London violent crime linked to licensed venues goes up 24 pct

The Metropolitan Police insisted Friday that London remains one of the safest cities in the world, following figures showing a 24 percent increase in violent crime linked to licensed venues.

Data charting a rise in night time violence were obtained through a Freedom of Information request by the pub trade's main daily newspaper, the Publican's Morning Advertiser.

Although figures revealed the number of violent crimes against people in or outside pubs dropped consistently each year from 2010, the downward trend reversed in 2014 when the figure shot up 24 percent to 3,129 incidents.

The Morning Advertiser said during the first six months of 2015 there have so far been reports of 1,777 offences. Offences shown in the data included murder, wounding/grievous bodily harm, assault with injury, common assault, violence with an offensive weapon, harassment and other violence.

The newspaper said in its report that police research revealed a high proportion of crimes took place between 6 pm and 6 am at licensed venues such as pubs, nightclubs and fast-food outlets.

The British Beer and Pub Association, in the report, urged the industry not to be overly concerned with the figures, citing that London had 23,500 licensed premises. Endit