Editing Chris Grayling (section)

====Statistics on violent crime====
Grayling came under criticism as [[Her Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition (United Kingdom)|Shadow Home Secretary]] over the Conservative Party's use of statistics on violent crime.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/lies-damn-lies-and-tory-crime-statistics-1889927.html |title=Lies, damn lies and Tory crime statistics |date=5 February 2010 |access-date=7 April 2010 | location=London | work=The Independent | first=Andy | last=McSmith}}</ref> In February 2010, the Conservative Party issued press releases to every constituency in the UK claiming that crime had "risen sharply" in the UK. They failed, however, to take into account the more rigorous system for recording crime. The chairman of the [[UK Statistics Authority]], [[Sir Michael Scholar]], said that the figures Grayling was using were "likely to mislead the public" and "likely to damage public trust in official statistics" as the way in which crime was calculated had been changed in 2002.<ref name=tele9mar10>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7402232/Full-scale-of-violent-crime-revealed.html |title=Full scale of violent crime revealed|work=The Daily Telegraph|date= 9 March 2010|access-date= 24 May 2013}}</ref>

A Conservative-commissioned report by the independent House of Commons library suggested that, depending on how figures were calculated, Grayling's claims may have been justifiable and that violent crime may have risen in the period between 1998 and 2009.<ref name=tele9mar10/> The incumbent Home Secretary, [[Alan Johnson]], called Grayling's use of crime statistics "dodgy" and said that the British Crime Survey clearly showed that violent crime had reduced by 41% over the same period.<ref name=tele9mar10/>