Arrests

Published 17 September 2020

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Contents

1. Main facts and figures

• there were 671,126 arrests between April 2018 and March 2019, almost 5,000 fewer arrests than the previous year
• Black people were over 3 times as likely to be arrested as White people – there were 32 arrests for every 1,000 Black people, and 10 arrests for every 1,000 White people
• overall, men were 6 times as likely to be arrested as women – there were 21 arrests for every 1,000 men, and 3 arrests for every 1,000 women
• Black men were over 3 times as likely to be arrested than White men – there were 60 arrests for every 1,000 Black men, and 17 arrests for every 1,000 White men
• figures for the 2 years to March 2019 don’t include Lancashire police force as they were unable to provide data

2. Things you need to know

What the data measures

This data measures the number of arrests for 'notifiable offences' – offences for which the police must complete a crime report.

Rates of arrest per 1,000 people are rounded to the nearest whole number. Percentages of arrests in age groups are rounded to one decimal place.

Not included in the data

Lancashire police force is excluded as they were unable to provide arrests data.

The City of London police force area has been excluded due to the small number of people living in the area compared with those who visit.

How arrest rates are calculated

The arrest rate is the number of people arrested from a particular ethnic group out of every 1,000 people from the same group.

A person arrested in a particular area may not necessarily live in that area. Population estimates for police force areas are based on permanent residents of that area as reported in the 2011 Census. Read more about problems using Census data to work out rates.

We use ‘relative likelihoods’ in the data to make comparisons, for example ‘Black people were over 3 times as likely to be arrested as White people’. You can read more about using relative likelihoods to compare ethnic disparities.

The ethnic groups used in the data

The data uses the 5 ethnic groups from the 2001 Census.

The person arrested states their ethnicity at the time of arrest. If someone doesn’t give their ethnicity, it’s shown as ‘unknown’ in the tables.

In the 13 years to March 2019, the percentage of people arrested whose ethnicity wasn't known ranged from 2% to 12%.

Methodology

A person arrested for a notifiable offence is counted for each time they are arrested, as long as the offence is not related to an offence that happened earlier in the same financial year (April to March).

If it is connected, or if a person has been arrested for more than one notifiable offence on the same occasion, the offence with the highest maximum penalty is recorded.

Someone who is arrested is usually asked for their ethnicity. The circumstances of an arrest may affect the accuracy of this information.

There are 43 police force areas in England and Wales. Data from April 2017 to March 2019 is from 42 police forces. Data from April 2006 to March 2017 is from all 43 police forces.

In the data file

See download the data for the number of arrests by area and ethnicity.

3. By ethnicity

• Location: England and Wales
• Time period: April 2018 to March 2019
• Source: Police powers and procedures, England and Wales year ending March 2019

Arrest rate per 1,000 people, and number of arrests, by ethnicity

Ethnicity	Rate per 1,000 people	Number of arrests
All	12	671,126
Asian	12	42,872
Bangladeshi	14	6,291
Indian	6	8,527
Pakistani	14	15,367
Asian other	15	12,687
Black	32	60,116
Black African	23	22,697
Black Caribbean	33	19,611
Black other	64	17,808
Mixed	18	21,832
Mixed White/Asian	7	2,246
Mixed White/Black African	16	2,593
Mixed White/Black Caribbean	26	10,969
Mixed other	21	6,024
White	10	452,320
White British	9	400,914
White Irish	12	6,224
White other	18	45,182
Other including Chinese	12	11,148
Chinese	3	1,289
Any other	18	9,859
Unknown	N/A*	82,838

^* Not applicable

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Arrests By ethnicity Summary

Lancashire Police were unable to provide arrests data for this period. Population estimates for Lancashire have been removed from population figures when calculating arrest rates per 1,000 people.

The data shows that:

• there were 671,126 arrests in England and Wales, a rate of 12 arrests per 1,000 people
• Black people were over 3 times as likely to be arrested as White people – there were 32 arrests for every 1,000 Black people, and 10 arrests for every 1,000 White people
• people with Mixed ethnicity were nearly twice as likely to be arrested as White people – there were 18 arrests for every 1,000 people with Mixed ethnicity

4. By ethnicity over time

• Location: England and Wales
• Time period: April 2006 to March 2019
• Source: Police powers and procedures, England and Wales year ending March 2019

Arrest rate per 1,000 people, and number of arrests, by ethnicity over time

	All		Asian		Black		Mixed		White		Other including Chinese
Time	All Rate per 1,000	All Number of arrests	Asian Rate per 1,000	Asian Number of arrests	Black Rate per 1,000	Black Number of arrests	Mixed Rate per 1,000	Mixed Number of arrests	White Rate per 1,000	White Number of arrests	Other inc Chinese Rate per 1,000	Other inc Chinese Number of arrests
2006/07	27	1,474,843	19	69,591	57	105,145	34	40,882	24	1,133,468	21	19,408
2007/08	27	1,475,266	20	74,755	59	109,206	34	40,726	25	1,170,527	22	21,103
2008/09	27	1,462,139	21	78,422	60	111,271	33	40,256	25	1,178,536	22	20,931
2009/10	25	1,385,322	21	78,124	60	110,977	33	40,133	24	1,103,206	21	20,249
2010/11	25	1,353,740	21	79,540	61	113,085	34	40,779	23	1,075,562	21	19,556
2011/12	22	1,225,123	19	72,361	55	102,326	31	37,516	21	972,938	18	17,289
2012/13	20	1,068,823	18	65,277	48	88,540	27	32,587	18	844,957	16	15,398
2013/14	19	1,021,356	17	64,304	46	86,245	26	31,126	17	799,754	16	14,712
2014/15	17	941,692	16	60,660	45	83,344	24	29,524	16	730,376	15	13,876
2015/16	16	879,570	16	59,096	44	81,895	24	28,542	14	648,979	15	14,249
2016/17	14	762,419	14	51,612	38	70,944	21	24,836	12	552,620	13	12,016
2017/18	12	675,461	12	45,603	35	64,670	19	23,137	10	485,885	11	10,810
2018/19	12	671,126	12	42,872	32	60,116	18	21,832	10	452,320	12	11,148

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Arrests By ethnicity over time Summary

Lancashire Police were unable to provide arrests data for the 2 most recent years. Arrest and population estimates for Lancashire have been removed from all figures so you can compare between years. You can download the data for Lancashire from April 2006 to March 2017.

The data shows that, in the 13 years to March 2019:

• the overall arrest rate in England and Wales fell from 27 to 12 arrests per 1,000 people, and numbers of arrests decreased by over 800,000
• arrest rates for people from the Asian, White, and Other (including Chinese) ethnic groups were the same as or lower than average in almost every year of the period studied – the rates for people from the Black and Mixed ethnic groups were consistently higher than average
• the arrest rate for White people went down from 24 arrests per 1,000 to 10 arrests per 1,000 – a decrease of 59%
• the arrest rate for people with a Mixed ethnicity went down from 34 arrests per 1,000 to 18 arrests per 1,000 – a decrease of 47%
• the arrest rate for people from the Other ethnic group went down from 21 arrests per 1,000 people to 12 per 1,000 – a decrease of 41%
• the arrest rate for Black people went down from 57 arrests per 1,000 people to 32 per 1,000 – a decrease of 43%
• the arrest rate for people from the Asian ethnic group went down from 19 arrests per 1,000 people to 12 per 1,000 – a decrease of 36%

5. By ethnicity and area

• Location: England and Wales
• Time period: April 2018 to March 2019
• Source: Police powers and procedures, England and Wales year ending March 2019

Arrest rate per 1,000 people, and number of arrests, by ethnicity and police force area

	All		Asian		Black		Mixed		White		Other including Chinese
Geography	All Rate per 1,000	All Number of arrests	Asian Rate per 1,000	Asian Number of arrests	Black Rate per 1,000	Black Number of arrests	Mixed Rate per 1,000	Mixed Number of arrests	White Rate per 1,000	White Number of arrests	Other inc Chinese Rate per 1,000	Other inc Chinese Number of arrests
All	12	671,126	12	42,872	32	60,116	18	21,832	10	452,320	12	11,148
Avon and Somerset	10	15,745	12	405	41	1,277	21	582	9	12,901	9	135
Bedfordshire	11	6,472	8	644	18	529	14	251	6	2,687	11	94
Cambridgeshire	10	7,751	8	330	30	301	12	189	6	4,193	18	223
Cheshire	11	11,046	12	159	75	244	11	113	10	10,344	18	94
Cleveland	17	9,703	18	316	65	205	14	81	17	9,021	17	74
Cumbria	15	7,512	19	55	109	63	26	64	15	7,217	35	56
Derbyshire	10	10,383	17	640	52	522	24	346	9	8,656	16	116
Devon and Cornwall	7	11,719	14	161	60	246	8	127	6	9,348	8	74
Dorset	9	6,573	11	115	108	348	14	134	8	5,700	12	72
Durham	14	8,775	18	94	58	61	14	61	14	8,448	16	48
Dyfed-Powys	10	5,070	12	50	78	67	15	49	10	4,838	6	13
Essex	10	16,652	10	399	32	1,126	23	624	8	12,621	12	186
Gloucestershire	8	4,706	14	145	66	342	20	169	7	3,848	26	78
Greater Manchester	10	26,321	10	2,392	26	1,917	17	1,028	9	19,432	8	416
Gwent	12	6,869	21	214	62	198	10	57	11	6,137	43	152
Hampshire	9	17,706	8	470	54	946	16	507	8	14,260	9	192
Hertfordshire	10	11,394	6	391	17	527	14	378	5	4,878	15	235
Humberside	21	18,958	9	110	26	117	11	86	8	7,144	10	72
Kent	17	29,772	11	606	45	1,026	16	432	10	16,394	26	406
Lancashire	N/A*	N/A*	N/A*	N/A*	N/A*	N/A*	N/A*	N/A*	N/A*	N/A*	N/A*	N/A*
Leicestershire	11	11,476	10	1,512	45	1,117	12	245	10	8,128	12	224
Lincolnshire	12	8,581	15	86	74	190	19	118	11	7,876	34	96
London, City of	N/A*	1,519	N/A*	197	N/A*	212	N/A*	81	N/A*	710	N/A*	70
Merseyside	14	19,322	15	282	49	713	12	257	13	17,242	13	273
Metropolitan Police	14	112,779	11	14,750	29	31,972	17	6,994	10	49,426	11	4,655
Norfolk	12	10,071	9	85	58	268	12	124	7	5,732	12	65
North Wales	16	11,229	10	61	64	96	23	113	16	10,729	23	102
North Yorkshire	13	10,047	12	119	33	118	20	151	11	8,565	26	161
Northamptonshire	14	9,759	13	304	57	973	24	336	12	7,597	23	127
Northumbria	15	20,831	15	553	50	448	10	120	14	19,464	3	51
Nottinghamshire	13	13,739	11	523	38	1,037	18	561	10	9,980	12	178
South Wales	17	21,897	14	510	56	708	20	350	16	19,125	13	250
South Yorkshire	12	15,591	9	467	17	427	10	218	6	7,280	5	132
Staffordshire	11	11,559	19	659	53	449	24	343	10	9,865	20	147
Suffolk	10	7,345	8	90	37	253	8	99	6	4,286	21	96
Surrey	8	9,507	10	550	49	607	12	281	7	7,539	10	183
Sussex	11	17,160	10	399	68	962	16	476	8	12,118	10	163
Thames Valley	14	31,373	15	2,959	41	2,830	33	1,830	11	20,672	10	322
Warwickshire	9	4,869	4	83	18	79	6	47	3	1,343	5	24
West Mercia	9	10,446	4	86	11	54	4	59	2	1,934	4	22
West Midlands	13	36,627	12	5,795	29	4,677	22	2,150	12	22,667	10	620
West Yorkshire	16	34,684	18	4,931	32	1,497	29	1,402	14	25,475	13	405
Wiltshire	11	7,588	10	175	60	367	20	199	10	6,500	11	46

^* Not applicable

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Arrests By ethnicity and area Summary

Lancashire Police were unable to provide arrests data for this period. Population estimates for Lancashire have been removed from the 'All' population figures when calculating arrest rates per 1,000 people.

The data shows that:

• Black people had the highest arrest rates per 1,000 people in every police force area where there was data

• the biggest difference in the arrest rates between Black people and White people was in Dorset, where Black people were almost 14 times as likely to be arrested as White people

• in Devon and Cornwall, the arrest rate for people from the Asian ethnic group was 2 times higher than the rate for White people
• in Thames Valley, the arrest rate for people with Mixed ethnicity was 3 times the rate for White people
• in London (the Metropolitan Police force area), 52% of people arrested were from the Asian, Black, Mixed and Other ethnic groups combined – the highest percentage out of all police force areas
• in London, there were 18 arrests for every 1,000 people from ethnic minorities, compared with 10 arrests for every 1,000 White people
• Humberside had the highest overall arrest rate, with 21 arrests for every 1,000 people
• the police forces with the lowest overall arrest rates were Devon and Cornwall (7 arrests for every 1,000 people), followed by Gloucestershire and Surrey (8 arrests per 1,000 people)
• differences in the arrest rates in England and Wales in part reflect population differences in those areas – for example, many more people from the Asian, Black, Mixed and Other ethnic groups live in London than in North Wales

6. By ethnicity and sex

• Location: England and Wales
• Time period: April 2018 to March 2019
• Source: Police powers and procedures, England and Wales year ending March 2019

Arrest rate per 1,000 people, and number of arrests, by ethnicity and sex

	All		Female		Male
Ethnicity	All Rate per 1,000	All Number of arrests	Female Rate per 1,000	Female Number of arrests	Male Rate per 1,000	Male Number of arrests
All	12	671,126	3	97,117	21	574,009
Asian	12	42,872	2	2,925	21	39,947
Bangladeshi	14	6,291	2	347	26	5,944
Indian	6	8,527	1	722	11	7,805
Pakistani	14	15,367	2	890	26	14,477
Asian other	15	12,687	2	966	29	11,721
Black	32	60,116	6	6,063	60	54,053
Black African	23	22,697	4	2,132	43	20,565
Black Caribbean	33	19,611	6	2,051	64	17,560
Black other	64	17,808	14	1,880	113	15,928
Mixed	18	21,832	5	3,222	31	18,610
Mixed White/Asian	7	2,246	2	306	11	1,940
Mixed White/Black African	16	2,593	4	352	27	2,241
Mixed White/Black Caribbean	26	10,969	8	1,628	45	9,341
Mixed other	21	6,024	6	936	36	5,088
White	10	452,320	3	71,718	17	380,602
White British	9	400,914	3	64,857	16	336,057
White Irish	12	6,224	3	939	21	5,285
White other	18	45,182	4	5,922	33	39,260
Other including Chinese	12	11,148	3	1,549	19	9,599
Chinese	3	1,289	2	349	5	940
Any other	18	9,859	5	1,200	28	8,659
Unknown	N/A*	82,838	N/A*	11,640	N/A*	71,198

^* Not applicable

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Arrests By ethnicity and sex Summary

Lancashire Police were unable to provide arrests data for this period. Population estimates for Lancashire have been removed from the figures when calculating arrest rates per 1,000 men or women.

This data shows that:

• there were 3 arrests for every 1,000 women, and 21 arrests for every 1,000 men
• Black men were over 3 times as likely to be arrested than White men – there were 60 arrests for every 1,000 Black men, and 17 arrests for every 1,000 White men
• Black women were twice as likely to be arrested as White women – there were 6 arrests for every 1,000 Black women, and 3 arrests for every 1,000 White women
• men from the Asian ethnic group were 13 times as likely to be arrested as women – there were 21 arrests for every 1,000 men, and 2 arrests for every 1,000 women, the biggest gap between men and women from the same ethnic group

7. Data sources

Source

Police powers and procedures, England and Wales year ending March 2019

Type of data

Administrative data

Type of statistic

National Statistics

Publisher

Home Office

Publication frequency

Yearly

Purpose of data source

Figures on stop and search incidents resulting in arrest create greater transparency in the use of stop and search in England and Wales. They enhance accountability by enabling the public to monitor police forces at a national and local level.

The data is used to form a national picture of the trends in stop and search, and resulting arrests. It informs discussions about crime, policing and criminal justice in government and academia, and ensures the public are accurately informed.

8. Download the data

Arrests data March 2006 to March 2013 - Spreadsheet (csv) 29 MB

This file contains the following: measure, ethnicity, year, gender, age group, geography, numbers of arrests, rates of arrests, population estimates

Arrests data March 2013 to March 2019 - Spreadsheet (csv) 25 MB

This file contains the following: measure, ethnicity, year, gender, age group, geography, numbers of arrests, rates of arrests, population estimates

Publication release date: 17 September 2020

full page history

1. 17 September 2020 Updated with the latest available data (for the year ending March 2019). Moved all contextual information to ‘Things you need to know’ and its new subsections. Increased visibility by adding it to the table of contents. Removed any duplication and added links to content about understanding our data.

From: Home Office

Previous editions:

1. 10 February 2020
2. 10 October 2018
3. 20 August 2018

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