experiencing crime, with figures published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showing that 14 per cent of households experienced at least one crime in the year to September 2013.

Thefts were by far the most common type of crime experienced (5.1 million incidents), making up 70 per cent of all incidents of crime against the 6 sectors. Theft was experienced by around 1-in-5 premises (20%).

The wholesale and retail sector is by far the largest of the six sectors covered by the survey in terms of the number of premises in England and Wales as a whole, and therefore the overall distribution of crime is heavily influenced by patterns of crime against this sector. The 5.9 million crimes experienced by the wholesale and retail sector (in 2013) represent 81 per cent of all crimes against the 6 sectors, as shown in Figure 9 below.

Figure 9: Proportion of incidents of all CVS crime by industry sector, 2012 and 2013 CVS

Chart notes:

Source: Home Office, 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey headline figures tables.

Of the 6 sectors, the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector experienced the lowest rate of overall crime (1,475 incidents per 1,000 premises), though this was only slightly lower than that experienced by the manufacturing sector (1,500 incidents per 1,000 premises). Wholesale and retail premises experienced the highest rate of overall crime (17,261 incidents per 1,000 premises in 2013).

The high rate experienced by the wholesale and retail sector was driven mainly by a very high rate of thefts (13,794 per 1,000 premises). Discounting this crime type, the rate of crime was similar between the wholesale and retail, accommodation and food, arts, entertainment and recreation and transportation and storage sectors (Figure 10). From Figure 10 it is clear to see that overall crime for the agriculture, forestry and fishing and manufacturing sectors were lower than the other sectors and at a similar level to each other.

Figure 10: Number of incidents of crime per 1,000 premises experienced in the 12 months prior to interview, by sector, 2012 and 2013 CVS

Chart notes:

Source: Home Office, 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey headline figures tables.

The arts, entertainment and recreation sector had the highest rates of both vandalism and burglary (1,076 and 633 incidents per 1,000 premises, respectively), while the accommodation and food sector had the highest rate of assaults and threats (1,904 incidents per 1,000 premises). Perhaps unsurprisingly, out of all six CVS sectors, transportation and storage experienced the highest rate of vehicle-related theft with 506 incidents per 1,000 premises.

Taking all 6 sectors together, 13 per cent of premises had experienced at least one incident of burglary, while 12 per cent had experienced at least one incident of vandalism in the year prior to interview. The proportion of business premises experiencing these crime types in the last year is at least twice the proportion of households experiencing the same crime types. Figures published by the ONS show that 5 per cent of households experienced at least one incident of vandalism, and 2 per cent had been burgled at least once, in the year to September 2013.

Victimisation was more widespread in the wholesale and retail premises and the arts, entertainment and recreation premises (45 per cent of premises in each of these sectors had experienced crime in the year prior to interview) and less so in agriculture, forestry and fishing and manufacturing premises (30 per cent of premises in each of these sectors had experienced crime in the year prior to interview).

Premises which were victims of crime each experienced an average of 24 incidents of crime in the 12 months prior to interview. This ranged from an average of 5 incidents in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors to 38 in the wholesale and retail sector.

The highest rate of repeat victimisation was for thefts by customers, with each victim of this crime type having experienced an average of 37 incidents. This reduces to an average of 11 incidents per victim of this crime type when excluding wholesale and retail premises. Again, these patterns for the 6 sectors as a whole are likely to be heavily influenced by patterns of crime against the wholesale and retail sector.

Comparison with last year’s survey

As the 2012 and 2013 surveys have different sector combinations, it does not make sense to directly compare the overall results (i.e. results from the combined sectors) between these years. In order to make a fairer comparison between years, Table 11 shows the results for the four 2013 sectors plus the two 2012 CVS sectors not covered in 2013 against the four 2012 sectors plus the two new 2013 sectors. This helps to show the differences in sector composition between surveys and give a fairer picture of the change in crime between the two most recent surveys.

Table 11: Number of incidents of crime, by sector and survey year, 2012 and 2013 CVS

Number of incidents (000s)			England and Wales
Survey year	Sector name	2012 sectors (plus 2 from 2013 survey)	2013 sectors (plus 2 from 2012 survey)
2013 only	Arts, entertainment and recreation	196	196
2013 only	Agriculture, forestry and fishing	133	133
2012 and 2013	Wholesale and retail	7,708	5,915
2012 and 2013	Accommodation and food	985	575
2012 only	Manufacturing	164	164
2012 only	Transportation and storage	324	324
	# All 6 CVS sectors	9,510	7,306

Source: Home Office, 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey headline figures tables.

The number of incidents estimated from the 2012 survey, plus those for the two new 2013 sectors, gives a total of 9.5 million incidents for the six sectors. In comparison, the number of incidents estimated from the 2013 survey, plus the manufacturing and transportation and storage sector figures from 2012, gives a total of 7.3 million, i.e. a lower number of incidents. Within these two figures, the number of incidents for four of the sectors is identical in both years and therefore the difference is entirely due to changes in the wholesale and retail sector and the accommodation and food sectors between 2012 and 2013.

The fall in crime captured by the CVS is therefore driven by the fall in number of incidents of crime experienced by the wholesale and retail sector (from 7.7 million incidents in 2012 to 5.9 million in 2013) and the fall in the number of incidents experienced by the accommodation and food sector (from 985,000 incidents in 2012 to 575,000 in 2013). As previously discussed in the wholesale and retail section and the accommodation and food section, estimates are prone to fluctuations and it is particularly difficult to establish real trends given that we currently only have two data points in the time series. Therefore these results must be treated with caution.

6.5 Other results from the survey

Online crime

Online crime covers a range of crime types carried out over computer networks. The CVS asks respondents who used computers at their premises about their business’ experience of the following types of online crime:

• hacking: having a computer system accessed without permission
• online theft of money: having money stolen electronically (for example, through online banking)
• phishing: having money stolen after responding to fraudulent messages or being redirected to fake websites
• online theft of information: having confidential information stolen electronically (such as staff or customer data)
• website vandalism: having a website defaced, damaged or taken down
• viruses: having computers infected with files or programmes intended to cause harm

The online crime questions were not asked of agriculture, forestry and fishing premises as these were found to have a low proportion of computer use during the piloting stage. Therefore, the online crime results only cover five of the six CVS sectors. Also, when considering levels of online crime it should be noted that not all business premises use computers and so cannot become victims of online crime.

Overall, computers were used by 86 per cent of premises across the five sectors covered, with levels of computer use varying by sector:

• manufacturing (95%)
• transportation and storage (95%)
• arts, entertainment and recreation sectors (93%)
• wholesale and retail (84%)
• accommodation and food (70%)

Combined estimates from the 2012 and 2013 surveys show that there were an estimated 356,000 incidents of online crime against businesses in the 5 sectors in the 12 months prior to interview. The vast majority of these were computer viruses (302,000 incidents), which accounted for 85 per cent of all online crime. Overall, around 9 per cent of premises in the five sectors had experienced one or more incidents of online crime.

Figure 11 shows that there were 451 incidents of online crime per 1,000 premises across the 5 CVS sectors covered. In addition, there were 40 hacking incidents per 1,000 premises, as shown in Figure 11 below.

The low levels of other types of online crime estimated from the CVS may be because these crimes do not come to the attention of victims. For example, in the case of phishing, the offending email may be caught by spam filters, or victims may not know that their computer systems have been hacked. It may also be the case that many types of online crime are not picked up by the CVS as they do not affect businesses at the premises level. Some of these offences may be more likely to be focused on head offices or corporate websites.

Figure 11: Number of incidents of online crime per 1,000 premises across the 5 sectors, by crime type, 2012 and 2013 CVS

Chart notes:

Source: Home Office, 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey headline figures tables.

Premises in the arts, entertainment and recreation sector were the most likely to have experienced online crime. However, these figures are based on a small number of victims so may be prone to fluctuations in individual years.

Accommodation and food premises had the lowest rate of online crime, across the five CVS sectors, with 99 incidents per 1,000 premises. This sector together with the arts, entertainment and recreation sector experienced the lowest number of online crime incidents in the year prior to interview (13,000 and 12,000 incidents respectively).

Incidents of online crime are not included in the overall count of CVS crime as these questions are only asked of half the sample and there is also a risk of double-counting with other crime types, such as theft or fraud.

Organised crime

Organised crime is defined as crime that involves individuals, normally working with others, committing serious crime on a continuing basis. This usually includes elements of planning, control and coordination, and benefits those involved. The motivation is often, but not always, financial gain.

To provide information on this type of crime, respondents in the 6 sectors covered by the 2012 and 2013 surveys who had experienced crime in the past year were asked whether they thought that the most recent incident of each crime type experienced was carried out by a ‘loosely knit group’, ‘an organised group of criminals’ or ‘someone working alone’. Respondent perceptions of this varied considerably by the type of crime.

In the most recent incidents of thefts of vehicles, just over a quarter (28%) of respondents thought that the offence was carried out by an organised group of criminals. Similarly, around a quarter of respondents (26%) thought an organised group of criminals committed the latest incidents of theft by others.

The crime types least likely to be thought to have been carried out by an organised group of criminals were thefts by employees (3%), assaults and threats (2%) and fraud by employees (0%) (Figure 12).

Figure 12: Proportion of incidents respondents perceived to have been carried out by an organised group of criminals across all six sectors, by crime type, 2012 and 2013 CVS

Chart notes:

Source: Home Office, 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey headline figures tables.

Figures on the proportion of incidents respondents thought were carried out by an organised group of criminals, by industry sector, can be found in Table OC2 in the 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey headline figures tables.

Metal theft

A recent Home Office publication of statistics on metal theft offences recorded by the police in England and Wales showed there were 61,349 metal theft offences recorded by the police between April 2012 and March 2013, corresponding to 2 per cent of all crime in England and Wales recorded during this period. Questions on experience of metal theft were included in the CVS to provide more information on the extent of, and trends in, this type of crime.

CVS respondents in the six sectors were asked whether any metal items had been stolen from the premises in the year prior to interview that they suspected had been taken for their scrap metal value. This could include metal goods stored on the premises, scrap metal, lead from a roof, metal pipes, or any other metal fixtures.

Respondents from premises in the manufacturing sector were most likely to suspect that they had been victims of metal theft (with 14 per cent of premises experiencing metal theft), whereas respondents from accommodation and food premises were the least likely to suspect that they had been victims of metal theft, with 5 per cent of premises experiencing this crime type, as shown in Figure 13.

Figure 13: Proportion of premises where respondents suspected they had experienced metal theft in the last 12 months, by industry sector, 2012 and 2013 CVS

Chart notes:

1. Data labels show rounded estimates.
   Source: Home Office, 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey headline figures tables.

Respondents who had experienced incidents of burglary with entry, robbery or thefts in the past year were also asked whether, in the most recent incident of that crime type, they suspected that any metal item taken was stolen for its scrap metal value. When asked about the latest incident of theft by others and theft by unknown persons, around 1 in 6 respondents believed that metal items had been taken for their scrap metal value (17% and 16% respectively). This contrasts with incidents of theft by customers in which only 1 per cent of respondents felt the theft was motivated by scrap metal value.

While these data provide more information on incidents of metal theft affecting businesses in the six sectors covered by the 2012 and 2013 CVS, other types of organisations may experience metal theft more widely. For example, thefts of lead from church roofs and thefts of telecommunications equipment are thought to account for a large volume of metal theft, but may not be covered by the survey.

Fuel theft

Questions on fuel theft were added to the CVS for the 2013 survey. Respondents were asked whether any fuel had been stolen from the premises in the last year. This could include petrol, diesel or other fuel oils that are used for business purposes and are stored on the premises.

Respondents from the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector reported the highest proportion of fuel theft of the four sectors asked, with 7 per cent of premises in this sector experiencing fuel theft in the 12 months prior to interview, as shown in Table 12.

Table 12: Proportion of premises that experienced fuel theft in the last 12 months, by industry sector, 2013 CVS

Percentages	England and Wales
	Proportion of premises experiencing fuel theft
Agriculture, forestry and fishing	7
Arts, entertainment and recreation	2
Wholesale and retail	2
Accommodation and food	1

Source: Home Office, 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey headline figures tables.

Reporting rates

The 2012 and 2013 CVS asked those respondents in the 6 sectors who had experienced an incident of crime in the past year whether the police came to know about the most recent incident of each crime type.

The CVS showed that reporting rates varied considerably by the type of offence. Of all the crime types, incidents of vehicle theft were the most likely to be reported, with a 100 per cent reporting rate according to the combined 2012 and 2013 CVS data. Incidents of burglary were also well reported with around 83 per cent of incidents of burglary with entry and 58 per cent of incidents of attempted burglary being reported to police. It is likely that, in cases of both vehicle theft and burglary, high reporting rates are related to the need for victims to obtain a crime reference number from the police in order to make an insurance claim.

Reporting rates were comparatively low for crimes such as thefts by employees (where 30 per cent of the most recent incidents were reported to the police), vandalism and fraud and theft by unknown persons (all 38 per cent). However, incidents of online crime were by far the least likely to be reported to the police (11%) (Figure 14). According to the 2012 CVS, the reporting rate for online crime was estimated to be 2 per cent. The 11 per cent for the combined 2012 and 2013 CVS data is therefore likely to be due to the change in sector composition. For example, a greater proportion of online crime in the arts, entertainment and recreation sector was reported to the police.

Figure 14: Proportion of incidents reported to the police across all six industry sectors, by crime type, 2012 and 2013 CVS

Chart notes:

Source: Home Office, 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey headline figures tables.

Victims of crime who did not report their most recent incident of crime to the police were asked about their reasons for not reporting. The most frequently mentioned reason varied by crime type. For example, for theft from vehicles, 54 per cent of victims perceived the incident to be too trivial or there was no/trivial loss incurred as a reason for not reporting the crime, compared to 12 per cent of victims of fraud by employees.

Crimes involving employees often went unreported as the business at the premises dealt with the matter internally (as cited by 40 per cent of victims of fraud by employee and 37 per cent of victims of theft by employee). For crimes involving other types of thefts or frauds, a perceived lack of police engagement was cited as the reason for not reporting the crime to the police. Forty-seven per cent of victims of burglary with entry also gave this as the reason for not reporting the crime to police.

Victims of fraud by unknown persons, who didn’t report the incident to the police, were more likely to have reported the incident to other authorities (24%) than other crime types (Figure 15).

Figure 15: Selected reasons for not reporting crime to police for selected crime types across all six industry sectors, by crime type, 2012 and 2013 CVS

Chart notes:

Source: Home Office, 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey headline figures tables.

Compared with other crime types, online crime was unusual with relatively large proportions of respondents saying they didn’t report the incident to the police having for each of the three reasons of presented in Figure 15 above. Given that the majority of incidents of online crime were computer viruses, this suggests the respondent was more focused on removing the virus and correcting the effects than on reporting to the police.

7. Technical annex

7.1 Conventions used in figures and tables

Table abbreviations

‘n/a’ indicates that the question was not applicable.

’-‘ indicates that data are not reported because the unweighted base is fewer than 50 respondents.

Unweighted base

All percentages and rates presented in the tables are based on data weighted to compensate for differential non-response and stratification of the sample design. Where tables are not based on the full number of respondents in the sample, unweighted bases are shown that represent the number of people interviewed in the specified group.

Percentages

Row or column percentages may not add to 100 per cent due to rounding.

Most tables present cell percentages where the figures refer to the proportion of business premises having the attribute discussed and the complementary percentage, to add to 100 per cent, is not shown.

A percentage may be quoted in the text for a single category that is identifiable in the tables only by summing two or more component percentages. In order to avoid rounding errors, the percentage has been recalculated for the single category and therefore may differ by one percentage point from the sum of the percentages derived from the tables.

‘No answers’ (missing values)

All analysis excludes don’t know/refusals unless otherwise specified.

7.2 Methodology

Introduction

The 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey (CVS) is the second of a new series of Home Office surveys covering crime against businesses, which began with the 2012 CVS. There are plans to repeat the survey in 2014. Prior to this, the survey was run in 1994 and 2002.

The National Statistician’s review of crime statistics recommended the Home Office continue to implement its plans for a telephone survey of businesses in order to address the significant gap in crime statistics that existed for crimes against businesses. While police recorded crime does include crimes against businesses, it does not separate these out from other crimes (other than for offences such as shoplifting which, by their nature, are against businesses) and also only includes those crimes that are reported to, and recorded by, the police. The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) is a survey of crime against households and individuals living in those households and so does not cover crime against businesses.

Key facts

• The CVS is a telephone survey in which respondents from a representative sample of business premises in England and Wales are asked about crimes experienced at their premises in the 12 months prior to interview.

• Estimates for the 2013 CVS are based on 4,041 interviews with respondents at premises in the wholesale and retail, accommodation and food, arts, entertainment and recreation, and agriculture, forestry and fishing industry sectors.

• Fieldwork was carried out between August and November 2013 and the survey achieved a response rate of 54 per cent.

Data tables

Final fieldwork figures, giving the number of interviews by sector and business size, can be found in the 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey methodology tables.

Sample and survey coverage

The 2013 CVS focused on four industry sectors defined by the UK Standard Industrial Classification 2007 (SIC). These were sectors A (agriculture, forestry and fishing), G (wholesale and retail trade), I (accommodation and food services activities) and R (arts, entertainment and recreation). Between them, these four sectors account for around a third of all business premises in England and Wales.

In addition, two of the four sectors included in the 2013 survey were also included in the 2012 survey. This has allowed comparisons with 2012 for the wholesale and retail and the accommodation and food sectors, while enabling a broader understanding of the types of crimes that affect other business sectors by including the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector and the arts, entertainment and recreation sector for the first time. These decisions were made following discussions with the CVS Steering Group and in response to user needs.

The survey was designed to measure crime at the premises rather than the enterprise level (i.e. a single outlet of a national chain would have been sampled rather than the entire business entity). As such, only crimes that were directly against the specific sampled premises were in scope. To be representative at the premises level, the sample was also designed so that multiple premises in the same enterprise could be sampled.

The sample was drawn from the Interdepartmental Business Register (IDBR), a list of UK businesses covering 99 per cent of UK economic activity which is maintained by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and widely used as a sample frame for national surveys of businesses. Companies are included on the IDBR if they are registered with (HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for VAT purposes, operate a PAYE scheme, or are registered at Companies House. In practice, the VAT registration threshold means that all companies in the UK with a turnover of taxable goods and services over £79,000 per annum were included in the sample.

The sample was stratified by size and industry sector to ensure that there were an adequate number of interviews for analysis of different sized businesses within each sector. However, as the survey was designed to produce national estimates, there was no geographic stratification and therefore the sample size is too small to produce sub-national estimates.

Fieldwork

The 2013 CVS was conducted as a series of telephone interviews with respondents between August and November 2013. Premises were first contacted to identify the appropriate respondent for the interview, which was generally the person responsible for security and crime-related issues at the premises. Respondents were then sent an ‘Experience of crime’ sheet before being contacted for interview which detailed the information that would be requested by the interviewer, allowing them time to gather and make note of required information relating to the extent of crime against their premises in advance.

Estimates for the 2013 CVS are based on a total of 4,041 interviews, with around 1,000 in each of the four sectors covered by the survey. The final main stage of the survey had an overall response rate of 54 per cent, which is considered high for a voluntary survey of businesses. Further information on response rates and reasons for non-response will be included in the forthcoming technical report on the survey to be published later in the year.

Table 13: Target and achieved number of interviews, 2013 CVS

	England and Wales
Sector	Target number of interviews	Achieved interviews
Wholesale and retail	1,000	935
Accommodation and food	1,000	1,133
Arts, entertainment and recreation	1,000	888
Agriculture, forestry and fishing	1,000	1,085
Total	4,000	4,041

Questionnaire structure

Respondents were asked whether the business at the current premises had experienced a range of crimes in the 12 months prior to interview. If so, they were then asked how many crimes of each type had been experienced in the same 12-month period. Less than five per cent of businesses had been at their current premises for less than 12 months and in these cases they were asked only about crimes experienced since they had moved to their current premises.

Respondents were also asked a number of questions about the circumstances of the crimes experienced, some of which (such as reporting the incident to the police and whether they thought the incident had been carried out by an organised group of criminals) are reported here. Where business premises had experienced more than one incident of a particular crime type in the last 12 months, they were asked about the circumstances of only the most recent incident.

As well as the range of core offences covered by the survey, the CVS questionnaire also includes a module asking about experience of online crime and another asking about crime prevention. Around half of the sample was randomly assigned to answer questions from the online crime module and the other half the crime prevention module.

Online crime covers a range of crime types carried out over computer networks. The CVS asks respondents about their experience of the following types of online crime:

• hacking: having a computer system accessed without permission
• online theft of money: having money stolen electronically (for example, through online banking)
• phishing: having money stolen after responding to fraudulent messages or being redirected to fake websites
• online theft of information: having confidential information stolen electronically (such as staff or customer data)
• website vandalism: having a website defaced, damaged or taken down
• viruses: having computers infected with files or programmes intended to cause harm

Incidents of online crime are not included in the overall count of CVS crime as these questions are only asked of half the sample and there is a risk of double-counting with other crime types, such as theft or fraud. Not all negative online incidents would be recorded as a crime. Whether receiving a phishing email or being infected by virus is counted under Police Recorded Crime depends on whether the incident was targeted at a specific victim, or any financial loss was incurred.

The low levels of other types of online crime estimated from the CVS may be because these crimes do not come to the attention of victims. For example, in the case of phishing, the offending email may be caught by spam filters, or victims may not know that their computer systems have been hacked. It may also be the case that many types of online crime are not picked up by the CVS as they do not affect businesses at the premises level. Some of these offences may be more likely to be focused on head offices or corporate websites.

Respondents were also asked about other crime-related issues at the sampled premises, such as experience of anti-social behaviour and contact with the police.

Analysis

Prior to analysis of the survey data, a number of modifications were carried out on the data. The methodology below will be reviewed against future data to assess its effect across more than one year of data.

Weighting

Data are weighted to take account of both non-response and the stratification of the original sample. Non-response is a result of either being unable to identify contact details for sampled business premises or from contacted premises being unwilling to take part in the survey. Weighting accounts for stratification by ensuring that the sample is representative of businesses in these four sectors in England and Wales as a whole.

Data cleaning

The nature of crime against businesses means that it is possible that a small number of premises may have experienced a volume of crime that has a disproportionately large effect on figures for the sample as a whole, which would make comparison of trends over time problematic. To prevent a small number of sampled premises having an excessive influence on overall figures, the data were assessed to identify any outliers. Within this, one case was identified where the numbers of crimes reported were so large that it was judged that they were very likely to be erroneous or that the respondent had misunderstood some questions (for example, they had given the number or value of items stolen rather than the number of incidents of theft). This case was removed from the dataset due to the indication of errors.

Further to this one case, the data were examined for other outlier values in terms of the number of incidents reported by a respondent. A process of incident capping is used in other crime surveys (for example, the CSEW in effect caps the number of incidents that can be experienced by a respondent at 30). However, for the CVS a more detailed approach is needed to account for the wide variation in the type of premises in the sample and the crime types covered. For example, it would be wrong to set a single cap across the whole survey as incidents of theft by a customer against a large retailer would be expected to occur much more often than incidents of burglary.

A statistical measure known as Cook’s distance was used as a measure of whether data points were outliers. A high Cook’s distance indicates that a data point has a large effect on the mean. For each crime type, any data points within a particular sector and size band that had a Cook’s distance greater than 10 and that were substantially higher than the mean number of incidents experienced by respondents in the same sector and size band (i.e. more than 30 times the square root of the mean) were identified as outliers.

Across the 4,041 remaining interviews and the 14 crime types covered by the survey (a total of 56,574 figures supplied on numbers of crimes experienced), a total of 22 figures (0.04%) were identified as outliers. These were then set to the mean number of incidents experienced by victims within the same sector and size band.

Imputation of missing data

A small number of respondents to the survey said that they did not know if their business had been a victim of a particular type of crime at all in the previous 12 months. In these cases, values were imputed as the mean number of incidents experienced by the other business premises in the same industry sector and size band. Where this was less than one, these cases were classed as non-victims for the purpose of calculating prevalence rates; where this was one or more, they were classed as victims.

Of the 56,238 responses to the number of crimes experienced, a total of 326 (0.6%) were imputed.

Interpretation of results

When interpreting the results presented in this publication, some consideration should be given to various issues around the structure of the survey and of business premises in England and Wales.

Coverage

As outlined above, the 2013 CVS focused on business premises in four industry sectors:

• wholesale and retail
• accommodation and food
• arts, entertainment and recreation
• agriculture, forestry and fishing

The latter two sectors have been included in the survey for the first time in 2013, replacing manufacturing and transportation and storage sectors from the 2012 survey. The features of these particular sectors are very different from each other and from business premises in other sectors. Therefore, the results of the survey should not be considered to be representative of crime against businesses as a whole, only of crime against the sectors surveyed.

The CVS is a premises-based survey and many businesses will operate at, or own, a number of different premises. It is important to bear this in mind when considering the results of the survey. In addition, where results are presented by premises size (measured by the number of employees at the premises), it should be remembered that this relates to the number of employees employed at that particular premises, and not in the business as a whole.

Similarly, while the CVS is intended to complement existing sources of information on crime, such as the CSEW, consideration of the methodology and coverage of the surveys means that it is not possible to combine the results from the two to obtain a ‘total’ count of crime. Differences in definitions and methodology between the two surveys mean figures are not directly comparable. In addition, as stated above, the CVS does not intend to give a full count of crime against all businesses, only against those in the sectors covered. There may also be a small amount of double counting between the two surveys, particularly in cases of robbery and assaults and threats.

Rates and numbers

Numbers of crimes are presented for premises in each sector and for different sized premises within each sector. These numbers are produced by grossing up weighted data from the survey sample to the total number of business premises in each sector and size band combination in England and Wales as a whole. Therefore, care should be taken when comparing levels of crime between sectors, or when comparing different premises sizes due to differences in the number of such premises in the country as a whole.

For example, the wholesale and retail sector is the largest of those covered by the CVS, with survey estimates grossed to around 340,000 premises in England and Wales, whereas survey estimates for the accommodation and food sector are grossed to a total of 130,000, agriculture, forestry and fishing to 90,000, arts, entertainment and recreation to 40,000 in the 2013 CVS, and manufacturing to 110,000 and transportation and storage, and accommodation and food, to 60,000 premises in the 2012 CVS. A greater number of crimes against the wholesale and retail sector would therefore be expected as it accounts for more premises than the other three 2013 sectors combined.

For this reason, when making comparisons between different types of business premises, either by sector or by size, it is better to compare the rates of crime between these premises, which control for the different number of premises in each category.

Reporting rates and organised crime

As well as rates and numbers for the main crime types covered by the CVS, figures are also presented here on reporting rates (the proportion of incidents of crime reported to the police) and organised crime. These figures are based on the most recent incident of each crime type that occurred in the last 12 months. Due to the relatively low number of premises that had experienced crimes it has not been possible to present these data by the different industry sectors or premises size.

It is also not possible to show percentages for combined crime groups (for example, all burglary, all theft) as the questions on reporting and organised crime are asked only of the most recent incident experienced and this cannot be identified across these groups. For example, where a respondent has experienced theft by a customer and theft by an employee, it is not possible to identify which of these was the most recent and therefore produce a figure for the most recent incident of theft.

Comparisons with other Commercial Victimisation Surveys

The CVS estimates are based on a representative sample of businesses in four industry sectors in England and Wales each year. The CVS uses a sample, which is a small-scale representation of the population from which it is drawn.

Any sample survey may produce estimates that differ from the figures that would have been obtained if the whole population had been interviewed. It is, however, possible to calculate a range of values around an estimate, known as the confidence interval (also referred to as margin of error) of the estimate.

The Complex Samples module of SPSS, a statistical software package, was used to generate complex standard errors, which in turn were used to calculate confidence intervals, for the estimates produced using 2012 and 2013 CVS data. These standard errors were also used, along with the incidence and prevalence rate estimates, to identify any statistically significant changes.

Formal significance testing of the differences between survey estimates between 2002 and 2012/2013 was not carried out as information on design effects was not available for the 2002 data. For 2002, a simple random sample was assumed and estimated confidence intervals calculated. For each estimate, if the confidence intervals did not overlap, statistical significance was assumed. Further results on the comparison of results for the wholesale and retail sector in 2002 and 2012 can be found in the Crime against businesses: Detailed findings from the 2012 CVS report.

Survey burden

Producers of official statistics, such as those presented in this report, are required to be compliant with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics (2009) (the Code) Principle (6) on proportionate burden, which states:

“The cost burden on data suppliers should not be excessive and should be assessed relative to the benefits arising from the use of the statistics.”

In order to comply with the Code, the Home Office is required to report the estimated costs to businesses of responding to statistical surveys such as the CVS, using a compliance cost model that is used consistently by government departments.

As the CVS is completed by businesses, the Home Office make annual estimates of the cost to these organisations of completing the survey. The total compliance cost for this survey, on businesses, is estimated to be around £24,000 per annum.

Estimates of survey compliance costs are collated and published by the ONS Survey Control Unit, for all government departments, including the Home Office. These can be found here:

• Total survey compliance costs for each Government department
• Compliance costs for individual Government surveys

Other data sources

Figures on the number of incidents, incidents per 1,000 premises, number of victims and proportion of premises that experienced crime by sector and business size, can be found in the 2013 Commercial Victimisation Survey headline figures tables.

Crime against businesses: Headline findings from the 2012 Commercial Victimisation Survey, including figures on the numbers of crimes, numbers of victims and incidence and prevalence rates, are also available online.