Crime in England and Wales: year ending March 2022

Patterns of crime over the last two years have been substantially affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and government restrictions on social contact. While periods of national lockdown have seen decreases in the incidence of many types of crime, fraud and computer misuse offences have not followed a lockdown-related pattern and have increased substantially.

Since restrictions were lifted following the third national lockdown in early 2021, police recorded crime data show indications that certain offence types are returning to or exceeding the levels seen before the pandemic. While violence and sexual offences recorded by the police have exceeded pre-coronavirus pandemic levels, theft offences and robbery remain at a lower level despite increases over the last twelve months.

In this bulletin, the Telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales (TCSEW) provides crime estimates for the year ending March 2022. The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), which resumed in October 2021, has allowed us to provide prevalence estimates of domestic abuse and sexual assault for the first time since the year ending March 2020 [note 1].

Estimates from the TCSEW for the year ending March 2022 compared with the pre-coronavirus year ending March 2020 [note 2] showed:

• no statistically significant change in total crime

• a 37% increase in fraud and computer misuse offences

• a 20% decrease in theft offences

Police recorded crime data give more insight into lower-volume but higher-harm crimes that the survey does not cover or does not capture well. Compared with the year ending March 2021 they show:

• the number of homicides increased by 25% to 710 offences; this is a similar level to the year ending March 2020 where there were 714 offences [note 3]

• a 10% increase in the number of police recorded offences involving knives or sharp instruments (knife-enabled crime) to 49,027 offences; this remained lower than the year ending March 2020 where there were 55,078 offences

Given the user need for domestic abuse and sexual assault data from the CSEW, we present prevalence estimates based on six months of CSEW data collected between October 2021 and March 2022. These estimates are based on a smaller sample size than usual and should be treated with caution. They showed:

• 5.7% of adults aged 16 to 59 years experienced domestic abuse in the year ending March 2022, no significant change compared with the year ending March 2020 (6.1%)

• 2.7% of adults aged 16 to 59 years had experienced sexual assault (including attempted offences) in the year ending March 2022, no significant change compared with the year ending March 2020 (2.2%)

In contrast, police recorded sexual offences rose by 32% to the highest annual figure recorded in England and Wales (194,683 offences). This included the highest recorded annual number of rape offences to date (70,330 offences). Caution is needed when interpreting these figures as they may reflect a number of factors including the impact of high-profile cases and campaigns on victims’ willingness to report incidents.

Notes for: Main points

1. The CSEW statistics presented in this release for the year ending March 2022 are not National Statistics.

2. The year ending March 2020 face-to-face CSEW data are the latest that are based on a sample that is independent of the year ending March 2022 TCSEW.

3. The year ending March 2020 included the incident where 39 migrants were found dead inside a lorry.

The Telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales (TCSEW) began data collection on 20 May 2020 to capture trends in crime while normal face-to-face interviewing was suspended because of restrictions on social contact during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. This is the last time that estimates of crime will be produced from the TCSEW. The year ending June 2022 will see a return to estimates based on the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), following the return to face-to-face interviewing in October 2021. For more information, please refer to the Centre for Crime and Justice progress update for 2022.

According to TCSEW estimates, adults aged 18 years and over experienced 11.3 million offences in the year ending March 2022 (Appendix Table 2). Using a comparable dataset adjusted for changes in the sample and questionnaire between the CSEW and TCSEW, there was no statistically significant change in the estimated levels of total crime compared with the year ending March 2020 (Appendix Table 3). However, there were decreases in theft and robbery offences and increases in fraud and computer misuse offences.

Since the mid-1990s, there have been long-term falls in overall CSEW crime estimates when excluding fraud and computer misuse (Figure 1). In the year ending March 2022, crime excluding fraud and computer misuse decreased by 18% compared with the year ending March 2020. Long-term trends also vary by crime types.

For the crime types and population it covers, the face-to-face CSEW is a better indicator of long-term trends than police recorded crime. It is unaffected by changes in levels of reporting to the police or police recording practices. Our comparability report has shown that TCSEW estimates can be directly compared with these long-term CSEW estimates when certain adjustments are applied.

Further information on these changes is available in Section 15: Measuring the data.

Likelihood of victimisation

The latest estimates show that approximately 8 in 10 adults did not experience any of the crimes asked about in the TCSEW in the year ending March 2022 (Figure 2). The likelihood of being a victim of crime varied by crime type, with fraud having the highest proportion of victims (8%), followed by computer misuse (3%), and vehicle-related theft (3%).

The TCSEW also showed that the likelihood of being a victim of crime varied by demographic characteristics. For more information, see the annual trend and demographic tables.

Trends in police recorded crime

Police recorded crime in England and Wales in the year ending March 2022 returned to and exceeded pre-coronavirus pandemic levels. The 6.3 million crimes recorded was 4% higher compared with the year ending March 2020 (6.1 million offences). While police recorded crime fell to 5.4 million offences in the year ending 2021 because of national lockdowns and restrictions to social contact during this period, it has increased by 16% in the year ending March 2022 (to 6.3 million offences). Recent changes in levels of police recorded crime can be clearly seen when looking at quarterly figures (see Figure 3).

Information on case outcomes can be found in Home Office Crime outcomes in England and Wales.

Crime survey and police recorded crime data can be used together to develop a more complete picture of crime (Table 1). The TCSEW data showed increases in fraud and computer misuse and decreases in theft offences compared with the year ending March 2020. Police recorded crime showed increases in individual theft offences, such as burglary and vehicle offences, compared with the year ending March 2021.

Although levels of homicide have remained fairly consistent in recent years, there was a decrease in the number of homicide offences in the year ending March 2021 (to 570 offences) compared with the year ending March 2020 (714 offences). This decrease coincided with the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and related restrictions to social contact. Since the end of these restrictions, homicide levels have returned to pre-coronavirus pandemic levels. The police recorded 710 homicide offences in the year ending March 2022, a 25% increase compared with the year ending March 2021 [note 1].

The rate of homicide in the population remains low at 12 per 1 million people in the year ending March 2022, compared with 10 per 1 million people in the year ending March 2021.

Of all recorded homicides in the year ending March 2022, the proportion of homicides where a knife or sharp instrument was the method of killing was 40%, similar to the year ending March 2021 (42%).

For the latest analysis of information on homicide offences held within the Home Office Homicide Index, see our Homicide in England and Wales: year ending March 2021 article.

Notes for: Homicide

1. The year ending March 2020 included the incident where 39 migrants were found dead inside a lorry.

Police recorded crime provides a better measure than the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) of higher-harm but less common types of violence, such as those involving a knife or sharp instrument (knife-enabled crime).

Knife-enabled crime recorded by the police saw a 10% increase to 49,027 offences in the year ending March 2022, from 44,642 in the year ending March 2021. There were increases across all knife-enabled violent and sexual offences except for attempted murder, which saw a 9% decrease (to 441 offences). Levels of knife-enabled crime in the year ending March 2022 remained below levels recorded in the pre-coronavirus year ending March 2020 (55,078 offences). This is predominantly because the number of knife-enabled robbery offences (17,037 offences) was still 30% lower than in the year ending March 2020 (24,314 offences).

Patterns of knife or sharp instrument offences vary across police force areas (PFAs) [note 1]. The Metropolitan, West Midlands and Greater Manchester are the three PFAs with the highest volume of knife-enabled crime. While increases have been seen in each of these PFAs in the year ending March 2022, levels of knife-enabled crime in the Metropolitan and West Midlands PFAs remain below pre-coronavirus pandemic levels. In contrast, knife-enable crime in the Greater Manchester PFA is 14% higher in the year ending March 2022 compared with the pre-coronavirus year ending March 2020.

Police recorded “possession of article with a blade or point” [note 2] offences increased by 18% to 24,546 in the year ending March 2022. This could have been influenced by increases in targeted police action.

The Home Office and police forces have continued to roll out a new methodology for identifying recorded offences involving knives or sharp instruments (knife-enabled crime). 37 forces have now switched to the National Data Quality Improvement Service (NDQIS) data collection methodology [note 3]. Work continues in moving the remaining forces to the new methodology. Estimates in this release include a combination of both new and old data collection methods.

For more information, including the differences in data collection methods, please see our methodology note Police recorded offences involving knives or sharp instruments, methodology changes and improving data collection for knife enabled crime blog.

Other sources of data

The latest provisional admissions data for NHS hospitals in England and Wales show that admissions for assault by a sharp object remain at a similar level to March 2021 (4,118 admissions). The number of admissions was 14% lower in the year ending March 2022 compared with the pre-coronavirus year ending March 2020 (4,769 admissions).

Data related to stop and searches can be found in the Home Office publication Police powers and procedures.

Notes for: Knife or sharp instrument offences

1. Data cannot be compared across all police forces because of changes in data collection methods. 37 police forces have now switched to the National Data Quality Improvement Service (NDQIS) data collection method. Six remaining police forces are still submitting knife or sharp instrument offences data through a special collection (North Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Mercia, Dorset, Gloucestershire). For more information, please see the methodology Police recorded offences involving knives or sharp instruments: methodology changes.

2. Includes the Metropolitan and City of London PFAs.

3. Offences of “possession of an article with a blade or point” are covered separately by a specific recorded crime category, which is the specific crime of possessing an article with a blade or point illegally.

Police recorded 5,752 offences involving firearms [note 1] in the year ending March 2022 (Figure 6). This was a 1% increase compared with the year ending March 2021 (5,715 offences) and a 13% decrease compared with the pre-coronavirus year ending March 2020 (6,618 offences).

Broken down by type of weapon, there was a 15% and 18% decrease in offences using handguns (to 1,801 offences) and shotguns (to 442 offences) respectively, while there was a 33% increase in offences using imitation firearms [note 2] (to 1,915 offences).

For data relating to offences involving weapons see our Offences involving the use of weapons: data tables. For data relating to offences involving firearms see our Other related tables.

Notes for: Offences involving firearms

1. Excludes offences involving the use of conventional air weapons, such as air rifles and offences recorded by British Transport Police. Includes crimes recorded by police where a firearm has been fired, used as a blunt instrument against a person or used as a threat.

2. Imitation firearms include replica weapons, as well as low-powered weapons which fire small plastic pellets, such as BB guns and soft air weapons.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) provides the best picture of the overall trend in violent crime.

Estimates from the Telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales (TCSEW) showed that there were 1.5 million violent offences in the year ending March 2022.

Using a comparable dataset adjusted for changes in the sample and questionnaire between the CSEW and TCSEW, there was no statistically significant change in the total number of violent incidents. However, there was a statistically significant decrease in the number of victims (29% decrease) compared with the year ending March 2020.

Overall, police recorded violence against the person increased by 18% (to 2.1 million offences) in the year ending March 2022 compared with the year ending March 2021 (1.8 million offences). This was also higher than levels recorded in the pre-coronavirus year ending March 2020 (1.8 million offences).

Violence with injury increased by 22% (to 566,603 offences) in the year ending March 2022 compared with the previous year. This was also 5% higher than levels recorded in the pre-coronavirus year ending March 2020 (540,699 offences). This increase was reflected in research conducted by the Violence Research Group at Cardiff University. An estimated 146,856 people attended emergency units in England and Wales for treatment of violence-related injury in the year ending December 2021 [note 1]. This is a 23% increase compared with the year ending December 2020 (119,111 people) but attendance remained lower than the pre-coronavirus year ending December 2019.

Stalking and harassment offences rose by 15% to 722,574 offences. This continued the trend of year on year increases since the year ending March 2014. These increases may be caused by improvements made by police forces in identifying and recording stalking and harassment offences together with an increased confidence in victims coming forward to report these offences.

Notes for: Violence

1. Estimate of emergency unit attendance in England and Wales is based on 37,475 people who were treated for violence-related injuries at 74 hospital sites.

The CSEW provides a more reliable measure of long-term trends in domestic abuse, sexual assault, stalking, and harassment than police recorded crime data. Questions related to these offences were removed from the survey with the move to telephone interviewing from May 2020 because of concerns around confidentiality and respondent safeguarding. In October 2021, face-to face interviewing (CSEW) restarted allowing for the collection of data on these topics which is comparable with the pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic period. The CSEW statistics presented in this release for the year ending March 2022 are not National Statistics. They are based on six months of data collection between October 2021 and March 2022. Caution should be taken when using these data because of the impact of the reduced data collection period and lower response rates on the quality of the estimates.

Domestic abuse

Estimates from the CSEW showed that 5.7% of adults aged 16 to 59 years experienced domestic abuse in the year ending March 2022. There was no significant change compared with the year ending March 2020 (6.1%), the last time period for which data were published.

On the return of face-to-face CSEW interviewing in October 2021, the upper age limit of respondents completing the self-completion modules was removed (it was previously increased from 59 years to 74 years in March 2017). The CSEW estimated that 5.0% of adults aged 16 years and over had experienced domestic abuse in the year ending March 2022.

The police recorded 909,504 offences (excluding fraud) flagged as domestic abuse-related in the year ending March 2022. This represents an 8% increase from 845,734 offences in the previous year and a 12% increase from 798,607 offences in the year ending March 2020. This included 722,723 violence against the person offences flagged as domestic abuse-related, a 7% increase compared with the year ending March 2021. Some of this increase may reflect improvements seen in reporting over the last few years.

Further information and data related to domestic abuse can be found in the Other related tables and our Domestic abuse in England and Wales overview: November 2021 bulletin.

Sexual offences

Estimates from the CSEW for year ending March 2022 showed that 2.7% of adults aged 16 to 59 years had experienced sexual assault (including attempted offences) in the last year. There was no significant change compared with the year ending March 2020 (2.2%), the last time the data were published. The CSEW estimated that 2.3% of adults aged 16 years and over had experienced sexual assault (including attempted offences) in the last year.

Sexual offences recorded by the police were at the highest level recorded within a 12-month period (194,683 offences) in the year ending March 2022, a 32% increase from the same period in 2021 (Figure 8). Within these annual figures, the number of recorded sexual offences were lower during periods of lockdown but there have been substantial increases since April 2021.

Of all sexual offences recorded by the police in the year ending March 2022, 36% (70,330) were rape offences. This was a 26% increase from 55,678 in the year ending March 2021. Other sexual offences increased by 35% to 124,353 compared with 92,212 the previous year.

High levels of non-reporting combined with changes in reporting trends can have a significant impact on sexual offences recorded by the police. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, the number of police recorded sexual offences was well below the number of victims estimated by the crime survey, with fewer than one in six victims of rape or assault by penetration reporting the crime to the police.

The latest figures may reflect a number of factors, including the impact of high-profile incidents, media coverage, and campaigns on people’s willingness to report incidents to the police, as well as a potential increase in the number of victims.

Further data related to sexual offences can be found in our Sexual offences in England and Wales overview: year ending March 2020 bulletin.

CSEW data on the prevalence of domestic abuse, sexual assault, and stalking for the six months ending March 2022 can be found in Tables F15 to F19 in Other related tables.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) is the most reliable indicator for long-term trends in the more common types of crime experienced by the general population, such as theft.

However, police recorded crime data can give reliable indications of trends in some offences involving theft (for example, domestic burglary) that are well-reported and may provide a better measure of short-term trends.

There were 2.6 million incidents of theft estimated by the Telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales (TCSEW) for the year ending March 2022 (Appendix Table 2). This was a 20% decrease compared with the year ending March 2020 (Appendix Table 3). This large fall was seen across most sub-categories, with a 39% decrease in “theft from the person” offences, followed by a 31% decrease in bicycle theft offences and a 31% decrease in vehicle-related theft offences.

Police recorded theft offences increased by 15% to 1.5 million in the year ending March 2022 compared with year ending March 2021. This increase was seen across most subcategories including theft from the person (77%), theft of a motor vehicle (22%), and shoplifting (21%).

Although levels of theft offences increased after restrictions related to the third national lockdown were lifted, recorded theft in the year ending March 2022 remained lower than the pre-coronavirus year ending March 2020 (approximately 2 million offences).

Police recorded robbery increased to 66,288 offences; this was an 11% increase from the year ending March 2021. Levels of recorded robbery remain 27% lower than the pre-coronavirus year ending March 2020 (90,201 offences). The largest increase was seen in the North East (24% increase), the North West (22% increase) and the West Midlands (22% increase) regions, although levels in all three regions remained lower than in the pre-coronavirus year ending March 2020.

“Neighbourhood” crime, as defined in the Home Office Beating crime plan, includes robbery and selected theft offences (theft from the person, domestic burglary, and vehicle related theft). The TCSEW estimated that the number of “neighbourhood” crime incidents decreased by 30% compared with the year ending March 2020.

Estimates from the Telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales (TCSEW) showed that there were 4.5 million fraud offences in the year ending March 2022 (Appendix Table 2), a 25% increase compared with the year ending March 2020 (Appendix Table 3).

Large increases were seen in “advance fee fraud” and “consumer and retail fraud”. This may indicate fraudsters taking advantage of behavioural changes related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, such as increased online shopping. For example, advance fee fraud offences included scams where victims transferred funds to fraudsters for postal deliveries.

Phishing is one of the main methods used to commit fraud. Half (50%) of TCSEW respondents reported receiving an email, text, or social media message that may have been phishing in the last month (coronavirus and crime Table 7).

Of those who had received phishing messages, 54% had received messages from fraudsters pretending to be delivery companies, 32% from banks, building societies or other financial institutions, and 29% from e-commerce companies. Where respondents had received phishing messages, 3% replied or clicked on a link in the message. Of those who replied or clicked on a link, 11% provided personal information that could be used by fraudsters (equivalent to less than 1% of respondents who received a phishing message).

Fraud offences reported to the police are recorded and collected by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) from Action Fraud and two industry bodies, Cifas and UK Finance.

Police recorded fraud increased by 17% in the year ending March 2022 compared with the year ending March 2021. This increase needs to be interpreted in the context of differences in coverage and fraud types captured by each reporting body as well as administrative changes [note 1].

Action Fraud (the public-facing national fraud and cybercrime reporting centre) reported an 11% decrease in fraud offences (to 354,758 offences) compared with the year ending March 2021, when offences were at record levels (398,022 offences). This was driven by a 19% decrease in consumer and retail fraud (to 125,560 offences) and may be related to changes in behaviour as restrictions to social contact were lifted.

Notes for: Fraud

1. UK Finance recorded large increases in the year ending March 2022. This was a result of increases in reporting from their existing members because of engagement with their members, as well as the reports coming in from new members of UK Finance who joined towards the end of the last calendar year. There was also a data submission issue from one of UK Finance’s member firms, whereby a large number of records were duplicated throughout February 2022. The NFIB IT supplier have been asked to back out these reports from the system, but the process for this back out is currently in negotiation. Until the duplicates have been removed the NFIB will not be able to provide a final figure in terms of the number of reports received from UK Finance for February 2022. Therefore, the UK Finance figures for the year ending March 2022 may be an underestimate.

The Telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales (TCSEW) provides a better indication of the volume of computer misuse offences experienced by the adult population as it captures incidents that go unreported to the police. This can be seen by the large difference in the volume of computer misuse offences between the two sources, which also cannot be compared because of differences in coverage.

Estimates from the TCSEW showed that computer misuse offences increased by 89% in the year ending March 2022 (to 1.6 million offences), compared with the year ending March 2020. The biggest increase was seen in “Unauthorised access to personal information (including hacking)” offences. This included victims’ details being compromised via large-scale data breaches, and victims’ email or social media accounts being compromised. This increase may correlate with the rise in the number of large-scale data breaches around the world.

The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) reported a 5% decrease in computer misuse offences referred by Action Fraud (from 30,467 to 28,886 offences) for the year ending March 2022 compared with the year ending March 2021. This followed the 16% rise in computer misuse offences that were referred by Action Fraud in the previous year; from 26,215 offences in the year ending March 2020.

The police recorded 1.3 million incidents of anti-social behaviour (ASB) in the year ending March 2022. This was a 37% decrease compared with the year ending March 2021. Levels of ASB incidents were particularly high in the year ending March 2021 because of people reporting breaches of coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions in their local area since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The number of ASB incidents in the year ending March 2022 was similar to that of the pre-coronavirus year ending March 2020.

The Telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales (TSCEW) showed that 24% of adults personally witnessed or experienced anti-social behaviour in their area in the last 12 months.

The TCSEW includes a measure of harassment that covers adults’ experiences of being insulted, called names, threatened, or shouted at in public spaces. Estimates showed that 6% of adults experienced these types of harassment in the year ending March 2022. Where a specific perceived reason for the harassment was given, the most common was because of the coronavirus pandemic (21%), followed by education, income level or job (9%).

We are currently running a consultation on the development of the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW). The purpose of the consultation is to update survey data users on the methodological redesign of the CSEW, including a new panel design with multi-modal waves and to provide the opportunity to comment on survey content. The Consultation on the Redesign of the Crime Survey for England and Wales is live until 21 August 2022.

Computer misuse

Computer misuse is when fraudsters hack or use computer viruses or malware to disrupt services, obtain information illegally or extort individuals or organisations.

Criminal damage

Criminal damage results from any person who, without lawful excuse, destroys or damages any property belonging to another. This includes either intending to destroy or damage any such property or being reckless as to whether any such property would be destroyed or damaged.

Fraud

Fraud involves a person dishonestly and deliberately deceiving a victim for personal gain of property or money or causing loss or risk of loss to another. The majority of incidents fall under the legal definition of “Fraud by false representation” – where a person makes a representation that they know to be untrue or misleading (for example, banking and payment card frauds and dating scams). Telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales (TCSEW) estimates cover a broad range of fraud offences, including attempts, involving a loss and incidents not reported to the authorities. See the Glossary section of our Nature of fraud and computer misuse in England and Wales: year ending March 2019 article for definitions of the different fraud types.

Overall theft offences

Telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales (TCSEW) theft offences include all personal and household crime where items are stolen, including theft from the person, other theft of personal property, domestic burglary, vehicle-related theft and bicycle theft.

Robbery

Robbery is an offence in which force, or the threat of force, is used either during or immediately prior to a theft or attempted theft. Mugging is an informal term for robbery. In this bulletin, we use the term “robbery”.

Violent crime

Violent crime covers a range of offence types from minor assaults, such as pushing and shoving that result in no physical harm, to murder. This includes offences where the victim was intentionally stabbed, punched, kicked, pushed or jostled, as well as offences where the victim was threatened with violence, regardless of injury.

More information and further definitions can be found in the “offence type” section of our User guide to crime statistics for England and Wales: Measuring crime during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales (TCSEW)

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimates continue to provide important information in relation to longer-term trends in crime from year ending December 1981 to year ending March 2020. The TCSEW provides estimates of crime for the year ending March 2022.

Estimates from the TCSEW are derived from a total of 31,204 telephone interviews conducted with household residents in England and Wales aged 18 years and over, in the year ending March 2022. The sample was formed from respondents who had previously participated in the face-to-face CSEW in the last two years. TCSEW estimates cannot be compared with estimates for the year ending March 2021 because of overlapping reporting periods for some respondents. Therefore, TCSEW estimates are compared with the year ending March 2020 CSEW estimates throughout this bulletin.

The Appendix Table A2 presents TCSEW crime for the year ending March 2022. These estimates best reflect the current extent of crime but are not directly comparable with CSEW estimates because of changes to the TCSEW sample and questionnaire.

Findings from our comparability study showed that TCSEW estimates are comparable with CSEW estimates after certain adjustments are applied. All direct comparisons between the year ending March 2022 TCSEW estimates and the year ending March 2020 CSEW estimates are made with the use of these comparable datasets. An additional table, Appendix Table A3, presents percentage changes between these estimates. Estimates presented in Appendix Table A3 will be lower than those presented in Appendix Table A2 and underestimate the extent of crime.

The CSEW resumed in October 2021 and estimates for domestic abuse and sexual assault for the year ending March 2022 were made available. These estimates were based on the six months of data collected between October 2021 and March 2022. These estimates are not badged as National Statistics. Caution should be taken when using these data because of the impact of the reduced data collection period and lower response rates on the quality of the estimates.

Further information is available in our User guide to crime statistics for England and Wales: measuring crime during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

As we are collecting data in a new survey mode, the telephone-operated survey estimates are presented within this release as Experimental Statistics.

Police recorded crime

Police recorded crime data are supplied to us by the Home Office, who are responsible for the collation of recorded crime data supplied by the 43 territorial police forces of England and Wales, plus the British Transport Police. These data are supplied to the Home Office on a monthly basis for each crime within the notifiable offence list.

The recorded crime figures are collated via a live administrative system that is continually being updated as forces submit data. The data represent a “snapshot” of the live database taken on 31 May 2022 (for data up to the end of March 2022).

Figures may differ slightly from those published in subsequent bulletins for the same period, although this does not mean that the figures previously published were inaccurate at the time that they were reported. Police recorded crime data are not designated as National Statistics.

For more information on how we are measuring crime during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, see our Crime in England and Wales Quality and Methodology Information report.

Police recorded crime

Police recorded crime has wider offence coverage and population coverage than the Telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales (TCSEW). It is the primary source of local crime statistics and is a good measure of offences that are well-reported to and well-recorded by the police, including lower volume crimes (for example, homicide). In addition, the time lag between occurrence of crime and reporting results tends to be short, providing an indication of emerging trends.

Police recorded crime excludes offences that are not reported to, or not recorded by, the police. Trends can be influenced by changes in recording practices, or police activity and public reporting of crime, making it difficult to make long-term comparisons. There are also concerns about the quality of recording and that crime is not recorded consistently across police forces.

For more information see our Crime in England and Wales Quality and Methodology Information report.

Telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales (TCSEW)

Although the TCSEW was set up in a short timeframe in response to developing world events, findings from our comparability study showed that TCSEW estimates are comparable with CSEW estimates with the use of newly created comparable datasets. However, TCSEW estimates cannot be compared with the year ending March 2021 CSEW estimates because of overlapping reporting periods for some respondents.

For more information see our Crime in England and Wales Quality and Methodology Information report.