Official Statistics

Crime outcomes in England and Wales 2022 to 2023

Published 20 July 2023

Applies to England and Wales

Frequency of release: Annual

Forthcoming release: Research and Statistics

Home Office responsible statistician: John Flatley

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020 7035 3535

Public enquires: crimeandpolicestats@homeoffice.gov.uk

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Key findings

This bulletin reports on investigative outcomes that police forces have assigned to notifiable offences recorded by the police in England and Wales (excluding Devon and Cornwall) between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023. Section 2 reports on trends in numbers and proportions of offences assigned an outcome, by both offence and outcome type.

• police recorded crime levels increased for most crime types in the year ending March 2023 compared with the previous year, up to 5.5 million offences, excluding fraud and computer misuse (a 5% rise) and up to 1.2 million fraud and computer misuse offences (a 15% rise)

• the proportion of crimes (excluding fraud and computer misuse) resulting in a charge and/or summons this year increased slightly to 5.7% (compared with 5.5% the previous year), halting the long-term downward trend since the introduction of the Outcomes Framework in the year ending March 2015, when 16% of crimes were resolved with a charge and/or summons

• the most common reason for a case being closed remained no suspect having been identified, with 39.3% of cases closed this way in the year ending March 2023; an increase from 36.7% in the year ending March 2022

• the proportion of offences not yet assigned an outcome decreased from 11.2% last year to 8.0% this year, returning to levels reported in the year ending March 2021 (at 7.8%)

As in previous years, the length of time it took police forces to assign an investigative outcome to a crime varied by both the type of offence and the type of outcome (see section 3).

• overall, an average (median) of 14 days was taken between the date the crime was recorded and the day the outcome was assigned, an increase of 2 days compared with the previous year and the highest recorded since the year ending March 2016, which is likely a reflection of the growing caseload and changing crime mix

• for the charge/summons outcome, the average number of days remained the same as the previous year, at 44 days

• breaking down data for the charge/summons outcome by offence group compared with the previous year revealed a mixed pattern, though with falls in the average days to a charge/summons outcome for drug offences (down by 4, from 63 to 59 days) and for rape offences (down by 47 days, from 467 to 421)

• in contrast, there was a rise in the average days to assign charge/summons outcomes to: overall sexual offences (up by 10 from 261 to 271 days)

Experimental Statistics from Action Fraud on fraud and computer misuse offences provided by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) showed decreases in the volume of cases referred to forces for investigation and cases assigned outcomes (see section 4).

• referrals for investigation fell in the year ending March 2023 compared with the previous one, by 32% for fraud offences and by 17% for CMA offences, partly due to staff shortages at NFIB and loss of staff time in training with the introduction of new reporting processes

• investigations closed with outcomes assigned also decreased in the year ending March 2023 compared with the previous one, by 14% for fraud offences and by 31% for CMA offences

Police recorded crime levels (excluding fraud and computer misuse) fell at the start of the pandemic but increased since and are now 5% higher than those recorded in the pre-pandemic year ending March 2020 (up from 5.2 million to 5.5 million offences). Levels of recorded fraud and computer misuse followed a different pattern, with increasing levels recorded both during and since the pandemic. Overall, levels have increased at a faster rate than those for total crime (excluding fraud and computer misuse) and are up by approximately 50% since the pre-pandemic year ending March 2020 (from 0.8 million to 1.2 million offences). For more detailed commentary on police recorded crime trends, see ONS ‘Crime in England and Wales: year ending March 2023’. Within this context, this bulletin provides commentary on trends in police recorded outcomes, with the main focus on trends in the latest year ending March 2023 compared with the previous year.

In terms of volumes of investigations closed, over 5.0 million offences recorded in the year ending March 2023 (excluding fraud and computer misuse) were assigned an outcome, an increase from 4.6 million the previous year. Within this, the volume of charge/summons outcomes increased from 290,134 to 312,167 (an 8% increase). This also represented a slight increase in the charge/summons rate, with 5.7% of offences (excluding fraud and computer misuse) recorded in the year ending March 2023 being resolved this way, compared with 5.5% the previous year. The proportion of offences not yet assigned an outcome fell from 11.2% in the year ending March 2022 to 8.0% this year, returning to levels seen before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Proportion of offences resulting in a charge and/or summons or evidential difficulties outcome, or where an outcome is yet to be assigned, year ending March 2015 to year ending March 2023, England and Wales

Source: Home Office Data Hub (HODH)

It took an average (median) of 14 days to assign an outcome to an offence, for offences excluding fraud and computer misuse, and this was a slight increase compared with the average of 12 days recorded the previous year. For charge/summons outcomes, the average remained at 44 days in the year ending March 2023, compared with the previous year.

Experimental Statistics for fraud and computer misuse offences based on data provided by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) showed falls in volume of both disseminations to forces and outcomes recorded. Compared with the previous year, the volume of referrals to forces for investigation of fraud and computer misuse offences fell by 32% and 17% respectively. The volume of investigations closed also fell for both fraud and computer misuse outcomes by 14% and 31% respectively. Unlike the main police recorded crime collection, it is not possible to link individual fraud and computer misuse outcomes to offences, so data are counts of all offences and outcomes recorded in the year. The outcomes may relate to offences recorded in previous years.

1. Introduction

Overview

This bulletin reports on investigative case outcomes that have been assigned to notifiable offences recorded by the territorial police forces in England and Wales. It covers all territorial police forces except Devon and Cornwall Police for the years ending March 2022 and March 2023, as data were unavailable at the time of publication.

In April 2013, the Home Office introduced the current crime outcomes framework, replacing a more narrow-focused one based on ‘detections’ (see Technical Annex for further information).

As well as this annual publication, the Home Office also publishes quarterly outcomes tables, without commentary. These are published in the Crime outcomes in England and Wales statistics collection.

Crime and crime outcomes data are also published alongside justice outcomes data from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in the Criminal Justice System Delivery Data Dashboard. For more detailed background on the outcomes framework and how it was developed, see Annex A6 of the Technical Annex: Crime Outcomes Data Quality.

The full outcomes framework

Since its introduction in April 2014, the framework has developed to cover a broader range of outcome types for police forces to use. Detailed descriptions of each outcome type can be found in the Technical Annex.

The data presented in this report provide a snapshot, at the time of analysis, of the current case status of offences recorded during the year ending March 2023 (excluding experimental data on fraud and computer misuse outcomes, reported in Section 4, which are a record of the total number of outcomes assigned in the year and may be linked to offences recorded in previous years).

The outcomes of some cases, especially those recorded towards the end of the financial year, may be subsequently revised once investigations have been completed, or new lines of enquiry have been opened. While all crimes will eventually have an outcome, this may take considerable time for some offences, particularly so for fraud offences covered in Section 4, which are often complex to investigate, with offenders often operating from behind a computer screen, perhaps in another country. At any given point, police forces will be undertaking crime investigations to which they will not yet have assigned a final outcome. Police forces will therefore submit revised data to the Home Office as investigations are completed and some data previously published will be revised in subsequent releases.

Outcome groupings in this bulletin

Some of the tables and charts in this bulletin show grouped outcomes to simplify presentation. For transparency, Open Data tables are also published that show the full range of police outcomes. These are accessible from the Police recorded crime and outcomes open data tables.

For statistical purposes, all recorded crimes are assigned one outcome type. Please refer to the Home Office Counting Rules for information on recording outcomes.

Table 1.1 shows the grouping of outcomes used in this report. These were structured taking into account user feedback following a consultation in 2014.

Table 1.1: Grouping the Outcomes Framework from April 2013 onwards (Outcomes one to 22)

Outcome Group	Outcome Types
Charged/Summonsed	1
of which the outcome relates to an alternative offence to that recorded (from April 2016)	1a
Taken into consideration	4
Out-of-court (formal)	2, 3, 6
of which the outcome relates to an alternative offence to that recorded (from April 2016)	2a, 3a
Out-of-court (informal)	7, 8
Prosecution prevented or not in the public interest	5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 17
Evidential difficulties (suspect identified; victim supports action)	15
Evidential difficulties (victim does not support action)	14, 16
Investigation complete – no suspect identified	18
NFIB – Fraud case	19
Action undertaken by another body/agency (from April 2015)	20
Further investigation to support formal action not in the public interest (police decision) (from January 2016)	21
Diversionary, educational or intervention activity, resulting from the crime report, has been undertaken and it is not in the public interest to take any further action (voluntary from April 2019)	22

Notes: Outcome 19 applies to fraud offences recorded by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau only, which are reported on separately in Section 4.

See Annex A6 of the Technical Annex for detailed descriptions of each outcome type.

Outcomes 1a, 2a, 3a, are currently not published within the summary or open tables. To increase transparency there is a plan to start publishing them from October 2023. The Home Office will begin a quality assurance process over the summer.

Supplementary Data Tables

The chapters in this bulletin discuss key topics of interest in the outcomes data. Data presented in these chapters as both charts and tables are available online via bulletin tables published on the Home Office website.

In addition to the tables found in the main bulletin, a number of supplementary tables are available here which provide additional data on the topics discussed, plus data on areas not covered. Data on transferred and cancelled records, and ‘old-style’ outcomes are also published.

Outcomes for offences recorded in quarter (New Style)

This is the principal method used to present data in Section 2 of this bulletin; it looks at outcomes for offences recorded in the same period (referred to as ‘Recorded in quarter’ in linked data tables) in which the offence was recorded. It allows the distribution of outcomes to be shown for individual crimes that were recorded and given an outcome in the same time period. However, as some crime types take longer to investigate than others, the final outcome may not be available for a proportion of offences at the time of the first release of data for a given time period.

It is not possible to present outcomes data for fraud and computer misuse offences in this format as the data provided by the NFIB cannot be linked to offences (for more information, see Section 4 ).

Outcomes recorded in quarter (Old Style)

This measure relates to outcomes recorded in a particular year regardless of when the associated crime was recorded, that is it will include outcomes for cases recorded in a previous year. It is the method applied to fraud data (for more information, see Section 4). Ratios can be calculated showing the number of outcomes recorded in the year as a proportion of all crimes recorded in the same year. This is how rates were presented before it was possible to link individual crimes with their outcomes.

This approach provides a fuller measure of police activity in relation to crime in a given year. However, comparing the number of outcomes with the number of recorded offences in this way should be done with caution since rates could appear to change from one year simply because of a changing balance between crimes and outcomes recorded over time. For example, some crime types could show a rate of over 100 per cent against a particular outcome, which is sometimes the case for relatively low volume crimes.

Data availability

Following the implementation of a new IT system in November 2022, Devon and Cornwall Police have been unable to supply outcomes data for the year ending March 2023. To enable comparisons over time, data for Devon and Cornwall Police have also been excluded from figures for the year ending March 2022 from all analysis in this bulletin.

The bulletin focuses on changes in the latest year, comparing data for the year ending March 2023 with data for the year ending March 2022.

2. Outcomes assigned to offences recorded in the year ending 31 March 2023

Reporting in this section excludes fraud and computer misuse, which are covered separately in Section 4.

Key findings

• police recorded crime levels increased by 5% in the year ending March 2023 compared with the year ending March 2022 with 5.5 million offences recorded in the latest year
• alongside the rise in crime levels, there was an increase of 22,033 in numbers of charge/summons outcomes recorded compared with the previous year (a 7.6% increase from 290,134 to 312,167). This led to a slight rise in the charge/summons rate, up to 5.7% compared with 5.5% in the previous year which halted the downward trend since the year ending March 2015 (when the comparable figure was 16%)
• as in previous years, the most common reason for a case being closed was due to no suspect being identified (39.3%), a slight increase compared with the previous year (36.7%). This varied by offence type, for example, theft offences received the highest proportion of cases closed in this way (73.7%), compared with drug offences which received the lowest (5.5%)
• the proportion of offences where the investigation remained open at the year-end decreased from 11.2% last year to 8.0% this year, returning to levels seen in the year ending March 2021 (at 7.8%)

Background and trends in recorded crime outcomes

The analysis presented in Section 2 and Section 3 is restricted to those offences initially recorded by the territorial forces and the British Transport Police (BTP) and therefore excludes fraud and CMA offences, which is centralised via Action Fraud (the UK’s national fraud and cyber-crime reporting centre) and managed by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) at the City of London Police.

It should be noted that not all offences recorded in the year ending March 2023 had been assigned an investigative outcome at the time that the data was prepared for this bulletin. A fuller picture of how crimes have been resolved by the police will become available in subsequent releases of tables; published on a quarterly basis. This means that the figures presented here are subject to change. For example, the proportion of offences in the year ending March 2022 receiving an outcome of charged/summonsed was 5.5% when first published in July 2022 but in the latest update this has increased to 6.8%. However, to allow like-for-like comparisons in this bulletin we report on trends using data as first published.

Except for a drop in levels of some types of crime in 2020 and 2021 due to the suppression effect of Government Public Health restrictions introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, levels of police recorded crime and outcomes have steadily increased since 2014/15.

A significant driver for increases in recorded crime levels has been the critical inspections of crime recording carried out by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS), detailed in reports from 2014 and 2019^{[footnote 1][footnote 2]}. The 2014 report revealed significant under-recording of crimes that had been reported by victims to the police. This was followed by a programme of rolling inspections of forces to examine compliance with the Home Office’s National Crime Recording Standard (NCRS). This has led to improved compliance and increased caseloads as more crimes were correctly recorded than in previous years. The HMICFRS has estimated in their State of Policing 2019 report that, compared with their findings from their 2014 inspection, better compliance with recording standards meant police forces recorded around 570,000 more crimes during 2019.

In addition to improvements in recording, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has commented that some of the increases in recorded crime in recent years may also reflect changes in society. These include a greater willingness of victims to come forward to report to the police and genuine increases in some types of crime.

As a result, compared with 2013/14 the volume of the crime caseload being dealt with by the police has grown. In addition, the crime mix has also changed with rising numbers of more complex offences to investigate, such as rape, which has more than doubled since the year ending March 2015. The increasing volume of digital evidence (which may require more intensive work to investigate) across a wide spectrum of offences from harassment to sexual offences is also thought to have added to the investigative demands on the police.

Following the government’s commitment to recruit an additional 20,000 police officers in England and Wales by the end of March 2023, the total number of officers peaked in March 2023, at over 149,500. However, HMICFRS noted the composition of the workforce has changed, as the recent influx of new recruits to replace combined with the retirement of a cohort of experienced officers from 2010 has led to a more inexperienced workforce. HMICFRS has also pointed to a continued shortage of experienced detectives.

At the same time, it has been reported that forces have sought to manage demand by adopting local policies to prioritise the use of investigative resources. These factors are likely to have an impact on the distribution of outcomes over time and across forces. Police forces have increasingly prioritised high- harm crimes, such as rape and domestic abuse, leading to less focus on lower-harm crimes, such as certain types of theft. More recently the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) has made a commitment to ensure that the police attend all home burglaries, which aims to support victims and catch more burglars.

Overall, there has been a downward trend in the proportion of offences with a charge/summons outcome assigned within the same year that the crime was recorded since the year ending March 2015 (falling from 15.5% in the year ending 2015 to 5.5% in the year ending March 2022). The latest figures show that this downward trend has halted with a slight increase to 5.7% of investigations closed with a charge/summons.

At the same time, there has been a growing proportion of cases recorded where victims did not support police action (up from 8.7% in the year ending March 2015 to 26.7% in the year ending 2023). Both these trends are likely to have been influenced by the changing caseload and crime mix being dealt with by the police.

Variation in how cases were closed by outcome type

Table 2.1 summarises the investigative outcomes given to all crimes recorded in the year ending March 2023 at the time the data were finalised for analysis (May 2023). It also compares this with outcomes assigned to crimes recorded in the previous year as they were when first published in July 2022. Some of the key points (see Figure 2.1 and Table 2.2) reported below.

The number of offences closed with a charge/summons increased from 290,134 to 312,167 when compared with the previous year.

Fewer investigations of crimes recorded in the year ending March 2023 remained open at the year end (with 438,991 offences with no outcome yet assigned) than was the case for the year ending March 2022 (588,561 offences). This was equivalent to 8% of offences in the year ending March 2023 compared with 11.2% of offences the previous year.

As in the previous year, the most common reason for a case being closed was no suspect having been identified with over a third of all cases closed in this way (39.3% in the year ending March 2023; an increase from 36.7% in the year ending March 2022).

The proportion of cases closed with out-of-court (formal) disposals was similar to last year (1.0% in the year ending March 2023 compared with 1.1% in the year ending March 2022). This was also true for out-of-court (informal) disposals (2.5% in the year ending March 2023 compared with 2.6% in the year ending March 2022).

The proportion of offences closed with evidential difficulties where the victim supported action and a suspect was identified increased slightly from 12.1% the previous year to 12.8% in the latest year.

For cases closed due to evidential difficulties where the victim did not support further action, the proportion was similar in both years ending March 2023 and March 2022 (26.7%).

Table 2.1: Outcomes assigned to offences recorded in the year ending March 2022 and the year ending March 2023 (as first published), by outcome type and group, England and Wales^{[note 1], [note 10]}

Outcome number	Outcome type/group	Volume year to March 2022 [note 2], [note 3], [note 4]	Volume year to March 2023 [note 2], [note 3], [note 4]	% Year to March 2022 [note 2], [note 3], [note 4]	% Year to March 2023 [note 2], [note 3], [note 4]
1	Charged/Summonses	290,134	312,167	5.54%	5.70%
4	Taken into consideration [note 5]	1,852	2,558	0%	0%
	Out-of-court (formal)	56,889	52,433	1.09%	0.96%
2	Caution - youths	5,172	5,148	0.10%	0.09%
3	Caution - adults	42,774	40,937	0.82%	0.75%
6	Penalty Notices for Disorder	8,943	6,348	0.17%	0.12%
	Out-of-court (informal)	133,534	135,439	2.55%	2.47%
7	Cannabis/Khat warning	7,550	3,761	0.14%	0.07%
8	Community resolution	125,984	131,678	2.41%	2.40%
	Prosecution prevented or not in the public interest	72,367	69,925	1.38%	1.28%
5	Offender died	1,275	1,338	0%	0%
9	Not in public interest (CPS)	1,640	1,250	0%	0%
10	Not in public interest (Police)	28,065	23,283	0.54%	0.42%
11	Prosecution prevented - suspect under age	7,941	9,084	0.15%	0.17%
12	Prosecution prevented - suspect too ill	16,558	16,399	0.32%	0.30%
13	Prosecution prevented - victim/key witness dead/too ill	2,021	2,670	0.04%	0%
17	Prosecution time limit expired	14,867	15,901	0.28%	0.29%
15	Evidential difficulties (suspect identified; victim supports action)	634,562	698,855	12.12%	12.75%
	Evidential difficulties (victim does not support action)	1,396,097	1,465,655	26.67%	26.74%
14	Evidential difficulties: suspect not identified; victim does not support further action	286,150	320,038	5.47%	5.84%
16	Evidential difficulties: suspect identified; victim does not support further action	1,109,947	1,145,617	21.20%	20.90%
18	Investigation complete - no suspect identified	1,921,271	2,155,288	36.70%	39.33%
20	Action undertaken by another body/agency	61,176	70,428	1.17%	1.29%
21	Further investigation to support formal action not in the public interest[note 6]	49,586	46,013	0.95%	0.84%
22	Diversionary, educational or intervention activity, resulting from the crime report, has been undertaken and it is not in the public interest to take any further action[note 7]	28,454	32,383	0.54%	0.59%
	Total offences assigned an outcome (type 1-18, 20-22)	4,645,922	5,041,144	88.76%	91.99%
	Offences not yet assigned an outcome	588,561	438,991	11.24%	8.01%
	Total offences [note 1], [note 5]	5,234,483	5,480,135	100%	100%

Notes:

1. Year to March 2022 and year to March 2023 exclude fraud offences. Fraud offences are now recorded by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) rather than police forces. Outcome 19 is not shown as this applies only to fraud offences recorded by the NFIB.

2. Proportions show the percentage of crimes recorded in the year receiving each outcome.

3. Proportions as at the time data were provided to the Home Office.

4. Includes caution - adults; caution - youths; Penalty Notices for Disorder.

5. Based on data from 42 forces (plus the British Transport Police). Data exclude Devon & Cornwall. Following the implementation of a new IT system in November 2022, Devon and Cornwall Police have been unable to supply outcomes data for the quarters, October 2022 to March 2023.

6. Offences asked to be taken into consideration by a court (TICs).

7. Outcome 21 was introduced from January 2016 on a voluntary basis and became mandatory from April 2016.

8. Outcome 22 was introduced on a voluntary basis from April 2019.

9. These figures include Greater Manchester Police, hence caution should be applied when comparing to Year to March 2021 data published in July 2021.

How outcomes varied by offence group

As in previous years, how crimes were resolved varied considerably by the type of crime and reflected a range of factors including: the nature of the offence, differing police priorities and the varying challenges in gathering evidence. For example, it will generally be far more difficult to identify a suspect for a criminal damage offence that was not witnessed or caught on CCTV, than one where such intelligence is available. In contrast, for some crimes, such as drug possession offences, the police may have apprehended the offender at the time the crime came to their attention, making a formal or informal criminal justice sanction much easier to achieve. Similarly, for an offence where substantial forensic evidence exists, it will be easier to proceed to a charge than for one where such evidence does not exist. The willingness of victims or witnesses to engage with the police can also vary by type of offence and the relationship between the victim and the offender.

These factors may also subsequently impact on the length of time needed to complete an investigation and on the distribution of outcomes. For example, a fairly large proportion of sexual offences recorded in the year ending March 2023 were still being investigated and had not yet been assigned an outcome at the year end (26.2%). This and the relatively high proportion of such cases closed with evidential difficulties reflect challenges associated with investigating such crimes, such as those related to evidence and/or support of the victim.

The variation in outcomes across offence groups is highlighted by the differences in the five offences illustrated in Figure 2.1 (a more detailed offence breakdown can be found in Table 2.2).

Figure 2.1: Outcome proportions by outcome group and offence group, for year ending March 2023, England and Wales

Notes:

1. Data exclude fraud offences. Fraud offences are now recorded by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) rather than police forces.

2. Offences asked to be taken into consideration by a court (TICs).

3. Includes caution - adults; caution - youths; Penalty Notices for Disorder.

4. Includes cannabis/khat warnings and community resolutions.

5. Includes not in the public interest (CPS); Not in public interest (Police); Offender Died; Prosecution prevented (suspect under age; suspect too ill; victim/key witness dead/too ill); Prosecution time limit expired.

6. Includes evidential difficulties where the suspect was/was not identified and the victim does not support further action.

7. Outcome 21 (Further investigation to support formal action not in the public interest) was introduced from January 2016 on a voluntary basis and became mandatory from April 2016.

8. Outcome 22 was introduced on a voluntary basis from April 2019.

9. Proportions show the percentage of crimes recorded in the year receiving each outcome.

10. Based on data from 42 forces (plus the British Transport Police). Data exclude Devon & Cornwall. Following the implementation of a new IT system in November 2022, Devon and Cornwall Police have been unable to supply outcomes data for the quarters, October 2022 to March 2023.

Drug offences

Around six in ten (59%) drug offences received a formal or informal criminal justice sanction, with around two in ten receiving a charge/summons outcome (19.8%) and around four in ten receiving an out-of-court disposal (39.2%). There was a difference between how possession of cannabis and possession of other drugs were resolved, with cannabis possession having a much lower charge/summons rate (14.5%) than for other drug offences (34.2%), which reflects that possessions of small amounts of cannabis for personal use will often be dealt with through a Cannabis warning or Community Resolution.

Drug offences are influenced by police activity, such as stop and search, with the latest statistics (year ending March 2022) showing that just over half (54% or 36,111) of all arrests resulting from section 1 stop and searches were made where the initial search reason was suspicion of drug possession. This means that there often is evidence to apply a formal or informal sanction. The latter are typically used, for example, for dealing with possession of a small quantity of cannabis for personal use, but the suspect must admit guilt for such outcomes to be applied.

In the year ending March 2023, drug trafficking offences received a slightly higher proportion of charges (21.4%) than drug possession offences (19.2%), compared with the previous year, which saw a larger proportion of drug trafficking charges (23.5%) and a slightly lower percentage of drug possession offences receiving charges (18.4%).

Compared with other offence groups, a small proportion of drug offences were closed due to no suspect being identified (5.5%), which is to be expected given the nature of the offence, with most of these outcomes (83.5%) arising from drug trafficking offences.

Nearly half (49%) of all cannabis offences were resolved with Cannabis Warnings or Community Resolutions, compared with 18.1% of possession offences involving other drugs.

The majority of drug possession offences recorded in the year ending March 2023 related to Cannabis (99,389 compared to around 30,953 offences of all other drug types) and as a result, the overall charge rate for possession of drug offences has been driven by the charge rate for possession of Cannabis.

It should be noted that police forces have differing local policies to using out-of-court disposals, which needs to be considered when looking at force-level breakdowns. For example, Avon & Somerset and Lancashire Constabulary do not use Cannabis/K hat warnings for simple possession of cannabis offences, instead preferring the use of Community Resolutions when appropriate.

Sexual offences

Sexual offences was the crime type most likely to have not yet been assigned an outcome at the year end (26.2%), reflecting the greater complexity and extended time required to investigate such offences compared with other crime types (see Section 3).

This was also reflected in the low proportion of sexual offences resolved with a charge/summons outcome (3.6%). This rate has remained at a similar level over recent years (3.0% in the year ending March 2022, 3.6% in the year ending March 2021, and 3.2% in the year ending March 2020).

However, in the latest year, the proportion of rape offences assigned a charge/summons outcome has risen from 1.3% (911 charges) in the year ending March 2022 to 2.1% (1,401 charges). This might reflect the increased focus on rape following the cross-criminal justice system rape review.

A higher than average proportion of cases were assigned to one of the evidential difficulties’ categories. For example, around two in five rape offences (43.1%) were closed because the victim did not support further police action against a suspect, which has increased slightly since the previous year (42.4%). Conversely, given the nature of the crime, sexual offences had a much lower level of suspects not identified (14.1% compared with an average of 39.3% for all offences).

Violence against the person

This is a broad offence group covering a wide spectrum of offending, from homicide and serious violent crime through to lower harm and less serious common assault. It also includes offences involving psychological or emotional (rather than physical) abuse, such as harassment and stalking.

Generally, violence against the person offences were the most likely to result in victims not supporting police action (43.9%). Around a third of these offences in the latest related tables published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS; April, 2023) were flagged as domestic-abuse related. A previous publication on domestic abuse and the criminal justice system from the ONS (November, 2022) showed that domestic abuse-related violence against the person crimes had a slightly higher charge rate (6.7%) compared with that for non-domestic abuse-related crimes (5.9%). Around half of domestic abuse-related crimes (51.4%) were closed due to evidential difficulties where the victim did not support further action, compared with around a quarter of non-domestic abuse-related crimes (25.8%). In addition, and again reflecting the victim-offender relationship, the proportion of domestic abuse-related offences which closed due to no suspect having been identified was very low compared with non domestic abuse-related crimes (1.5% compared with 35.6% respectively).

Outcomes varied within this offence group by the type of crime, with the charge/summons rate for violence with injury offences being slightly higher than that for violence without injury (7.1% and 5.4% respectively). Most of this difference was accounted for by victims of violence without injury not supporting police action. In contrast, there was a much higher charge/summons rate for homicide offences, with over half of cases closed with this outcome (58.7%). Homicide offences can often take longer to investigate and this was reflected in that around a third (35.9%) had not yet been assigned an outcome.

Generally, the majority of stalking and harassment offences closed due to evidential difficulties (66.1%), with around four in ten (43.6%) of these closed due to victims not supporting police action (a slight decrease from the previous year, 42.8%). In contrast, charge rates for these offences slightly increased (from 3.1% in year ending March 2022, to 3.4% in year ending March 2023).

Theft offences

Around three quarters (73.7%) of overall theft offences were most likely to be closed due to no suspect having been identified (a similar level compared with 72.0% in the year ending March 2022). The charge rate increased slightly compared with the previous year (4.1% in the year ending March 2022, compared with 4.4% in the year ending March 2023). This was seen in most sub-categories of theft, such as bicycle thefts (1.3% in the year ending March 2022 compared with 1.5% in the year ending March 2023), theft from the person (0.8% in the year ending March 2022 to 0.9% in the year ending March 2023), and other theft offences (0.9% in the year ending March 2022 to 1.0% in the year ending March 2023).

The distribution of outcomes for residential burglary offences largely followed those outlined for general theft offences, with 74.2% of offences closed due to no suspect having been identified (a slight increase from 73% in the year ending March 2022). However, though charge rates remained low, there was a slight increase (up from 3.4% in the previous year to 3.9% in the latest one). It is too early to assess the extent to which this reflects an improved focus on investigating burglaries following the National Police Chefs’ Council (NPCC) commitment in 2022 for the police to attend the scene of every home burglary.

Non-residential burglary offences also showed a slight increase in the charge rate (up from 6.3% in the year ending March 2022, to 7.1% in the current year), and followed the general trend of theft offences, with 71.8% of offences closed due to no suspect having been identified (compared with 71.7% the previous year).

Vehicle theft comprises three broad categories of offences (theft from a vehicle, theft of a motor vehicle, and vehicle interference). The majority of vehicle offences were also closed with no suspect having been identified (85.7%), a small increase on the previous year (84.4%), whilst charge rates remained similar at 1.8% (compared with 1.7% in the year ending March 2022).

Around half of shoplifting offences were closed due to no suspect having been identified (54.5% in year ending March 2023, compared with 53.7% in year ending March 2022). Charge rates were higher than for other theft offences on average, with 14.2% of shoplifting offences resulting in a charge/summons (a slight rise from 13.8% in the year ending March 2022), which could be the result of more accessible evidence, for example, CCTV within the shop or the offender being detained on the premises. Shoplifting offences also received a higher proportion of out-of-court (formal) disposals (such as Cautions and Penalty Notices for Disorder (PNDs)), compared with other theft offences at 0.8% (compared with vehicle offences, robbery, and domestic burglary, all at 0.1% in the year ending March 2023).

Robbery

Almost half of robbery offences (48.6%) were closed due to no suspect having been identified (compared with 42.3% in the year ending March 2022), and around two in ten robbery offences were closed due to evidential difficulties where the victim did not support further action (21.6% in the year ending March 2023, compared with 21.1% in the year ending March 2022). In line with the trend seen for other offence groups, there was a slight increase in the proportion of robbery offences resolved with a charge outcome, at 6.5% for the year ending March 2023 compared with 6.3% the previous year.

Table 2.2: Outcomes assigned to offences recorded in the year ending March 2023, by outcome group and offence group, England and Wales ^{[note 9], [note 10]}

Outcome group	Violence against the person	Sexual offences	of which: Rape	Robbery	Theft Offences	Criminal damage and arson	Drug offences	Possession of weapons offences	Public order offences	Misc. crimes against society	Total year to March 2023[note 1]
Charged/summonsed	5.22%	3.61%	2.09%	6.52%	4.44%	4.07%	19.76%	27.74%	5.95%	9.78%	5.70%
Taken into consideration (TICs)[note 2]	0%	0%	0%	0%	0.13%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0.00%
Out-of-court (formal)[note 3]	0.99%	0.24%	0%	0.13%	0.26%	1.10%	7.41%	3.87%	0.91%	0.80%	1.00%
Out-of-court (informal)[note 4]	1.82%	0.28%	0%	0.42%	0.90%	2.07%	31.80%	3.96%	1.92%	2.05%	2.50%
Prosecution prevented or not in the public interest [note 5]	1.80%	2.10%	1.10%	0.20%	0.39%	0.93%	2.87%	2.71%	1.44%	1.88%	1.30%
Evidential difficulties (suspect identified; victim supports action)	18.16%	14.33%	10.65%	6.94%	5.40%	8.22%	11.35%	19.42%	17.86%	18.71%	12.80%
Evidential difficulties (victim does not support action) [note 6]	43.91%	34.53%	43.15%	21.60%	9.75%	18.27%	1.10%	12.08%	31.28%	21.27%	26.70%
Investigation complete - no suspect identified	14.88%	14.10%	7.41%	48.60%	73.71%	59.64%	5.51%	13.20%	31.96%	15.92%	39.30%
Action undertaken by another body/agency	2.58%	2.96%	0.85%	0.11%	0.10%	0.32%	0.25%	0.63%	0.59%	3.35%	1.30%
Further investigation to support formal action not in the public interest [note 8]	0.74%	1.12%	0.19%	0.06%	0.35%	0.42%	2.38%	1.76%	1.17%	7.41%	0.80%
Diversionary, educational or intervention activity, resulting from the crime report, has been undertaken and it is not in the public interest to take any further action [note 8]	0.77%	0.55%	0.14%	0.16%	0.19%	0.49%	1.92%	1.20%	0.61%	1.62%	0.60%
Offences not yet assigned an outcome	9.13%	26.16%	34.40%	15.28%	4.39%	4.45%	15.62%	13.42%	6.31%	17.18%	8.00%

Notes:

1. Data exclude fraud offences. Fraud offences are now recorded by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) rather than police forces.

2. Offences asked to be taken into consideration by a court (TICs).

3. Includes caution - adults; caution - youths; Penalty Notices for Disorder.

4. Includes cannabis/khat warnings and community resolutions.

5. Includes not in the public interest (CPS); Not in public interest (Police); Offender Died; Prosecution prevented (suspect under age; suspect too ill; victim/key witness dead/too ill); Prosecution time limit expired.

6. Includes evidential difficulties where the suspect was/was not identified and the victim does not support further action.

7. Outcome 21 (Further investigation to support formal action not in the public interest) was introduced from January 2016 on a voluntary basis and became mandatory from April 2016.

8. Outcome 22 was introduced on a voluntary basis from April 2019.

9. Proportions show the percentage of crimes recorded in the year receiving each outcome.

10. Based on data from 42 forces (plus the British Transport Police). Data exclude Devon & Cornwall. Following the implementation of a new IT system in November 2022, Devon and Cornwall Police have been unable to supply outcomes data for the quarters, October 2022 to March 2023.

3. Timeliness of investigations

Reporting in this section excludes fraud and computer misuse, which are covered separately in Section 4.

Key findings

• there was an overall increase of 2 days in the average (median) time taken to assign an outcome from the date the crime was initially recorded (from 12 days in the year ending March 2022 to 14 days in the year ending March 2023), the highest recorded since the year ending March 2016

• the average days for an outcome to be assigned has generally been rising since the year ending March 2018 (when it was 6 days) reflecting the increasing volume and complexity of caseloads being dealt with by the police

• for cases that closed with a charge/summons outcome, the average days to outcome was 44 days in the year ending March 2023, the same as the previous year. There has been a steady increase in the average days to assign a charge/summons outcome since the year ending March 2016, up from 14 to 44 days (a rise of 30 days), which is likely a reflection of the growing caseload and changing crime mix

• there was a mixed picture for charge/summons outcomes when breaking down by offence groups, with decreases for some crime types and increases for others. Violence against the person, criminal damage and arson, public order offences and sexual offences saw an increase in the average time to assign a charge/summons outcome compared with the previous year (an increase of 2, 4, 4 and 10 days respectively). In contrast, rape, robbery, drug offences and possession of weapons saw a decrease in the average number of days to assign a charge/summons outcome compared with the previous year (a decrease of 47, 13, 4 and 4 days respectively)

• during the latest year (March 2023), the evidential difficulties (suspect identified; victim supports action) outcome type increased its average (median) days to outcome by 6 days (from 43 to 49 days), compared with the previous year. There was also a smaller increase in evidential difficulties cases where the victim does not support action, where the average days to outcome was 19 days (an increase of 2 days compared with the previous year)

• the investigation complete with no suspect identified outcome saw no change in its average days to assign an outcome (remaining at 3 days), compared with the previous year. However, there were differences when broken down by offence group. Robbery, sexual offences and violence against the person offences that closed with this outcome went up by 24, 6 and 2 days respectively. Possession of weapons and drug offences went down in the number of days to outcome (3 and 2 days respectively)

This section explores the variation in the time that elapsed from the initial recording of a crime to the point at which the outcome of an investigation was registered on a police force’s crime Record Management System (RMS).

In contrast with the previous section, the data presented in this section cover all outcomes recorded in the year ending March 2023, regardless of when the offence was initially recorded. This enables a more complete picture of cases finalised in the latest year. Time, in days, is presented using the median average as this measure is less susceptible to being skewed by a small number of unusually high or low values. It should be noted that this measure will not always reflect the actual time taken to deal with an individual case since, for example, there may be a delay between an offender being charged and the force crime RMS being updated.

Timeliness by offence and outcome type

In the year ending March 2023, it took an average of 14 days to assign an investigative outcome to an offence. Around 37% of all outcomes were assigned within five days of the offence being recorded and around 61% within 30 days. These proportions were slightly lower than the previous year when 39% of all outcomes were assigned within five days and 64% within 30 days.

The proportion of cases taking over 100 days to assign an outcome increased to 20% (up by 4 percentage points). These averages masks significant variation across offences and outcomes, which is visible when analysis is broken down to that level.

Figure 3.1: The time taken (median days) for outcomes to be assigned to offences broken down by offence groups, year ending March 2023, England and Wales

Source: Home Office Data Hub (HODH)

Table 3.1 shows the average (median) length of time to assign an outcome by offence type for the last six years. There has been an upward trend for all crime, with a rise from 6 days in the year ending March 2018, to 14 days in the latest year. The latest HMICFRS State of Policing report suggested a combination of factors affecting police performance, such as a criminal justice system issues, resource pressures and an increase in demand/complexity of crime cases.

Table 3.1: The difference in the average (median) length of time taken to assign an outcome between the year ending March 2018 and the year ending March 2023, by offence type

	Y.e. March 2018	Y.e. March 2019	Y.e. March 2020	Y.e. March 2021	Y.e. March 2022	Y.e. March 2023	Difference between y.e March 2022 and y.e March 2023
Violence against the person	15	18	18	18	21	23	2
Sexual offences	73	77	66	69	62	72	10
of which: Rape	129	126	98	97	94	104	10
Robbery	23	24	28	42	46	65	19
Theft offences	2	2	4	3	3	4	1
of which: Residential Burglary	3	5	6	7	10	16	6
Criminal Damage and Arson	2	3	4	4	5	6	1
Drug offences	14	21	26	20	23	25	2
Possession of weapons offences	13	18	25	28	29	26	-3
Public order offences	8	12	12	11	13	13	0
Miscellaneous offences	19	24	25	25	28	26	-2
All crimes (excluding fraud)	6	9	10	11	12	14	2

Source: Home Office Data Hub (HODH)

Notes:

1. Median days for the year ending March 2018 to the year ending March 2022 are as first published.

2. Only includes data for forces who send offence-level data to HODH. In the year ending March 2019, only 2 forces did not submit offence-level data and in the following years (year ending March 2020, year ending March 2021, year ending March 2022 and year ending March 2023) 3, 4, 5 and 4 forces respectively did not submit offence-level data.

Charge/Summons

There was a mixed picture in the number of days to assign a charge/summons outcome when breaking down by offence groups, with decreases for some crime types and increases for others. Violence against the person, criminal damage and arson, public order offences and sexual offences saw an increase in the average time to assign a charge/summons outcome compared with the previous year (an increase of 2, 4, 4 and 10 days respectively).

Rape, robbery, drug offences and possession of weapons saw a decrease in the number of days to assign a charge/summons outcome compared with the previous year (a decrease of 47, 13, 4 and 4 days respectively).

Drug offences

The average days taken to assign an outcome for drug offences increased to 25 days in the year ending March 2023 (up from 23 days the previous year). Some forces in the past have reported a backlog of forensic examinations, including analysis of items such as mobile phones, to ascertain evidence of drug dealing, as well as testing to identify the drugs that have been seized. This may have contributed to the increase in median days. However, the average days taken to assign a charge/summons outcome for all drug offences has gone down by 4 days to 59 days.

Sexual offences

Within all sexual offences, rape saw a decrease in the time taken to charge/summons (down by around 47 days, from 467 to 421 days. However, for all sexual offences including rape there were increases in the average number of days for an outcome to be assigned (up by 10 days) to 72 days. While the average number of days taken for a rape offence to receive a charge/summons fell, the opposite was true for other sexual offences which saw an increase in the time taken for such an outcome (up by around 10 days, from 261 to 271 days) when compared with the previous year.

The timelier response seen in charge/summons for rape offences is likely due to police increasingly prioritising high-harm crimes (such as rape) and therefore delivering a timelier charge/summons outcome, this could have had trade-offs with other offence types and outcome types.

Robbery offences

The police were quicker to reach a charge/summons decision (down by 13 days to 56 days) when compared with the previous year. There were also increases in the number of robbery offences that were assigned a charge/summons outcome during the latest year; an increase of 18% (up by around 750 offences). The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) accounts for a disproportionate volume of robbery offences which has bearings on the national trends. The trends seen for robbery offences could be an artefact of an administration issue faced by the MPS.

Theft offences

Median days to assign a charge/summons outcome for theft offences stayed at 30 days when compared with the previous year ending March 2022. Median days to assign a charge/summons outcome for residential burglary offences increased slightly by 1 day (from 52 to 53 days) when compared with the previous year ending March 2022.

Evidential difficulties

During the latest year ending March 2023, the evidential difficulties (suspect identified; victim supports action) outcome type increased its average (median) days to outcome by 6 days (from 43 to 49 days), compared with the previous year ending March 2022. There was also a smaller increase in the evidential difficulties cases where the victim does not support action; the average days to outcome rose by 2 days to 19 days, compared with the previous year ending March 2022.

The median days’ increase in the evidential difficulties (suspect identified; victim supports action) outcome type, was seen across most offence types; violence against the person (up by 6, to 45 days); sexual offences (up by 18, to 145 days); rape offences (up by 30, to 222 days); robbery offences (up by 26, to 141 days); theft offences (up by 5, to 57 days); criminal damage and arson offences (up by 5, to 43 days); drug offences (up by 13, to 102 days); possession of weapons offences (up by 3, to 47 days); and public order offences (up by 2, from to days).

Rape offences

The ‘Evidential difficulties (suspect identified; victim supports action)’ outcome for rape offences increased by 30 days, up to 222 days when compared with the previous year ending March 2022. The ‘Evidential difficulties (victim does not support action)’ outcome for rape offences increased by 7 days, up to 73 days when compared with the previous year ending March 2022.

Around 54% of rape offences were assigned an evidential difficulties outcome (the same proportion as last year). Although there has been a concerted effort to improve the investigative performance of rape, these offences remain challenging to investigate.

Violence against the person offences

Violence against the person offences saw increases in the average number of days for an outcome to be assigned (up by 2 days, to 23 days) compared with the previous year. This has been gradually increasing since the year ending March 2018, when it stood at 15 days.

The overall increase in average days to outcome was influenced by rises in evidential difficulties. The ‘Evidential difficulties (suspect identified; victim supports action)’ outcome increased by 6 days, making the total average days to outcome 45 days, when compared with the previous year ending March 2022. The ‘Evidential difficulties (victim does not support action)’ outcome also increased slightly by an increase of 1 day, totalling 18 days, when compared with the previous year.

The proportion of violence against the person offences that received an evidential difficulties outcome increased to around 62% (up by around 2 percentage points) compared with the previous year ending March 2022. The number of these offences that received an evidential difficulties outcome has also increased from 1.2 million to 1.3 million offences.

Investigation complete – no suspect identified

The investigation complete – no suspect identified outcome saw no change in its median days to assign an outcome (stayed at 3 days), compared with the previous year ending March 2022. However, there were differences when broken down by offence group.

Robbery offences

The median days taken to assign an outcome for robbery offences has increased steadily since the year ending March 2018, from around 23 days to 46 days during the year ending March 2022, to 65 days in the year ending March 2023 (up by 19 days) when compared with the previous year).

This has been primarily influenced by an increase in median days to assign an outcome of ‘Investigation complete – no suspect identified’, compared with the previous year, which went up to 66 days (an increase of 24 days). The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) accounts for a disproportionate volume of robbery offences (39% of all those recorded in England and Wales in the latest year) and trends in this police force area tend to impact on the national picture. The MPS recorded an average rise of 84 days in assigning an ‘Investigation complete – no suspect identified’ outcome (up from 74 to 158 days) which may be an administrative issue with file closures during the latest year.

Theft offences

Overall, theft offences took the least time to assign an outcome at an average (median) of 4 days, which is an increase of 1 day compared with the previous year (year ending March 2022). The median days taken to assign an ‘Investigation complete - no suspect identified’ outcome for theft offences closed at 2 days during the latest year ending March 2023, which is no change on the previous year.

Theft offences have had a high proportion of outcomes closed as ‘Investigation complete; no suspect identified’ (around 74% during the year ending March 2023) and the median average days taken to close a case for that specific outcome group was relatively low (2 days), therefore, driving the relatively low overall figure. This might reflect decisions taken to de-prioritise certain cases for investigation where it is judged not to reach a threshold for these offences, whereby a police decision is taken relatively quickly as they are generally less complicated in nature.

For residential burglary offences, police forces took on average 16 days to close an outcome in the year ending March 2023, which is a 6 day increase compared with the previous year. The median days taken to assign an ‘Investigation complete - no suspect identified’ outcome for residential burglary offences closed at 11 days during the latest year ending March 2023, which is an increase of 5 days compared with the previous year.

Figure 3.2: The difference in the average (median) length of time taken to assign an outcome between the year ending March 2016 and the year ending March 2023, by outcome group

Source: Home Office Data Hub (HODH)

Figure 3.2 shows the average length of time to assign outcomes by type of outcome and how this has changed over the past seven years. The average time taken to assign a charge/summons outcome had been increasing since the year ending March 2016, when the average was 14 days. Gradual rises were seen up to the year ending March 2018, when the average was 18 days; a period of steeper increases followed until the year ending March 2021, when the average was 43 days. More recently the trend has flattened, with an average of 44 days in both the year ending March 2022 and March 2023.

Figure 3.3 shows that there are variations in outcome types for sexual offences. Charge/summons outcomes for sexual offences took the longest amount of time to be assigned, at a median of 271 days, up from 261 days the previous year. However, charge/summons outcomes for the sub-category of rape offences fell, as described above. The average number of days taken for cases of sexual offences to be closed due to evidential difficulties where the victim supported action increased from 127 in the year ending March 2022 to 145 days in the latest year. The average number of days taken for sexual offences closed with evidential difficulties where the victim did not support action also increased from 49 to 55 days in the same period.

Figure 3.3 The time taken (median days) for sexual offences to receive an outcome, broken down by the type of outcome, for the years ending March 2022 and 2023, England and Wales

Source: Home Office Data Hub (HODH)

Length of time taken to assign an outcome by outcome type

Over a third (37%) of all outcomes were assigned within 5 days of recording the offence, and just over 6 in 10 (61%) within 30 days. The proportion of cases taking over 100 days to assign an outcome increased to 20% (an increase of 4 percentage points compared with the previous year). Table 3.2 below shows how this varied by offence type in the latest year.

Table 3.2 Timeliness: The length of time between offences and outcomes being recorded for outcomes recorded in the year ending March 2023, by offence group, England and Wales

	Same day	1 to 5 days	6 to 30 days	31 to 100 days	More than 100 days
Violence against the person	11%	16%	28%	22%	23%
Sexual offences	5%	8%	20%	25%	42%
of which: Rape	3%	5%	16%	25%	51%
Robbery	5%	10%	20%	24%	41%
Theft offences	29%	22%	20%	14%	14%
Criminal damage and arson	28%	22%	23%	15%	13%
Drug offences	10%	17%	25%	19%	29%
Possession of weapons offences	11%	16%	25%	21%	26%
Public order offences	16%	20%	28%	19%	18%
Miscellaneous offences	13%	15%	24%	20%	28%
All offence types	18%	19%	24%	19%	20%

Source: Home Office Data Hub (HODH)

The longer-term trend has been for a rise in the number of offences taking over 100 days to be assigned a charge/summons outcome (see Figure 3.4). For the year ending March 2023, 36% of all offences with an outcome of charge and/or summons took over 100 days to close, compared with 16% for the year ending March 2016 and 35% for the year ending March 2022. The increase is likely due to a change in the crime mix, with more high-harm crimes being recorded in recent years, which take longer to investigate.

Figure 3.4: The length of time between offences and outcomes being recorded for offences assigned a charge/summons outcome in the years ending March 2016 to March 2023, England and Wales

Source: Home Office Data Hub (HODH)

Sexual offences took longer to assign an outcome than any other crime type, with around 42% of such offences closing after 100 days (of which, 51% of rape cases closed after 100 days). This was higher than the year ending March 2022, where the equivalent proportions were 38% for sexual offences and 48% for rape offences. The proportions this year are similar to those seen in the year ending March 2021, where they were 41% for sexual offences and 49% for rape offences.

In contrast, for the year ending March 2023, nearly one out of every three theft (29%) and criminal damage and arson offences (28%) were closed on the same day that the offence was recorded (see Table 3.2). This was slightly lower than the previous year when 31% of theft offences and 29% of criminal damage and arson offences were closed this quickly.

4. Experimental Statistics: Investigative outcomes assigned to Fraud and Computer Misuse Act (CMA) offences

Key results

• the number of fraud offences recorded increased by 15% between the year ending March 2022 and the year ending March 2023, from 976,093 offences to 1,125,168 offences. This was largely driven by an increase in reports from UK Finance, with a 57% rise from 293,560 offences to 460,537 offences

• in contrast, the number of Computer Misuse Act (CMA) offences recorded decreased by 8%, from 28,189 in the year ending March 2022 to 26,024 in the year ending March 2023

• of those offences recorded by the police, a relatively small number were referred to territorial forces for investigation (2%), The number of fraud offences referred to forces for investigation decreased by 32% (from 26,520 to 18,063) compared with the year ending March 2022

• the number of CMA offences referred to forces for investigation fell by 17% (from 4,169 to 3,480)

• the total number of fraud offences assigned an investigative outcome decreased from 50,202 in the year ending March 2022 to 42,933 (down 14%) in the year ending March 2022, while the total number of CMA offences assigned an outcome decreased from 7,695 to 5,324 (down 31%)

4.1 Introduction

Action Fraud is the UK’s national fraud and cybercrime reporting centre, having taken over the recording of fraud offences from individual police forces in England and Wales on a rolling basis from March 2013. More information on the recording of fraud and Computer Misuse Act (CMA) offences can be found in the Crime Statistics User Guide.

Action Fraud reports are reviewed by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB), based at the City of London Police, who are responsible for allocating offences to forces for them to investigate (these are known as a ‘dissemination package’). Each dissemination package can be made up of any number of offences, from one to hundreds. This depends on the size of the suspected fraud network, as many similar crimes may be linked together if investigators believe one suspect, or set of suspects, is responsible for a number of different offences. Also, an offence can be disseminated more than once, if it links to multiple crime networks. However, each offence only receives one final investigative outcome.

The police recorded crime series, published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), also incorporates offences reported to the NFIB by two fraud prevention industry bodies: Cifas and UK Finance. Figures for these fraud bodies have been included in fraud and total counts only, as neither industry body collects or provides reports relating to CMA offences.

Outcomes data for the year ending March 2022 differ from those published last year and are based on updated data received from the NFIB. For the year ending March 2023, revised figures will be published next year as additional outcomes records are added to the system over the coming months, which may change the percentage differences between years. Where comparisons are made to last year’s data, these are based on the revised data.^{[footnote 3]}

For further information on the NFIB’s outcomes recording process please see the Technical Annex Section.

The disseminations and outcomes dataset provided by the NFIB continues to be subject to development and quality assurance and so these statistics continue to be badged as experimental. The outcomes presented in this section differ to those relating to other crime types as they are based on the old-style outcomes, that is, the number of outcomes recorded within a year regardless of when the offence occurred.

As part of the Government’s Fraud Strategy, launched in May 2023, work is being done with the City of London Police to refresh and upgrade the Action Fraud service. The new service is expected to be fully operational by spring 2024 and will improve the ease of reporting; quality and validation of data; timeliness of the reports from the public; and provide law enforcement with the intelligence they need to investigate and disrupt more fraudsters. The Fraud Strategy sets out plans for working jointly across government, industry, and law enforcement to tackle fraud. It aims to stop frauds from reaching consumers, support victims better and pursue more fraudsters.

4.2 Fraud and Computer Misuse Act offences, disseminations and outcomes in the year ending March 2023 - headline findings

The findings from the disseminations and outcomes data for the year ending March 2023 are presented below. Fraud and CMA offences are presented separately to provide more detail on the outcomes of these related crime types, which differ in their nature and investigation.

Table 4.1 shows the number of unique fraud and CMA offences sent to police forces for investigation, alongside the total number of fraud and CMA offences recorded in the years ending March 2022 and 2023.

The number of recorded fraud offences have been on an upward trend since the NFIB took over responsibility for recording fraud in April 2011. Unlike most other crime types, fraud and CMA offences have continued to rise since the COVID-19 pandemic. There was a 15% increase in the year ending March 2023 compared with the previous year (up from 1,004,282 to 1,151,192 offences).

While levels of fraud offences have continued to increase, the number of disseminations in the last year have decreased from 26,520 cases to 18,063 in the year ending March 2023.

Disseminated CMA offences also fell (by 17%) in the latest year from 4,169 in the year ending March 2022 to 3,480 in the year ending March 2023.

The NFIB experienced staff shortages in the year ending March 2023 which contributed to this decrease in disseminations.

Table 4.1: Number of fraud and CMA offences and disseminations, year ending March 2022 and year ending March 2023, not including Devon and Cornwall Police (Experimental Statistics) [note 1, 2, 6]

	Year ending Mar 2022	Year ending Mar 2022	Year ending Mar 2022	Year ending Mar 2023	Year ending Mar 2023	Year ending Mar 2023	% change	% change	% change
	Fraud [note 3]	CMA [note 3]	Total [note 3]	Fraud	CMA	Total	Fraud	CMA	Total
Total number of offences:	976,093	28,189	1,004,282	1,125,168	26,024	1,151,192	15%	-8%	15%
Number recorded by Action Fraud [note 6]	347,300	28,189	375,489	293,291	26,024	319,315	-16%	-8%	-15%
Number recorded by Cifas [note 5]	335,233	[x]	335,233	371,340	[x]	371,340	11%	[x]	11%
Number recorded by UK Finance [note 5]	293,560	[x]	293,560	460,537	[x]	460,537	57%	[x]	57%
Total number of unique offences within disseminations [note 4, 6, 7]	26,520	4,169	31,075	18,063	3,480	21,546	-32%	-17%	-31%

Notes:

1. Caution should be taken when comparing data for fraud offences and disseminations. Data presented are for offences and disseminations recorded within the year. Offences which are disseminated will not necessarily be disseminated in the year the offence was recorded.

2. These data are Experimental Statistics, which means that caution should be taken when interpreting the figures.

3. Recorded fraud and CMA offences for the year ending March 2022 do not match previously published figures due to data revisions and the exclusion of Devon and Cornwall Police.

4. These numbers reflect the total number of unique offences referred to forces for further investigation, so offences in two or more disseminations packages are only counted once. The overall total includes some offences without a final offence code, so totals do not sum.

5. Cifas and UK Finance do not report CMA offences.

6. Devon and Cornwall Police have been excluded from this publication due to data availability issues.

7. During the year to March 2023 the NFIB experienced staff shortages, contributing to a reduction of disseminations by volume.

[x] indicates that data are not available.

4.3 Outcomes recorded against fraud and Computer Misuse Act {CMA} offences by outcome type

Table 4.2 shows the number of investigative outcomes recorded by the police against fraud and CMA offences in the year ending March 2022 and the year ending March 2023, by outcome type. These are presented alongside the total number of fraud and CMA offences disseminated to the police and the total number of recorded fraud and CMA offences for the latest and previous year. The figures presented here differ from the way in which they are presented in Section 2 for all other recorded crime since it is not currently possible to link individual crime records to their outcomes for fraud and CMA offences. The outcomes included here simply relate to cases closed in the latest year and may relate to disseminations from a previous year.

Table 4.2: Number of fraud and CMA outcomes recorded in the year ending March 2022 and the year ending March 2023 by outcome type, not including Devon and Cornwall Police (Experimental Statistics)[note 1, 3, 7]

	Year ending Mar 2022 [note 5]	Year ending Mar 2022 [note 5]	Year ending Mar 2022 [note 5]	Year ending Mar 2023	Year ending Mar 2023	Year ending Mar 2023	% change between Mar 2022 and Mar 2023	% change between Mar 2022 and Mar 2023	% change between Mar 2022 and Mar 2023
Outcome type/group	Fraud	CMA	Total	Fraud	CMA	Total	Fraud	CMA	Total
Charged/Summonsed	4,854	98	4,952	3,904	58	3,962	-20%	-41%	-20%
Taken Into Consideration [note 2]	101	8	109	157	[x]	157	55%	[z]	44%
Out-of-court (formal)	446	28	474	442	34	476	-1%	[z]	0%
Caution - youths	21	[x]	21	20	1	21	[z]	[z]	[z]
Caution - adults	423	28	451	421	33	454	0%	[z]	1%
Penalty Notices for Disorder	2	[x]	2	1	[x]	1	[z]	[z]	[z]
Out-of-court (informal)	491	33	524	445	16	461	-9%	[z]	-12%
Cannabis/Khat warning [note 4]	[x]	[x]	[x]	[x]	[x]	[x]	[x]	[x]	[x]
Community resolution	491	33	524	445	16	461	-9%	[z]	-12%
Prosecution prevented or not in the public interest	881	16	897	501	20	521	-43%	[z]	-42%
Offender died [note 8]	271	[x]	271	35	[x]	35	[z]	[z]	[z]
Not in public interest (CPS)	70	1	71	42	2	44	[z]	[z]	[z]
Not in public interest (Police)	330	8	338	194	9	203	-41%	[z]	-40%
Prosecution prevented - suspect under age	3	[x]	3	5	1	6	[z]	[z]	[z]
Prosecution prevented - suspect too ill	35	1	36	34	[x]	34	[z]	[z]	[z]
Prosecution prevented - victim/key witness dead/too ill	132	[x]	132	174	4	178	32%	[z]	35%
Prosecution time limit expired	40	6	46	17	4	21	[z]	[z]	[z]
Evidential difficulties (suspect identified; victim supports action)	11,547	781	12,328	9,981	498	10,479	-14%	-36%	-15%
Evidential difficulties (victim does not support action)	8,330	1,364	9,694	7,582	840	8,422	-9%	-38%	-13%
Evidential difficulties: suspect not identified; victim does not support further action	2,718	848	3,566	2,303	456	2,759	-15%	-46%	-23%
Evidential difficulties: suspect identified; victim does not support further action	5,612	516	6,128	5,279	384	5,663	-6%	-26%	-8%
Investigation complete - no suspect identified	20,382	5,198	25,580	17,349	3,714	21,063	-15%	-29%	-18%
Action undertaken by another body/agency	1,526	77	1,603	1,467	57	1,524	-4%	-26%	-5%
Further investigation to support formal action not in the public interest	1,442	67	1,509	833	38	871	-42%	[z]	-42%
Diversionary, educational or intervention activity, resulting from the crime report, has been undertaken and it is not in the public interest to take any further action [note 6]	202	25	227	272	49	321	35%	[z]	41%
Total number of outcomes	50,202	7,695	57,897	42,933	5,324	48,257	-14%	-31%	-17%
Total number of unique offences within disseminations [note 9, 10]	26,520	4,169	31,075	18,063	3,480	21,546	-32%	-17%	-31%
Total recorded offences	976,093	28,189	1,004,282	1,125,168	26,024	1,151,192	15%	-8%	15%

Notes:

1. These data are Experimental Statistics, which means that caution should be taken when interpreting the figures.

2. Offences asked to be taken into consideration by a court (TICs).

3. Offences recorded by Action Fraud, Cifas and UK Finance with outcomes recorded by the NFIB in the year ending March 2022 or the year ending March 2023.

4. This outcome does not apply to fraud offences.

5. Following updates from forces, figures for the year ending March 2022 have been revised from last year’s publication.

6. This outcome was introduced in April 2019. This was previously a voluntary outcome type for police forces to record.

7. Devon and Cornwall Police have been excluded from this publication due to data availability issues.

8. The large number of ‘offender died’ outcomes for the year ending March 2022 was attributed to two prolific suspects.

9. These numbers reflect the total number of unique offences disseminated to forces for further investigation, so offences in two or more dissemination packages are only counted once. The overall total includes some offences without a final offence code, so totals do not sum.

10. During the year ending March 2023 the NFIB experienced staff shortages, contributing to a reduction of disseminations by volume.

[z] indicates that percentage changes have been suppressed for cases under 50

[x] refers to zero

Compared with other crime types (reported in Section 2), a very low number of recorded fraud and CMA offences were subject to investigative outcomes.

Between the year ending March 2022 and March 2023, a 32% decrease was seen in the number of fraud offences disseminated to police forces (down by 8,457 offences disseminated), and a 17% decrease in CMA disseminations (down by 689 offences disseminated). The decreases in disseminations were partly due to staff shortages at the NFIB, which have now been resolved. The NFIB consider a number of factors before disseminating fraud and CMA offences to forces, including whether or not there are viable lines of enquiry. ^{[footnote 4]}

The number of disseminated fraud offences that were closed with a ‘charge and/or summons’ outcome fell by 20% (from 4,854 to 3,904) between the year ending March 2022 and the year ending March 2023. In the same period, there was also a decrease in the number of CMA offences that received a ‘charge and/or summons’ outcome down from 98 to 58), representing a 41% fall.

For both fraud and CMA offences there was a decrease in the number of cases closed with an outcome of ‘investigation complete: no suspect identified’; the number of fraud offences closed with this outcome in the latest year decreased by 15%, down from 20,382 to 17,349; this was equivalent to 40% of fraud investigative outcomes (a similar proportion to the 41% the previous year). The number of CMA offences that received this outcome also decreased (by 29%) from 5,198 in the year ending March 2022 to 3,714 in the year ending March 2023.

4.4 Disseminations and outcomes by Police Force Area

Tables 4.3.1 and 4.3.2 show fraud and CMA disseminations and outcomes data for the years ending March 2022 and March 2023 by Police Force Area (PFA).

As previously mentioned, it is important to note that the number of outcomes does not correspond to the number of disseminations in a given year. Caution should be taken when comparing the number of outcomes to disseminated offences as fraud and CMA investigations can take months or longer to complete, meaning the offence may have occurred in a previous year. Small numbers at PFA level also mean fluctuations from year to year are common.

During the year to March 2023 the NFIB experienced staff shortages, which have now been rectified. There has also been a review of the processes by which reports are prioritised, reviewed and disseminated to improve volume, timeliness and quality. Whilst the new processes have been bedded in and staff trained in the change in processes, this had an impact on dissemination volumes.

Table 4.3.1: Fraud and Computer Misuse Act (CMA) offences disseminated to forces [note 2], by police force area, years ending March 2022 and March 2023 (Experimental Statistics) [note 1, 3, 4]

	Year ending Mar 2022	Year ending Mar 2022	Year ending Mar 2022	Year ending Mar 2023	Year ending Mar 2023	Year ending Mar 2023	% Change
Police Force	Fraud	CMA	Total	Fraud	CMA	Total	Total
Avon and Somerset	355	144	504	216	66	282	-44%
Bedfordshire	332	60	399	209	30	239	-40%
Cambridgeshire	284	49	335	86	41	127	-62%
Cheshire	393	80	476	172	69	241	-49%
City of London	1,479	30	1,526	70	14	84	-94%
Cleveland [note 5]	98	30	128	306	33	339	165%
Cumbria	70	37	107	62	38	101	-6%
Derbyshire	178	36	216	271	46	317	47%
Devon and Cornwall [note 4]	[x]	[x]	[x]	[x]	[x]	[x]	[x]
Dorset	312	79	410	124	60	184	-55%
Durham	139	37	177	147	28	175	-1%
Essex	665	155	842	458	97	555	-34%
Gloucestershire	339	30	370	56	31	87	-76%
Greater Manchester	1,497	128	1,639	760	140	900	-45%
Hampshire	504	209	764	250	278	528	-31%
Hertfordshire	426	106	533	233	64	298	-44%
Humberside	452	60	515	111	45	156	-70%
Kent	729	100	833	497	116	613	-26%
Lancashire	359	91	465	297	78	375	-19%
Leicestershire	738	54	799	507	44	551	-31%
Lincolnshire	291	34	326	90	42	132	-60%
Merseyside	586	55	646	341	40	381	-41%
Metropolitan	8,328	1,045	9,655	7,890	804	8,693	-10%
Norfolk	188	50	241	147	42	189	-22%
North Yorkshire	91	45	149	65	50	116	-22%
Northamptonshire	234	104	338	244	74	318	-6%
Northumbria	399	49	453	110	47	157	-65%
Nottinghamshire	1,419	111	1,537	443	118	561	-64%
South Yorkshire	624	39	714	276	58	334	-53%
Staffordshire	270	55	327	208	89	297	-9%
Suffolk	138	23	161	192	27	219	36%
Surrey	322	136	465	160	45	205	-56%
Sussex	421	120	546	329	91	420	-23%
Thames Valley	1,163	182	1,367	496	121	617	-55%
Warwickshire	106	45	152	62	33	95	-38%
West Mercia	247	59	308	127	51	178	-42%
West Midlands	1,773	188	2,002	947	116	1,064	-47%
West Yorkshire	720	126	856	581	140	721	-16%
Wiltshire	269	43	313	90	39	129	-59%
England	26,038	3,941	30,353	17,580	3,344	20,927	-31%
Dyfed-Powys	100	94	196	101	14	115	-41%
Gwent	64	17	81	64	23	87	7%
North Wales	121	39	161	58	44	102	-37%
South Wales	191	80	272	262	52	314	15%
Wales	475	228	707	485	133	618	-13%
England and Wales	26,509	4,169	31,056	18,062	3,477	21,542	-31%
British Transport Police	20	0	20	1	3	4	[z]
Grand Total [note 6]	26,528	4,169	31,075	18,063	3,480	21,546	-31%

Notes:

1. These data are Experimental Statistics, which means that caution should be taken when interpreting the figures.

2. These numbers reflect the total number of unique offences disseminated to forces for further investigation, so offences in two or more dissemination packages are only counted once. The overall total includes some offences without a final offence code, so totals do not sum across offence type or geography.

3. Offences reported by Cifas and UK Finance are now included in the relevant fraud categories. In publications before the year ending March 2021, these figures were only included in the total number of disseminated offences.

4. Devon and Cornwall Police have been excluded from this publication due to data availability issues.

5. The increase in disseminations to Cleveland Police has been driven by large groups of linked offences.

6. During the year ending March 2023 the NFIB experienced staff shortages, contributing to a reduction of disseminations by volume.

[x] indicates unavailable data

[z] indicates that percentage changes have been suppressed for cases under 50

Table 4.3.2: Outcomes assigned to recorded fraud and Computer Misuse Act (CMA) offences [note 2, 3], by police force area, year ending March 2022 to year ending March 2023 (Experimental Statistics) [note 1, 4]

	Year ending Mar 2022	Year ending Mar 2022	Year ending Mar 2022	Year ending Mar 2023	Year ending Mar 2023	Year ending Mar 2023	% Change
Police Force	Fraud [note 3]	CMA [note 3]	Total [note 3]	Fraud	CMA	Total	Total
Avon and Somerset [note 5]	721	365	1,086	502	214	716	-34%
Bedfordshire	1,286	142	1,428	1,612	123	1,735	21%
Cambridgeshire	643	87	730	584	53	637	-13%
Cheshire	292	163	455	363	57	420	-8%
City of London [note 6]	1,289	19	1,308	360	3	363	-72%
Cleveland	335	32	367	224	21	245	-33%
Cumbria	481	90	571	437	82	519	-9%
Derbyshire	365	76	441	386	24	410	-7%
Devon and Cornwall [note 4]	[x]	[x]	[x]	[x]	[x]	[x]	[x]
Dorset	933	170	1,103	838	207	1,045	-5%
Durham [note 7]	226	21	247	731	23	754	205%
Essex	1,201	116	1,317	1,308	100	1,408	7%
Gloucestershire	854	99	953	940	115	1,055	11%
Greater Manchester [note 6, 8]	3,319	201	3,520	2,784	58	2,842	-19%
Hampshire	737	348	1,085	405	219	624	-42%
Hertfordshire	826	230	1,056	804	75	879	-17%
Humberside [note 9]	899	72	971	371	21	392	-60%
Kent	1,899	281	2,180	1,512	202	1,714	-21%
Lancashire	1,283	245	1,528	1,640	292	1,932	26%
Leicestershire	555	171	726	512	61	573	-21%
Lincolnshire [note 9]	1,196	102	1,298	737	62	799	-38%
Merseyside	335	94	429	525	52	577	34%
Metropolitan [note 6]	8,595	1,029	9,624	5,389	787	6,176	-36%
Norfolk	662	127	789	585	104	689	-13%
North Yorkshire [note 8]	32	14	46	52	17	69	[z]
Northamptonshire [note 9]	977	165	1,142	642	114	756	-34%
Northumbria	448	37	485	461	31	492	1%
Nottinghamshire	4,510	538	5,048	3,845	477	4,322	-14%
South Yorkshire	932	237	1,169	874	246	1,120	-4%
Staffordshire	799	29	828	1,115	88	1,203	45%
Suffolk	370	90	460	319	84	403	-12%
Surrey	920	168	1,088	859	75	934	-14%
Sussex	1,729	244	1,973	1,061	98	1,159	-41%
Thames Valley	1,435	200	1,635	1,720	293	2,013	23%
Warwickshire	442	55	497	488	54	542	9%
West Mercia	887	85	972	886	58	944	-3%
West Midlands [note 6]	2,045	643	2,688	1,097	106	1,203	-55%
West Yorkshire	1,957	389	2,346	1,802	287	2,089	-11%
Wiltshire	627	150	777	633	96	729	-6%
England	47,042	7,324	54,366	39,403	5,079	44,482	-18%
Dyfed-Powys [note 8]	516	77	593	303	11	314	-47%
Gwent	346	19	365	606	24	630	73%
North Wales	1,027	106	1,133	1,780	180	1,960	73%
South Wales	1,144	168	1,312	806	30	836	-36%
Wales	3,033	370	3,403	3,495	245	3,740	10%
England and Wales	50,075	7,694	57,769	42,898	5,324	48,222	-17%
British Transport Police	127	1	128	35	0	35	[z]
Grand Total	50,202	7,695	57,897	42,933	5,324	48,257	-17%

Notes:

1. These data are Experimental Statistics, which means that caution should be taken when interpreting the figures.

2. The number of outcomes will not necessarily correspond to the number of disseminations in a given year since investigations can take months or longer to complete.

3. Following updates from forces, figures for the year ending March 2022 have been revised from last year’s publication.

4. Devon and Cornwall Police have been excluded from this publication due to data availability issues.

5. Avon and Somerset Police have a backlog of outcomes to process and figures are likely to increase in next year’s revision.

6. City of London Police, Greater Manchester Police, the Metropolitan Police, and West Midlands Police reported their reduction in outcomes as being driven by a reduction in disseminations received.

7. Durham Constabulary carried out a large investigation in the year ending March 2023, which returned a large number of outcomes.

8. Greater Manchester Police, North Yorkshire Police, and Dyfed-Powys Police reported that changes in procedures contributed to their changes in outcomes reporting.

9. Humberside Police, Lincolnshire Police, and Northamptonshire Police all carried out fraud investigations in the year ending March 2022 that returned large numbers of outcomes.

[z] indicates that percentage changes have been suppressed for cases under 50

[x] indicates unavailable data

5. Further Information

References

Home Office (2017), “Crime outcomes in England and Wales 2016/17”, and subsequent quarterly data tables. Available at:

Crime outcomes in England and Wales 2016 to 2017 second edition - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Home Office (2019), “National campaign to recruit 20,000 police officers launces today”. Available at:

National campaign to recruit 20,000 police officers launches today - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Home Office (2020), “Police Officer uplift statistics”. Available at:

Police Officer uplift statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Home Office (2021), “Crime outcomes in England and Wales 2020 to 2021”. Available at:

Crime outcomes in England and Wales 2020 to 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Home Office (2023), “Fraud Strategy: stopping scams and protecting the public”. Available at:

Fraud Strategy: stopping scams and protecting the public (accessible) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Home Office. Criminal justice system (CJS) delivery data dashboard. Available at:

Home - CJS Dashboard (justice.gov.uk)

Home Office. Police recorded crime and outcomes open data tables. Available at:

Police recorded crime and outcomes open data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Home Office. Home Office Crime Recording Rules for frontline officers & staff. Available at:

Home Office Crime Recording Rules for frontline officers and staff - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

His Majesty’s Government (2021). “The end-to-end rape review report on findings and actions. Available at:

The end-to-end rape review report on findings and actions (publishing.service.gov.uk)

HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) (2014), “Crime-recording: making the victim count”. Available at:

crime-recording-making-the-victim-count.pdf (justiceinspectorates.gov.uk)

HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) (2019), “State of Policing: The Annual Assessment of Policing in England and Wales 2019.” Available at:

State of Policing: The Annual Assessment of Policing in England and Wales 2019 (justiceinspectorates.gov.uk)

HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) (2022), “State of Policing: The Annual Assessment of Policing in England and Wales 2022.” Available at:

State of Policing: The Annual Assessment of Policing in England and Wales 2022 - His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (justiceinspectorates.gov.uk)

National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) (2022), “All home burglaries will be attended by the police”. Available at:

All home burglaries will be attended by the police (npcc.police.uk)

National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) (2023), “Police now attending scene of every home burglary”. Available at:

Police now attending scene of every home burglary (npcc.police.uk)

Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2018), “Crime in England and Wales: Year ending March 2018”. Available at:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice

Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2017), User Guide to Crime Statistics for England and Wales. Available at:

Crime and justice methodology - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)

Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2022), “Domestic abuse and the criminal justice system, England and Wales. Available at:

Domestic abuse and the criminal justice system, England and Wales - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)

Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2023), “Crime in England and Wales: Year ending March 2023”. Available at:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/releases/crimeinenglandandwalesyearendingmarch2023

Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2023), “Crime in England and Wales: Other related tables”. Available at:

Crime in England and Wales: Other related tables - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)

Crime and crime outcomes data are also published alongside justice outcomes data from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in the [Criminal Justice System Delivery Data Dashboard](https://criminal-justice-delivery-data-dashboards.justice.gov.uk/

UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) (2014), “Assessment of compliance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics”. Available at:

Assessment Report 268 - Statistics on Crime in England and Wales (statisticsauthority.gov.uk)

Important Information

Before April 2013, official statistics about how the police deal with crimes focused narrowly on ‘detections’ (the number of cases resolved with a formal or informal criminal justice outcome). In April 2013, the Home Office introduced the new outcomes framework and changed the presentation of its crime outcomes statistics.

From April 2014 onwards, police forces have supplied data to the Home Office on a broader set of outcomes including those that do not result in a formal or informal criminal justice outcome. The year to March 2014 bulletin ^{[footnote 5]} , published in July 2014, showed the first provisional statistics from the new outcomes framework. We have since developed the statistics with input from police forces and users.

Outcomes 1a, 2a, 3a, are currently not published within the summary or open tables. To increase transparency there is plan to start publishing them from October 2023. The Home Office will begin a quality assurance process over the summer.

We continue to ensure that these police recorded crime outcomes statistics are:

• meeting identified user needs, including providing new analysis and greater transparency

• well explained and readily accessible

• produced according to sound methods

• managed impartially and objectively in the public interest

The statistics in this bulletin are designated as Official Statistics as in January 2014, the UK Statistics Authority found that police recorded crime statistics did not meet the required standard for designation as National Statistics. The full assessment report against the Code of Practice for Official Statistics can be found on the UK Statistics Authority.

In July 2014, the Home Office Chief Statistician and the UK Statistics Authority Head of Assessment agreed to badge the year to March 2014 Crime Outcomes bulletin as Official Statistics, rather than National Statistics. This reflects the move to the new outcomes framework, and also the possibility that outcomes data are affected by similar issues to those that led to the de-designation of police recorded crime statistics.

Full details are available here:

Outcomes (formerly Detections) Statistics

Outcomes (formerly Detections) Statistics

Previous Releases

Earlier editions of this bulletin included a section on outcomes for domestic abuse-related offences. This has not been produced in recent years as data are now published by ONS.

Previous editions of ‘Crime Outcomes in England and Wales’ bulletins

Copies of other Home Office publications (including crime statistics releases prior to April 2012)

Copies of crime statistics publications from April 2012 are available from the Office for National Statistics website

This includes the User Guide to Crime Statistics, a useful reference guide with explanatory notes regarding the issues and classifications that are key to the production and presentation of the crime statistics.

Contact Details

For further information about crime outcomes statistics, please email:

CrimeandPoliceStats@homeoffice.gov.uk or write to:

Crime and Policing Statistics 5th Floor Fry Building 2 Marsham Street London SW1P 4DF

Home Office Responsible Statistician: John Flatley, Programme Director of Crime and Policing Statistics

Contact via CrimeandPoliceStats@homeoffice.gov.uk

1. Crime Recording: Making the victim count ↩

2. State of Policing: The Annual Assessment of Policing in England and Wales 2019. HMICFRS estimated that, compared with their findings from their 2014 inspection, better compliance with recording standards meant police forces recorded around 570,000 more crimes during 2019. ↩

3. Crime outcomes in England and Wales 2021 to 2022 ↩

4. Fraud and cyber crime national statistics - Action Fraud, see section on ‘How we choose which crimes are sent to forces’. ↩

5. Crime outcomes in England and Wales 2014 to 2015. ↩