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The victim suffered only a small red mark to his skin when he was hit by the flying biscuit and it is not believed that he needed hospital treatment. But new Home Office rules about how

crime is logged meant that it was recorded by Norfolk Police as an assault causing actual bodily harm. A case when two children were playing and one brushed a stinging nettle across the

other's arm was also recorded as an ABH by the same force. The incidents were uncovered by Norfolk's Police and Crime Commissioner Stephen Bett after he investigated why there had

been a 14 per cent increase in overall crime in the county last year. He was told of the cases after he asked Norfolk chief constable Simon Bailey to give examples of incidents now classed

as violent crime as "he suspected there was more to the figures than bare statistics." Mr Bett said: "You could not make this up - it's jaw dropping. I am sure people

will find these examples of what the police are having to record as violent crime hard to believe, to say the least. "I frankly couldn't believe what I was reading. Is it any

wonder we have seen a rise in recorded violent crime in Norfolk if these types of incidents are having to be logged? "The last thing I want to do is to trivialise any incident where

there is a victim but I am struggling to see how someone being hit by a biscuit or brushed by a stinging nettle fits anyone's idea of a violent crime." The new rules for recording

crime were introduced after concerns that police forces were not properly recording offences in order to keep their crime statistics down. A report by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary

revealed that one in five of all crimes reported to police nationally - around 800,000 incidents - were not being recorded. Other incidents recorded as assaults causing ABH in Norfolk,

included a case where a young boy was given a boxing glove by his parents and was swinging it around when he hit his sibling. The same ABH crime classification was given to a case where five

members of staff at a care home were scratched by a resident. Mr Bett said the new rules about recording crime meant that each scratch was recorded as an ABH, meaning the case was recorded

as "five priority violent crimes out of one incident". An assault was also recorded after two children were playing together doing wheelies on bikes and one rode into his friend.

An investigation was also launched after a member of the public reported seeing a mother slap her three-year-old child on the hand as they left a shop. Mr Bett said it transpired that the

child had taken a bar of chocolate from the shop and hidden it in their clothes. The mother gave the child a single slap on the hand and made them return the chocolate to the shop, but the

incident had to be recorded as an assault by the parent and shoplifting by the child. Mr Bett said that crime figures could be distorted even more by new Home Office rules introduced in

April to classify "malicious communications" such as offensive texts or letters as violent crime. He claimed that the new rule had to led to an extra 183 offences being recorded in

Norfolk since it was introduced two months ago. Mr Bett said: "The vast majority of these involve people sending texts. This could add over a 1000 violent crimes a year in Norfolk. I

think people will be surprised that text messages are 'violent'." He added that he believed people in Norfolk were entitled to get "reassurances" about what was

behind the rise in recorded crime. Mr Bett said: "There is a danger that when people see a raw headline that 'violent crime is up in Norfolk' the fear of crime could rise.

That is why I feel it is important to highlight this issue and make people aware." A Norfolk Police spokesman said the changes about the way crime was being recorded was as a result of

new Home Office rules. The spokesman said: "National crime recording standards give the police a duty to record these incidents as crimes in Norfolk. "However, we have a measured

approach to how we deal with them. Just because we record these as crimes, it will not always be appropriate to arrest or seek to prosecute the alleged offenders. It is very much dependant

on the individual circumstances of each report." Mike Penning, minister of state for policing, crime, criminal justice and victims, said: "This Home Secretary has done more than

any other to ensure that crime statistics are independent, accurate and can be trusted by the public. "This includes making previously hidden and under-reported crimes a priority,

commissioning Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary to inspect the quality of crime recording, and holding forces to account on delivering accurate statistics. "It is the

responsibility of individual forces to accurately record crimes in accordance with strict Home Office counting rules - and HMIC inspects forces to ensure they are recording crimes

appropriately."