Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 April 2013
899. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the controls which exist in An Garda Síochána to ensure that all reported crimes are captured for statistical purposes by the Central Statistics Office. [16594/13]
View answer900. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the way a member of the public who has reported a crime to An Garda Síochána can be confident that the crime has been captured for statistical purposes by the Central Statistics Office. [16595/13]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 899 and 900 together.
The Garda Síochána Act 2005 makes provision for the compilation and publication of crime statistics by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), as the national statistical agency, and the CSO has established a dedicated unit for this purpose. Section 47 of the Act of 2005 places an obligation on An Garda Síochána to provide statistical data concerning crime to the CSO. In this regard, I am informed by the Garda authorities that the relevant data from the Garda PULSE system is electronically transferred to the CSO at regular intervals.
The General Crime Counting Rules are published by the CSO on www.cso.ie as Technical Notes in the Background Information section in each of its Quarterly Recorded Crime Reports. These notes explain when a crime is captured on PULSE.
I am also informed that supervisory ranks within An Garda Síochána review all incidents recorded on PULSE to ensure that the correct crime classification is recorded. Further to this supervision, the Garda Information Service Centre (GISC), the central authority for recording crime incidents on PULSE, also monitors and reviews PULSE information to ensure the crime classification is correct.
