Detection Rates
Home Department
Written answers and statements, 29 October 2009
Chris Grayling (Shadow Home Secretary, Home Affairs; Epsom & Ewell, Conservative)
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the detection rate was for (a) all offences, (b) violence against the person, (c) sexual offences, (d) robbery, (e) burglary, (f) drug offences and (g) criminal damage in each of the last 10 years; and what proportion of detections in each such case was recorded on the issuing of a (i) charge or summons, (ii) caution, (iii) offence taken into consideration and (iv) penalty notice for disorder.
Alan Johnson (Home Secretary; Kingston upon Hull West & Hessle, Labour)
The information requested is given in the table.
It should be noted that non-sanction detections that contribute to the percentage change in detection rates have fallen in recent years reflecting a significant shift by many police forces away from recording detections of crime where no further action is taken. For this reason overall detection rates over time are not fully comparable.
From
Detection rates are a ratio of crime detected in a period to crimes recorded in a period. They are not based on tracking whether individual crimes recorded in period have eventually been detected.
| Detection rates for selected offence groups in England and Wales | |||||||
| Percentage of detections detected by: | |||||||
| Financial year and offence group | Detection rate (percentage)( 1) | Charge/summons | Caution | Offences taken into consideration | Penalty notice for disorder | Cannabis warnings | Non-sanction detections (percentage) |
| Total crime | |||||||
| 2000-01 | 23 | 58 | 17 | 8 | n/a | n/a | 18 |
| 2001-02 | 22 | 59 | 16 | 8 | n/a | n/a | 17 |
| 2002-03(2,3) | 23 | 57 | 15 | 8 | n/a | n/a | 20 |
| 2003-04 | 23 | 56 | 16 | 8 | 0 | n/a | 21 |
| 2004-05 | 26 | 50 | 18 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 22 |
| 2005-06 | 27 | 48 | 21 | 8 | 7 | 4 | 13 |
| 2006-07 | 27 | 47 | 24 | 8 | 9 | 6 | 6 |
| 2007-08 | 28 | 49 | 26 | 8 | 9 | 8 | 0 |
| 2008-09 | 28 | 52 | 24 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 0 |
| Violence against the person | |||||||
| 2000-01 | 57 | 55 | 14 | 0 | n/a | n/a | 30 |
| 2001-02 | 56 | 58 | 14 | 0 | n/a | n/a | 28 |
| 2002-03(2,3) | 54 | 53 | 13 | 0 | n/a | n/a | 33 |
| 2003-04 | 50 | 51 | 14 | 0 | 1 | n/a | 34 |
| 2004-05 | 53 | 47 | 16 | 0 | 5 | n/a | 32 |
| 2005-06 | 54 | 46 | 22 | 0 | 11 | n/a | 21 |
| 2006-07 | 51 | 48 | 29 | 0 | 14 | n/a | 9 |
| 2007-08 | 49 | 53 | 33 | 0 | 14 | n/a | 0 |
| 2008-09 | 47 | 58 | 31 | 0 | 11 | n/a | 0 |
| Sexual offences | |||||||
| 2000-01 | 43 | 68 | 8 | 1 | n/a | n/a | 23 |
| 2001-02 | 43 | 71 | 8 | 1 | n/a | n/a | 20 |
| 2002-03(2,3) | 39 | 71 | 9 | 1 | n/a | n/a | 19 |
| 2003-04 | 36 | 71 | 10 | 1 | 0 | n/a | 18 |
| 2004-05 | 34 | 71 | 11 | 1 | 0 | n/a | 17 |
| 2005-06 | 35 | 72 | 13 | 3 | 0 | n/a | 11 |
| 2006-07 | 32 | 75 | 16 | 1 | 0 | n/a | 7 |
| 2007-08 | 31 | 80 | 18 | 1 | 0 | n/a | 1 |
| 2008-09 | 32 | 82 | 17 | 1 | 0 | n/a | 1 |
| Robbery | |||||||
| 2000-01 | 17 | 80 | 4 | 5 | n/a | n/a | 11 |
| 2001-02 | 16 | 82 | 3 | 6 | n/a | n/a | 10 |
| 2002-03(2,3) | 19 | 83 | 2 | 5 | n/a | n/a | 9 |
| 2003-04 | 19 | 84 | 3 | 5 | 0 | n/a | 8 |
| 2004-05 | 20 | 78 | 3 | 5 | 0 | n/a | 13 |
| 2005-06 | 18 | 86 | 4 | 5 | 0 | n/a | 5 |
| 2006-07 | 19 | 89 | 4 | 5 | 0 | n/a | 2 |
| 2007-08 | 20 | 91 | 4 | 5 | 0 | n/a | 0 |
| 2008-09 | 21 | 92 | 3 | 5 | 0 | n/a | 0 |
| Burglary | |||||||
| 2000-01 | 11 | 55 | 5 | 30 | n/a | n/a | 10 |
| 2001-02 | 12 | 56 | 4 | 32 | n/a | n/a | 9 |
| 2002-03(2,3) | 12 | 54 | 4 | 34 | n/a | n/a | 8 |
| 2003-04 | 13 | 54 | 4 | 34 | 0 | n/a | 8 |
| 2004-05 | 13 | 51 | 6 | 35 | 0 | n/a | 9 |
| 2005-06 | 14 | 49 | 7 | 40 | 0 | n/a | 5 |
| 2006-07 | 14 | 47 | 8 | 43 | 0 | n/a | 3 |
| 2007-08 | 13 | 50 | 7 | 42 | 0 | n/a | 0 |
| 2008-09 | 13 | 50 | 6 | 44 | 0 | n/a | 0 |
| Drug offences | |||||||
| 2000-01 | 89 | 57 | 38 | 0 | n/a | n/a | 6 |
| 2001-02 | 92 | 56 | 37 | 0 | n/a | n/a | 7 |
| 2002-03(2,3) | 93 | 55 | 37 | 0 | n/a | n/a | 8 |
| 2003-04 | 93 | 53 | 35 | 0 | 0 | n/a | 12 |
| 2004-05 | 95 | 41 | 36 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 3 |
| 2005-06 | 95 | 35 | 24 | 0 | 0 | 37 | 3 |
| 2006-07 | 95 | 32 | 22 | 0 | 0 | 44 | 2 |
| 2007-08 | 95 | 30 | 22 | 0 | 0 | 48 | 0 |
| 2008-09(4) | 95 | 32 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 46 | 0 |
| Criminal damage | |||||||
| 2000-01 | 13 | 51 | 20 | 3 | n/a | n/a | 25 |
| 2001-02 | 12 | 52 | 21 | 3 | n/a | n/a | 24 |
| 2002-03(2,3) | 13 | 51 | 19 | 2 | n/a | n/a | 28 |
| 2003-04 | 13 | 49 | 21 | 3 | 0 | n/a | 28 |
| 2004-05 | 14 | 46 | 24 | 3 | 2 | n/a | 25 |
| 2005-06 | 15 | 44 | 28 | 4 | 8 | n/a | 17 |
| 2006-07 | 15 | 42 | 32 | 5 | 13 | n/a | 8 |
| 2007-08 | 14 | 45 | 37 | 5 | 13 | n/a | 0 |
| 2008-09 | 14 | 50 | 35 | 5 | 10 | n/a | 0 |
| n/a = Not applicable. (1) In 2008-09 this includes a small number of Youth Restorative Disposals submitted to the Home Office as part of a pilot scheme and which are included in with non-sanction detections. (2) The National Crime Recording Standard was introduced on 1 April 2002. (3) Includes British Transport Police from 2002-03. (4) Since January 2009, PNDs can be given for cannabis possession. Up until the end of March 2009, PNDs were counted together with cannabis warnings. | |||||||