Incidence rates of crime in rural and urban areas.

Metadata

Indicators:

• police recorded violence against the person offences per 1,000 population
• police recorded sexual offences per 1,000 population
• police recorded robbery offences per 1,000 population
• police recorded domestic burglary offences per 1,000 households
• police recorded vehicles offences per 1,000 population

Data Source: ONS, Recorded crime data at Community Safety Partnership / Local Authority level

Coverage: England

Rural classification used: Local Authority Rural Urban Classification

Additional information:

• https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/recordedcrimedataatcommunitysafetypartnershiplocalauthoritylevel" class="govuk-link">Office for National Statistics recorded crime data at community safety partnership / local authority level

<p class="govuk-body">You can also contact us via Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/DefraStats" class="govuk-link">https://twitter.com/DefraStats</a></p>

From 1 April 2012, the British Crime Survey (BCS) will be known as the Crime Survey for England and Wales to better reflect its geographical coverage.

While the survey did previously cover the whole of Great Britain, it ceased to include Scotland in its sample in the late 1980s. There is a separate survey - the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey - covering Scotland.

From 1 April 2012, National Statistics on crime previously published by the Home Office will be published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

For more information see the http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/taxonomy/index.html?nscl=Crime+in+England+and+Wales" class="govuk-link">ONS Crime in England and Wales web page.

Queries regarding these outputs should be directed to crimestatistics@ONS.gov.uk.

Key publications

• http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/science-research-statistics/research-statistics/crime-research/consult-bcs-ipvq-2011/hos-response-bcs-ipv-0112" class="govuk-link">Consultation on the British Crime Survey intimate personal violence questionnaire - Response from Home Office Statistics
  19 January 2012
• http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/science-research-statistics/research-statistics/crime-research/bcs1011tech1" class="govuk-link">British Crime Survey 2010-11 technical report
  1 December 2011

More publications

• See more http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/science-research-statistics/research-statistics/crime-research/" class="govuk-link">crime research and statistics publications
• http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110218135832/http://rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/index.html" class="govuk-link">Archived RDS website - for publications from before May 2010

Our work

The Crime Survey for England and Wales, previously the British Crime Survey (BCS), is one of the largest social research surveys conducted in England and Wales. It asks people resident in households about their experiences of crime in face-to-face interviews.

In the 2010/11 BCS, around 51,000 people were interviewed, that is, around 47,000 adults aged 16 or over in the main survey and a further 4,000 interviews conducted with children aged 10 to 15. Find out more about this research with children at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/science-research/research-statistics/crime/crime-statistics/bcs-10-15-year-olds/" class="govuk-link">British Crime Survey 10 to 15-year-olds.

Around 1,000 interviews were carried out in each police force area in 2010/11. The overall response rate is currently 76 per cent - among the highest for the large continuous government surveys.

The first survey, in 1982, covered England, Wales and Scotland. Scotland now has its own survey (Scottish Crime & Justice Survey), as does Northern Ireland (Northern Ireland Crime & Victimisation Survey).

Technical reports

Crime statisticians produce a technical report providing information on survey design, weighting and survey response every survey year. The latest available is http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/science-research-statistics/research-statistics/crime-research/bcs1011tech1" class="govuk-link">British Crime Survey (England and Wales) 2010-11 technical report. See the National Archives for previous technical reports.

The design of the survey has changed over the years but the core set of questions asked about victimisation experiences have remained constant.

BCS datasets

Anonymised datasets from the BCS in SPSS format are available on the http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/" class="govuk-link">UK Data Archive through the http://www.esds.ac.uk/government/" class="govuk-link">Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS). Researchers, including students, who need data for dissertations or practical work can use these datasets.

The BCS is a complex study with data organised at different levels (households, individuals and incidents) but full supporting documentation and metadata are available with access to the data. Users who need help in analysing the data can contact the http://www.esds.ac.uk/government/contact/" class="govuk-link">ESDS Government helpdesk.

Interpersonal violence: question development for the BCS

We commissioned research to review questions in the BCS relating to intimate personal violen

List of the data tables as part of the ‘Crime outcomes in England and Wales’ Home Office release.

There are counting rules for recorded crime to help to ensure that crimes are recorded consistently and accurately.

These tables are designed to have many uses. The Home Office would like to hear from any users who have developed applications for these data tables and any suggestions for future releases. If you have any feedback, please contact the Crime Analysis team at crimeandpolicestats@homeoffice.gov.uk.

Related content

Crime outcomes in England and Wales statistics
Police recorded crime and outcomes open data tables user guide

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/680797798c1316be7978e6cb/recrime-geo-pfa.csv">Recorded crime data geographical reference table (CSV, 21.9 KB)

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6807988b148a9969d2394e5a/reccrime-offence-ref.ods">Recorded crime data offence reference table (ODS, 14 KB)

Police record crime open data, Police force area tables

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/687f9242f2ecaeb756d0e1f6/prc-pfa-mar2013-onwards-tables-240725.ods">Police recorded crime open data Police Force Area tables, year ending March 2013 onwards (ODS, 12.6 MB)

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/680799ed8c1316be7978e6cd/prc-pfa-mar2008-mar2012-tabs.ods">Police recorded crime open data Police Force Area tables from March 2008 to March 2012 (ODS, 6.05 MB)

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68079a4f3bdfd1243078e6d2/prc-pfa-0203-to-0607-tabs.ods">Police recorded crime open data Police Force Area tables from year ending March 2003 to year ending March 2007 (ODS, 4.79 MB)

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/687e0c4fec877ce6a9f9c679/prc-subcodes-vawg-offences-mar2020-mar2025-240725.ods">Police recorded crime subcodes for selected VAWG offences, from year ending March 2020 to year ending March 2025 (ODS, 648 KB)

Police record crime open data, Community Safety Partnership tables

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/687df10ca8ee0c6e06f452d9/prc-csp-mar16-mar25-tables-240725.ods">Police recorded crime Community Safety Partnership open data, year ending March 2016 to year ending March 2025 (ODS, 75.4 MB)

<a class="govuk-link" href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6

Home Office Statistical Bulletin 08/12 presents police recorded crime statistics on the levels and trends in detections and detection rates in England & Wales for the financial year 2011/12.

The bulletin focuses on sanction detections where the offender receives some formal sanction such as being charged or summonsed, cautioned, reprimanded or given a final warning. Sanction detections also include penalty notices for disorder, warnings for cannabis possession and offences which are asked to be taken into consideration by a court.

Longer term datasets contain https://data.gov.uk/dataset/0e26ee1b-26b7-406e-a3b1-f3481b324977/local-police-recorded-crime-data" class="govuk-link">police recorded crime for police force areas and local authorities.

When the Home Secretary commissioned the National Statistician to undertake an independent review of crime statistics for England and Wales in December 2010, the terms of reference asked her to consider “whether or not the categories of notifiable offences for police recorded crime reported in the national statistics can be sensibly rationalised without reducing public trust or damaging transparency”.

The National Statistician found that there may be some scope to reduce the number of crime categories used for the reporting and collection of police recorded crime, and to consider how some offences currently excluded from notifiable crime might be reflected in published crime statistics. The National Statistician also stated that any change must be managed and introduced in a controlled and transparent way. She recommended that the issue should be considered by the new independent Advisory Committee on crime statistics that her report also recommended be established.

To inform the Committee’s consideration of these proposals, the Home Office issued a National Statistics consultation on 20 October 2011 on proposed changes to the collection.

• http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/science-research-statistics/research-statistics/home-office-science/consult-reccrime-class/consult-reccrime-class" class="govuk-link">Consultation on changes to recorded crime classifications and categories (PDF file - 367kb)
• http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/science-research-statistics/research-statistics/home-office-science/consult-reccrime-class/consult-reccrime-class-tabs" class="govuk-link">Data tables - Consultation on changes to recorded crime classifications and categories data tables (Microsoft Excel file - 130kb)

Below is the Home Office response to the above consultation which summarises the response from users to the consultation and the subsequent advice the Crime Statistics Advisory Committee gave to the Home Secretary on the issue. The Committee’s advice to the Home Secretary and her response are available at the web page of the http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/national-statistician/ns-reports--reviews-and-guidance/national-statistician-s-advisory-committees/crime-statistics-advisory-committee.html" class="govuk-link">Crime Statistics Advisory Committee.

The outlined changes to the classifications used for the collection of police recorded crime will come into effect on 1 April 2012.

• http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/science-research-statistics/research-statistics/home-office-science/consult-reccrime-class/consult-reccrime-class-response" class="govuk-link">Consultation on the changes to Police Recorded Crime classifications: Response from Home Office Statistics (PDF file - 288kb)

The changes to the collection outlined above will have no effect on the total number of recorded crimes but will have some limited impact on sub-categories due the aggregation of some existing categories. The changes will not feed through into the published statistics until the release related to the period ending June 2012, due for release in October 2012. A methodological note explaining the changes being made, the reasons for the change and an assessment of the likely impact will be published on 19 April along with the next quarterly release of crime statistics.

Responsibility for the compilation and publication of crime statistics for England and Wales will transfer to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) from 1 April 2012. The ONS will be considering improvements to the presentation of published statistics in line with the recommendations made in the National Statistician’s review. This will include the presentation of the recorded crime classifications in National Statistics outputs which will be affected by changes to collection outlined above.

Date: Thu Mar 29 09:30:00 BST 2012

• http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/science-research-statistics/research-statistics/home-office-science/consult-reccrime-class/consult-reccrime-class?view=Binary" class="govuk-link">Consultation on changes to recorded crime classifications and categories (PDF file - 367kb)
• http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/science-research-statistics/research-statistics/home-office-science/consult-reccrime-class/consult-reccrime-class-tabs?view=Binary" class="govuk-link">Data tables - Consultation on changes to recorded crime classifications and categories data tables (Microsoft Excel file - 130kb)
• <a rel="external" href="http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/science-research-statistics/research-statistics/home-office-science/consult-reccrime-class/consult-reccrime-class-response?view=Binary" cla

This publication provides information on the number of hate crimes from police recorded data in England and Wales from April 2023 to March 2024. The bulletin covers the extent and trends in hate crime for all forces, with additional analysis based upon more detailed data supplied by 31 police forces on the types of offences associated with hate crime.

Hate crime is defined as “any criminal offence which is perceived, by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by hostility or prejudice towards someone based on a personal characteristic.”

There are 5 centrally monitored strands of hate crime:

• race or ethnicity
• religion or beliefs
• sexual orientation
• disability
• transgender identity