Criminals jump by 410,000.

THE number of active criminals in Britain has jumped by around a third to 1.6million over the past eight years, a think-tank claimed yesterday.

Educational charity Policy Exchange cited unpublished Home Office research which suggested offender numbers had risen by 410,000 since 2001.

Then it was estimated 1.19million criminals were committing an average of 58 offences a year.

Policy Exchange said the figures also identified 350,000 high-rate persistent offenders, a 200,000 rise on 2001.

With hard-core offenders estimated to cause damage worth an average of pounds 300,000 to victims and households, PE said it could cost the public around pounds 105billion over the course of their criminal careers.

But the Home Office said the figures quoted by the think-tank were no more than estimates.

They said the latest official studies showed no increase in the number of offenders.

The figures highlighted by the think-tank came from a Home Office report published in July 2008.