Britain's Guardian newspaper has published findings from a wide-ranging police study, which conclude that "the surge in immigrants from eastern Europe to Britain has not fuelled a rise in crime".

The report was made at the request of the Association of Chief Police Officers and would be presented on April 17 to home secretary Jacqui Smith, the Guardian said.
Smith is due to meet with chief constables to discuss the issue.Chief constables had complained that they needed more money to deal with crime resulting from an increase of immigrants in their areas, the Guardian said.

The report concluded that offending rates among Polish, Romanian and Bulgarian communities varied little from rates in the general population.

The Guardian quoted a source close to the report as saying that "any rise has been broadly proportionate to the number of people from those communities entering the country. People are saying crime is rising because of this influx. Given one million entries, that doesn't make sense because crime is significantly down".

According to Home Office figures, crime rates in England and Wales had dropped by nine per cent in the period up to September 2007.

The report says that "resentment and misunderstanding" were to blame for public impressions about suppose high crime rates among immigrants.

The report also says that certain migrant groups may be more disposed to commit certain types of offences. As examples it cites Polish people and drink-driving and Romanians' use of children in petty robbery.

According to the Guardian, the report was primarily based on intelligence gathered by detectives as police recording codes only contain the category "white Europeans" for anyone from France to the Urals. The report said more analysis was needed.