Levels of recorded crime have fallen sharply during the pandemic, new CSO figures show.

The number of burglary offences recorded in the year to March 2021 was 45.4% lower than a year earlier.

And there were significant falls in:

•  Theft (down 30.7%),
•  Robbery (down 26.4%), and
•  Assaults and related offences (down 13.9%) in the year to March 2021.

The number of fraud crimes rose by 13.7% in the year to March 2021, while drugs offences (+9.5%) and weapons offences (+7.6%) also increased.

A total of 10,459 offences were recorded for breaches of COVID-19 regulations in Q1 2021.

Breaches

This is a marked increase on 1,090 such offences recorded during 2020 (304 in Q2 2020, 262 in Q3 2020, 524 in Q4 2020), and reflects the introduction of a new system of Fixed Payment Notices in respect of breaches of COVID-19 regulations in December 2020.

The figure includes unpaid fines and other offences, but does not include fines which were paid.