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

The data tables contain figures for:

1. Police recorded crime
2. Crime outcomes
3. Transferred/cancelled records (formerly ‘no-crimes’)
4. Knife crime
5. Firearms
6. Hate crime
7. Fraud crime
8. Rape incidents crime

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. Please contact the Crime Analysis team at crimeandpolicestats@homeoffice.gov.uk.

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

Biennial statistics on the representation of sex groups as victims, suspects, defendants, offenders and employees in the Criminal Justice System.

These reports are released by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and produced in accordance with arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.

Pre-release access

The bulletin is produced and handled by the ministry’s analytical professionals and production staff. Pre-release access of up to 24 hours is granted to the following persons:

Ministry of Justice

Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice; Minister of State for Prisons and Probation; Parliamentary Under Secretary of State; Parliamentary Under Secretary of State; Lords spokesperson – Ministry of Justice; Permanent Secretary; Director General, Chief Financial Officer; Deputy Director, Bail, Sentencing and Release Policy; Director, Offender and Youth Justice Policy; Director General, Policy and Strategy Group; Director, Data & Analytical Services Directorate Acting Head of Justice Statistics Analytical Services; Head of Criminal Court Statistics; Head of HMPPS Equalities Statistics; Lead on HMPPS Equalities report; Head YJB Statistics; Senior Data Analyst, YJB; Legal Aid Statistician; Head of Prison and Probation Statistics; Team Leader, Prison Statistics; Reoffending, Probation and Payment by Results Statistics; Senior Statistical Officer; Statistical Officer; Acting Head of Data Innovation, Analysis and Linking; Head of Sentencing, Criminal Records and Community Justice Policy, Policy Lead, Female Offenders; 7 Policy Advisors; 10 Private Secretaries; Head of News; 5 Press Officers; 1 Special Advisor.

Home Office

Home Secretary; Minister of State for Crime and Policing; Permanent Secretary, Home Office; Director of Crime, Home Office; Chief Statistician; Head of Crime and Policing Statistics; 3 Crime and Policing Analysts; 3 Police Powers Unit Policy; Policing Minister’s Private Office; 3 Private Secretaries; 3 Press Officers.

Lord Chief Justice’s Office

Lord Chief Justice; Head of the Criminal Justice Team; and 2 Private Secretaries.

Office for National Statistics

2 Research Officers.

Department for Education

2 Research Officers; and 1 Press Officer.

NHS England

1 Analyst.

HM Inspectorate of Prisons

1 Research Officer.

Official Statistics are produced impartially and free from political influence.

Biennial statistics on the representation of ethnic groups as victims, suspects, defendants offenders and employees in the criminal justice system.

These reports are released by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and produced in accordance with arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.

Introduction

This publication compiles statistics from data sources across the Criminal Justice System (CJS), to provide a combined perspective on the typical experiences of different ethnic groups. No causative links can be drawn from these summary statistics, and no controls have been applied to account for differences in circumstances between groups (e.g. average income or age); differences observed may indicate areas worth further investigation, but should not be taken as evidence of bias or as direct effects of ethnicity.

In general, Non-White ethnic groups tend to be over-represented at most stages throughout the CJS, compared with the White ethnic group. Among non-White groups, Black and Mixed individuals were often the most over-represented. Trends over time for each ethnic group have tended to mirror overall trends, with little change in relative positions between ethnic groups.

Specific findings

Victimisation

• The Mixed ethnic group was the most likely to be a victim of personal crime (7.4%), and the Asian or Asian British ethnic group were the least likely (2.6%). Additionally, the Black ethnic group were 4 times more likely than the White ethnic group to be a victim of homicide.
• There was an 18% rise in police recorded racially or religiously aggravated offences compared with the previous year and a 62% increase over the past 5 years.

Police activity

• In 2016 to 2017, compared with the White ethnic group, stops and searches proportionate to population size were more likely to be carried out on the Black (eight times as likely), Mixed (between 2 and 3 times as likely), Asian (just over 2 times as likely) and Chinese or Other (one and a half as likely) ethnic groups.
• Compared with the White ethnic group, arrests were more likely to be carried out on the Black (3 and half times more likely) and Mixed (twice as likely) ethnic groups relative to their population size.

Defendants

• Relative to the population, the rates of prosecution for indictable offences for Black and Mixed ethnic groups were 4 and 2 times higher than for the White ethnic group.
• White defendants have tended to have the highest conviction ratio for indictable offences out of all ethnic groups since 2012 (ranging from 80% to 86%).
• In 2016, Black and Mixed defendants were 23% and 18% more likely than White defendants to be remanded in custody in Crown Court for indictable offences.
• The custody rate for Asian offenders has been increasing over the last 5 years and in 2016 they were 11% more likely than White offenders to receive a custodial sentence. Black and Asian offenders have consistently had the highest average custodial sentence length (ACSL) since 2012.
• White defendants had the highest guilty plea rate for indictable offences at the Crown Court in 2016 at 71%. The guilty plea rate for all other ethnic groups ranged between 56% and 64%.

Offender characteristics

• Prosecution rate relative to the population was highest for Black juveniles (12 juveniles per 1,000 people in the population). The rate for White juveniles was 2 per 1,000.
• Black and ‘Asian and Other’ young people in the matched cohort sentenced in 2014 had a greater proportion achieving 5 or more GCSEs graded A* - C and A* - G for all sentencing outcomes.

Offenders under supervision or custody

The proportion of the prison population varied greatly between ethnic groups: there were around 16 prisoners for every 10,000 people, similar to the White and Asian rates, but this includes only 5 prisoners for each 10,000 Chinese or Other population members, and 47 and 58 prisoners for each 10,000 Mixed and Black population members respectively.

Practitioners

Non-White ethnic groups were under-represented relative to the population among the police, National Offender Management Service , judiciary and magistracy with proportions increasing slowly or remaining the same over the last 5 years. Non-White ethnic groups were over-represented relative to the population among the Ministry of Justice and Crown Prosecution Service with proportions increasing over the last 5 years.

Pre-release access

The bulletin is produced and handled by the ministry’s analytical profe