Guidance

Home Office Annual Data Requirement (ADR) data – Privacy Information Notice

Updated 27 August 2026

1. Contact

Crime Analysis Unit and/or Police Analysis Unit

2nd Floor Peel Building
2 Marsham Street
London.
SW1P 4DF

CrimeandPoliceStats@homeoffice.gov.uk and policingstatistics@homeoffice.gov.uk

2. Background

The Home Office, collects, processes and analyses national crime and policing data provided by the 43 territorial police forces of England and Wales and the British Transport Police (BTP).

These collections form part of the Home Office Annual Data Requirement (ADR). The ADR is a list of all requests for data made to all police forces in England and Wales under the Home Secretary’s statutory powers. A wide range of data are collected, including crime, police workforce, arrests and stop and search. The full list of data collected under ADR is published at Annual data requirement from police forces in England and Wales - GOV.UK.

The data is provided to the Home Office for research and statistical purposes. Additionally, homicide and firearms offences data is used operationally by the police forces and other law enforcement agencies upon request.

Police forces do not require the consent of individuals to provide the information, but individuals have the right to know how, and for what purpose the data is being collected, held and used. The processing must have a lawful basis which, in this case, is that the processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest to meet a function of the Crown, a minister of the Crown or a government department. This Privacy Notice explains how the Home Office uses personal data provided by the police forces.

3. What data do we collect?

The Home Office collects crime and policing data directly from the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales and BTP. Crime data collected via the Annual Data Requirement (ADR) relates to notifiable offences recorded by the police forces. Policing data collected via the ADR relates to policing data collected by the police forces. Some of the information may have been provided by individuals at the time of the crime, or other interaction with a police force. This data includes personal data such as ethnicity, offence location (which may be a residential address) and Police Officer rank. As joint controller of the data, alongside the police forces, the Home Office is responsible for ensuring that all data is processed in line with data protection legislation.

Within crime data, personal data is collected for victims, suspects and others linked to a notifiable crime, which has been recorded by the police. Within the policing data series, personal data, including information on the protected characteristics of age, disability status, sex, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender identity, and maternity leave, is collected on police employees. Data is also collected on the sex and ethnicity of those who are stopped and searched, those who are arrested, those detained under the Mental Health Act and those against whom the police used force.

Additionally, record level data on personal characteristics and pay information of police employees is collected as part of the Police Workforce Census. While identifiers, such as NI Numbers or HR payroll numbers are not collected, the data is considered sensitive as it contains many variables that could be combined (for example, ethnicity, date of birth, rank, pay information), and so lead to identifying an individual.

Some of the data collected is particularly sensitive: for example, names and addresses of victims and suspects related to homicide cases and HR data relating to police staff. All the information collected under ADR is treated in accordance with data protection requirements and guidelines.

4. How do we collect your data?

Data is submitted via a combination of direct record level data transfers and aggregate data returns. Police forces submit record level crime data to the Home Office via a secure online file sharing service. Additional spreadsheet collections are submitted via secure e-mail connections. Policing data, similarly, is collected via reports extracted directly from police force systems or via spreadsheets.

5. Under what legal basis do we collect your data?

The legal basis for collecting the data is within Article 6 of the UK GDPR:

‘1e) Processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller.’

For data processing, the legal basis is within Article 9 of the UK GDPR:

‘2j) Processing is necessary for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes in accordance with Article 89(1) based on Union or Member State law.’

6. How do we store your data?

Data is stored in secure databases. Access to these databases is controlled and restricted to analytical staff in the Home Office and HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire Rescue Services (HMICFRS), who have been security cleared. Additionally, Home Office IT staff and contractors responsible for managing the IT systems have access to the databases for maintenance purposes only.

Personal data collected will be held for research and statistical purposes, to build up a long-term data series. It will be retained for a period of 99 years, with an intention to review the data at that point and decide which data is still required. Data which is no longer needed will be destroyed in a safe manner.

7. How do we use your data?

The majority of data received is aggregated and used for statistical and research publications. We quality assure all data prior to publication, to ensure that individuals cannot be identified in the outputs.

Police recorded crime data is supplied to and published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in aggregate form on a quarterly and annual basis as part of a schedule of routine official statistics. Hate crime data is published separately by the Home Office on an annual basis. Policing data is published by the Home Office on a regular basis. Our release calendar is available here: Home Office statistics release calendar.

You can access the statistics here:

Crime statistics.

Hate crime statistics.

Policing statistics.

Alcohol and drug statistics.

Crime and policing data is shared with other public sector bodies for research and statistical purposes. For example, data is shared with HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS), to inform their inspection work.

Data is also used for ad hoc research to explore current crime patterns and to inform Government policy making. A separate Privacy Information Notice covering the Home Office use of personal data for research purposes can be found at Home Office Crime and Policing Research – Privacy Information Notice.

Prior to an initial release of statistics that analyse personal data, as appropriate, the Home Office consults police forces and takes measures to ensure the data is suitable for publication. Where necessary, disclosure control methods will be applied to ensure individuals cannot be identified.

Some data collected is not published. This includes new data, where quality assurance tests are being carried out before the data can be deemed fit for publication. Analysis of this data may be published as Statistics in Development, with the same procedures used to avoid the identification of individuals.

8. Why, and with whom, do we share this information?

Information collected via the ADR is shared with ONS (as above), other government departments, police forces, other law enforcement agencies and academics. Data is shared for research and statistical purposes, with data sharing agreements in place for personal data to ensure the data share complies with data privacy legislation.

Homicide Index data is also occasionally shared with police forces to assist with ongoing investigations.

For more information on how we look after your information please see the Personal information charter (PIC) for the Home Office. This PIC includes details on the legislation under which we hold and process your personal information and the organisations with whom we may share data.

9. How does this affect you?

The information shared is handled with care in accordance with the law. We are collecting and sharing your information to help us understand better the role and demand on the police forces and inform crime and policing policy and future service provision.

10. What are your data protection rights?

As third-party recipients of your data, the Home Office will usually refer requests to the relevant police force(s), and they will respond to you within 30 days. Where the force(s) make amendments to your data, they will then submit updates to the Home Office. It will then take up to 48 hours for these corrections to be uploaded in the Home Office systems. Crime data is originally collected by the police for law enforcement purposes so exemptions may apply to requests relating to this data.

The right to access. You have the right to request copies of your personal data. The organisation(s) will provide copies unless a valid legal exemption is applied.

The right to rectification. You have the right to request amendments or updates to be made to your personal data, where you believe the data is incorrect or incomplete.

The right to restrict processing. You have the right to request that the Home Office restricts the processing of your personal data under certain circumstances, for example while you are awaiting a response to a request to amend or delete your data.

The right to object to processing. You have the right to object to the Home Office processing your personal data, under certain conditions. In almost all cases, we process data for research or statistical purposes necessary for the performance of a public task, and under these circumstances we are not required to comply with an objection. We will consider all requests though, and to assist us in our decision-making, it is helpful if you state clearly what harm you believe may be caused by the processing of your data. We would weigh this against the benefits of processing the data.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, report a concern or find out further information on the personal information we collect and process in the Home Office please see the Home Office’s Personal information charter. The PIC includes contact details for the Data Protection Officer at the Home Office.

11. Reviewing the PIN

We regularly review our PINs to ensure they are up to date particularly in terms of the organisations from whom we receive data and we would welcome any feedback on this PIN to feed into our review process. Additionally, testing out whether our PINs are clear and understandable and easy to access for data subjects is an important part of the review of the PINs. To leave us feedback please email us at crimeandpolicestatistics@homeoffice.gov.uk and/or policingstatistics@homeoffice.gov.uk..

12. If you want to know more

Your personal information will be held and processed by the Home Office across staff working locations, using secure IT and analytical systems. The Home Office is the joint controller of this information, along with the police forces.

If you need more information on how your personal information is being processed, e-mail

CrimeandPoliceStats@homeoffice.gov.uk and/or policingstatistics@homeoffice.gov.uk.

Contact details for the Home Office’s Data Protection Officer:

Office of the DPO,
Peel Building,
2 Marsham Street,
London.
SW1P 4DF

Email: dpo@homeoffice.gov.uk

If you are unhappy with any aspect of this privacy notice, or how your personal information is being processed, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).