THOUSANDS of crimes in Hampshire, including robbery, drugs and sex offences, have been resolved using a controversial policing power – in which offences do not show up on people’s criminal record.

New figures have revealed how Hampshire Police have used more than 13,000 Community Resolution (CR) orders to deal with a host of different offences since 2014.

According to the figures, this includes more than 500 drugs offences, 30 sex offences, 11 robberies.

The controversial CR orders are resolved out of court, do not appear on a criminal record or standard DBS check and do not count as a conviction.

And they’ve come under fire from MPs, including Yvette Cooper, who dubbed them as “bad for justice”.

The figures, released by the shared BBC’s Data Unit, show there were a total of 538, 272 crime outcomes in Hampshire between 2014 and 2018.

Of those, 13,440 crimes were dealt with by a Community Resolution order – the majority of which were misdemeanours and criminal damage cases.

Proportionately, CRs in Hampshire have decreased from four per cent of total outcomes in 2014 to three per cent in 2018. However, the number used more than doubled from 2016-17 to 2017-2018.

Speaking about the county statistics, Hampshire Constabulary’s Deputy Chief Constable, Sara Glen, said: “Community resolutions help police handle low-level offending proportionately.

“They can involve making amends, an apology, or education or referrals relevant to the offence. Victims’ wishes are central to our decision-making and are recorded on our documentation.

“Officers have established tools and guidance to help them to reach the right outcome and decisions are examined by force scrutiny panels, which include victim representation.

“The national strategy for out of court disposals makes clear community resolutions should not be used in serious cases. It should only be used where the offender has accepted responsibility and has no previous offending history.

“Around three per cent of crime nationwide is dealt with in this way. We are now seeing the benefits of the national strategy at a Force level.

“In Hampshire, data from the last year shows that out of more than 157,000 outcomes, 5433 were community resolutions. That is 3 per cent of our outcomes.

“We have not issued any community resolutions for rape, and 16 have been issued for other sexual offences.

“Please be reassured that we have examined each of these cases, and the majority are peer on peer incidents involving juveniles who are in relationships but are not yet at the age of consent.

“Their age is a factor in them not being able to provide consent, so we still have to record these crimes and a community resolution is appropriate in these circumstances.

“In assault cases, the majority of incidents involved minor injury, and a number involved fights between young persons.

“Our officers are professional decision makers and on a daily basis make decisions about how to achieve the best outcome, when to give a community resolution, a conditional caution or pursue a charge with our CPS. We do take victim’s wishes into account.

“Officers are making decisions about whether it is fair and proportionate to give someone a criminal record for their first minor offence, when they’ve accepted responsibility, offered to remedy the crime, is considered unlikely to reoffend, and can be given a sanction that deters further offending.

“We anticipate that the number of community resolutions used for indictable offences will further decrease as our new national strategy on out of court disposals is implemented by forces.

“Community resolutions for these few cases must be authorised by an officer of a rank not lower than Inspector and we conduct thematic reviews to ensure compliance.”

Across England and Wales, out of more than 15 million crime outcomes recorded between 2014 and 18, some 449,000 were Community Resolutions, representing three per cent of all outcomes recorded during that period.