You asked
I would like to make a Freedom of Information Act request on the following data: Total Recorded Crime by Postcode District. (if this could be split into (violent crime/Theft/Drug related crime/sexual offenses/Misc) that would be extremely beneficial. If possible could I have access to the most recently held data you have on this.
We said
ONS do not hold crime statistics for postcode areas. However you can access local crime at street level and at 2011 Lower Super Output Areas (LSOA’s) via www.police.uk. This is a website that provides street level recorded crime counts presented using a crime mapping tool. The raw data (at street level) can also be downloaded from the police.uk website, which provides the number and types of crimes.
The crime counts from www.police.uk are based on data submitted by the police. These data are:
Published on a monthly basis, providing counts of crime recorded in each calendar month rather than for a quarterly period.
Published more quickly than ONS crime statistics (ie with less lag time between the period for which the data refer and the date of release). However these data are not subject to the same rigorous quality assurance process as the police recorded crime data published by ONS.
Due to the monthly publication cycle, police.uk data are more likely to include crimes were there has been a subsequent decision to 'no-crime' the offence.
Police.uk data is restricted to those crimes for which geographical information is available. Crimes without this information are excluded, but an indication of the number of crimes that do not have location information is provided.