Court Guide · Sources checked 13 September 2026 · England and Wales · police force area
Counts are aggregated from individual offence codes in the Home Office open tables. They describe offences recorded by police, not all crime experienced by the public. Recording practices and reporting behaviour affect changes.
Quarterly recorded offences
Scroll sideways to see all the columns.
| Financial year | Quarter | Offences |
|---|---|---|
| 2023/24 | 1 | 15,786 |
| 2023/24 | 2 | 15,484 |
| 2023/24 | 3 | 14,365 |
| 2023/24 | 4 | 13,931 |
| 2024/25 | 1 | 15,531 |
| 2024/25 | 2 | 15,458 |
| 2024/25 | 3 | 14,592 |
| 2024/25 | 4 | 13,966 |
| 2025/26 | 1 | 14,897 |
| 2025/26 | 2 | 15,161 |
| 2025/26 | 3 | 14,160 |
| 2025/26 | 4 | 13,596 |
Offence groups in 2025/26
Scroll sideways to see all the columns.
| Offence group | Recorded offences |
|---|---|
| Criminal damage and arson | 5,895 |
| Drug offences | 2,012 |
| Miscellaneous crimes against society | 1,809 |
| Possession of weapons offences | 822 |
| Public order offences | 4,620 |
| Robbery | 436 |
| Sexual offences | 3,355 |
| Theft offences | 14,245 |
| Violence against the person | 24,620 |
Police outcomes: two distinct cohorts
Scroll sideways to see all the columns.
| Outcome group | Offences recorded in 2025/26: outcomes assigned by extraction | Investigations closed during 2025/26 |
|---|---|---|
| Charged/Summonsed | 7,093 | 8,508 |
| 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. | 221 | 291 |
| Evidential difficulties (suspect identified; victim supports action) | 7,002 | 7,957 |
| Evidential difficulties (victim does not support action) | 20,338 | 21,028 |
| Further investigation to support formal action not in the public interest – police decision | 296 | 324 |
| Investigation complete – no suspect identified | 12,463 | 12,672 |
| Not yet assigned an outcome | 3,748 | Not applicable |
| Out-of-court (formal) | 764 | 842 |
| Out-of-court (informal) | 2,704 | 2,840 |
| Prosecution prevented or not in the public interest | 1,237 | 1,393 |
| Responsibility for further investigation transferred to another body | 1,485 | 1,538 |
| Taken into consideration | 463 | 563 |
How to interpret these figures
Financial quarters are April–June (1), July–September (2), October–December (3) and January–March (4). This geography and counting system differ from Police.uk anonymised street-level records.
These totals are not population-adjusted rankings. Force and partnership boundaries, coverage changes and offences handled nationally affect comparability. Fraud and computer misuse are not comprehensively represented by these territorial tables.
All included offence-count cells were numeric. Offence categories are not added to their own subtotals.
Police recording, assigned police outcomes, prosecutions and convictions are separate datasets. They cannot be joined into an individual case journey or used to calculate a conviction rate.
The outcome columns are separate cohorts: outcomes assigned to offences recorded in the year (as known at extraction), and outcomes of investigations closed during the year. Unassigned outcomes have no closed-investigation count. Do not add these columns or treat them as court verdicts.
Useful next steps
Practical help: police force recorded crime data
Police recorded crime shows offences recorded by police. It does not capture every crime experienced, and changes in reporting or recording can affect trends. These force-wide tables complement the site’s local Police.uk pages.
Compare the same geography and period
Financial years run from April to March. Check boundaries, force notes and offence coverage before comparing periods. A busier or larger area can record more offences without having a higher rate per resident.
Keep outcomes separate
An offence recorded in a quarter and an investigation closed in that quarter are different cohorts. Prosecutions and convictions follow their own counting systems. We do not link these aggregates into individual cases.
Official guidance and related resources
Data sources
- Police recorded crime and outcomes open data tables · checked 13 September 2026
Figures retain the source’s units and periods. Unknown or suppressed values are not treated as zero. Methods and coverage · Report a correction.