Crime outcomes in England and Wales 2021 to 2022

Question 1

Key findings

Accepted Answer

Trends in police recorded crime levels over the last two years have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and government restrictions on social contact. Most of the restrictions had been lifted across both England and Wales by the end of March 2022. Levels of some crime types, such as robbery, theft and sexual offences fell during the pandemic year ending March 2021. Levels of other crime types, such as fraud and Computer Misuse Act (CMA) offences increased during the pandemic. In the year ending March 2022, following the lifting of restrictions, increases have been seen across most crime types, with levels of some crime types, such as sexual offences, now exceeding pre-pandemic levels.

Sexual offences have increased by 32% in the year ending March 2022 compared with the previous year, following a 9% fall during the pandemic year ending March 2021. A similar pattern was seen for most violent crime types, such as homicide (up by 25% following a 20% fall the previous year). Levels of fraud and Computer Misuse Act (CMA) offences have also continued to increase, up by 17% in the year ending March 2022 compared with the previous year. In contrast, levels of police recorded theft and robbery offences remain below pre-pandemic levels, despite increases in the previous year (up 15% and 11% respectively). Overall, 5.3 million offences (excluding fraud and computer misuse offences) were recorded by the police in the year ending March 2022, similar to levels recorded in both the year ending March 2019 and the year ending March 2020.

The impact of the Covid restrictions on crime and outcome levels in the year ending March 2021 should be considered when comparing data for the year ending March 2022 with data for the previous year. Throughout the report, where appropriate, data for the year ending March 2020, pre-pandemic, have also been stated for context.

In the year ending March 2022, 5.6% of offences recorded in the year resulted in a charge and/or summons outcome, down from 7.1% in the previous year. Though the figure remained stable during the pandemic, this now continues the longer-term downward trend seen since the year ending March 2015, when 16% of crimes were resolved with a charge and/or summons.

The proportion of offences that were closed as a result of “evidential difficulties” was 38.6%, a slight fall from 39.6% the previous year, but higher than the pre-pandemic year ending March 2020 (34.8%). It is too early to determine if this marks the end of the long-term upwards trend in the proportion of crimes closed with this outcome, which has increased since the year ending March 2015 (when it was 17%). The proportion of offences not yet assigned an outcome has increased from 7.8% in the year ending March 2021 to 11.7% in the year ending March 2022. These trends are likely to reflect, in part, improved crime recording processes as well as a more complex crime caseload being dealt with by the police, with the rise in violence against the person and sexual offences.

Proportion of offences resulting in a charge and/or summons or evidential difficulties outcome, or where an outcome is yet to be assigned, year ending March 2015 to year ending March 2022, England and Wales

Experimental Statistics based on Action Fraud data provided by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) show that the number of outcomes assigned has fallen (from 61,187 in the year ending March 2021 to 57,570 in the year ending March 2022), despite an increase in the number of these offences recorded. Unlike for main police recorded crime data, it is not possible to link fraud outcomes to offences, so data are counts of all offences and outcomes recorded in the year. The outcomes may relate to offences recorded in previous years.

Question 2

Executive Summary

Accepted Answer

Overview

This bulletin is based on the full police recorded crime outcomes framework introduced in April 2014. Under this framework, every notifiable crime recorded by the police will be assigned a case outcome, including those still under investigation. The data presented in this report provide a snapshot, at the time of analysis, of the current case status of offences recorded during the year ending March 2022. The outcomes of some cases, especially those recorded towards the end of the financial year, may be subsequently revised as investigations are completed or fresh lines of enquiry become available. Data covers all those offences recorded in England and Wales by the territorial police forces (though data for Greater Manchester Police were not available for offences recorded between July 2019 and December 2019 and were therefore excluded from total figures for the year ending March 2020) and the British Transport Police.

Key Findings

the number of offences recorded by the police (excluding fraud and computer misuse offences) increased to 5.3 million in the year ending March 2022, an increase of 16% compared with the previous year; this followed a 13% fall during the pandemic, comparing the year ending March 2020 and the year ending March 2021
the proportion of crimes resulting in a charge and/or summons remained stable during the pandemic but this year fell to 5.6% (compared with 7.1% in the previous year), which continues the long-term downward trend since the introduction of the Outcomes Framework in the year ending March 2015, when 16% of crimes were resolved with a charge and/or summons
there were decreases in the proportion of cases closed with out of court disposals in the year ending March 2022 (down from 1.4% to 1.1% for formal disposals and down from 3.0% to 2.5% for informal disposals)
the proportion of offences that were closed as a result of “evidential difficulties” fell from 39.6% in the year ending March 2021 to 38.6% in the year ending March 2022, although this was higher than the 34.8% recorded in the year ending March 2020; it is too early to say if this marks the end of the long-term increasing trend seen since the year ending March 2015, when 16.6% of cases were closed this way
police forces closed just over a third (36.4%) of offences with no suspect identified, a similar proportion to last year (36.7%), though this remained below pre-pandemic proportions for this outcome type, which is partly due to levels of recorded theft remaining below pre-pandemic levels, as 72% of theft offences were closed in this way in the year ending March 2022
there was an increase in the proportion of offences not yet assigned an outcome, from 7.8% for the year ending March 2021 to 11.7% for the year ending March 2022; this likely reflected improved crime recording processes by the police and a more complex caseload

As in previous years, the length of time it took police forces to assign an investigative outcome to a crime varied by both the type of offence and the type of outcome.

overall, an average (median) of 12 days was taken between the date the crime was recorded and the day the outcome was assigned, an increase of 1 day compared with the previous year
the median days for an outcome to be assigned has doubled from the 6 days taken in the year ending March 2018; there are likely to be a range of factors behind the rise including the longer-term increase in crime levels and in the complexity of caseloads being dealt with by the police
for the charge/summons outcome, the median days also rose by 1 day, from 43 days in the year ending March 2021 to 44 days in the year ending March 2022
breaking down data for the charge/summons outcome by offence group revealed a mixed pattern, notably with increases in the median days to a charge outcome for miscellaneous crime (up by 20 days, from 61 to 81 days) and drug offences (up by 11 days, from 52 to 63 days) and falls for sexual offences (down by 25 days, from 286 to 261 days and robbery down by 17 days, from 86 to 69 days)
the number of median days to charge for a rape offence was 467 days, similar to the previous year (465), which is an increase from 395 days in the year ending March 2020
in contrast, there was a fall in the median days to close rape cases with evidential difficulties (suspect identified; victim supports action) by 10 days (from 202 to 192 days)
the effect of the pandemic is likely to be a factor in changes seen over the last two years, with delays in obtaining information and evidence from agencies during the pandemic leading to increases for all outcome types last year and the rise in the proportion of outcomes not yet assigned this year means figures for the latest year may change in subsequent updates
theft offences and criminal damage and arson continued to take the fewest number of days to be assigned an outcome (median of 3 and 5 days respectively); the time taken to assign an outcome stayed the same for theft offences and increased by 1 day for criminal damage and arson compared with the previous year; this reflected the high proportion of such offences which were closed without a suspect being identified
the median length of time for investigations to be closed with no suspect identified for all offences was 3 days, 1 day more than the previous year

Experimental Statistics based on data for fraud and computer misuse offences disseminated to the police and outcomes recorded by the police are collated by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB).

levels of fraud and computer misuse offences have been increasing since the NFIB took over responsibility for collecting these data in April 2011 and, while crime fell for some crime types during the pandemic, this was not the case for fraud and computer misuse offences, which increased by 17% in the year ending March 2022, following a 7% increase the previous year
the number of fraud and computer misuse offences disseminated to forces increased in the year ending March 2022 compared with the previous year (by 8% and 9% respectively); for computer misuse offences, this represented a 30% increase compared with the pre-pandemic year ending March 2020, (from 3,334 in the year ending March 2020 to 4,335 in the year ending March 2022)
the total number of fraud and computer misuse offences assigned an outcome decreased in the year ending March 2022 compared with the previous year (from 53,287 to 50,014 for fraud offences and from 7,900 to 7,556 for computer misuse offences), with volumes for fraud now in line with those seen in the pre-pandemic year ending March 2020 (50,088 outcomes) and higher for computer misuse offences recorded in the same year (4,482 outcomes)

Question 3

1.  Introduction

Accepted Answer

Overview

This bulletin reports on investigative case outcomes that have been assigned to notifiable offences recorded by the police in England and Wales. It covers all territorial police forces (though Greater Manchester Police were unable to provide offences and outcomes data to the Home Office for July 2019 to March 2020 and as such have been excluded from total figures for the year ending March 2020), and the British Transport Police. In April 2013, the Home Office introduced the current crime outcomes framework, replacing a more narrow-focused one based on ‘detections’. This framework provides greater transparency on how all notifiable crimes recorded by the police are dealt with. The previous ‘detections’ framework gave only a partial picture of the work police do to investigate and resolve such crimes. As well as this annual publication, the Home Office also publishes quarterly outcomes tables without commentary. These are published in the [Crime outcomes in England and Wales statistics collection] (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-recorded-crime-open-data-tables). Crime and crime outcomes data are also published alongside justice outcomes data from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in the Criminal Justice System Delivery Data Dashboard. For more detailed background on the outcomes framework and how it was developed, see Annex A6 of the Technical Annex: Crime Outcomes Data Quality.

The full outcomes framework

Since its introduction in April 2014, the framework has developed to cover a broader range of outcome types for police forces to use. Detailed descriptions of each outcome type can be found in the Technical Annex. The data presented in this report provide a snapshot, at the time of analysis, of the current case status of offences recorded during the year ending March 2022 (excluding experimental data on fraud and computer misuse outcomes, reported in Section 4, which are a record of the total number of outcomes assigned in the year and may be linked to offences recorded in previous years). The outcomes of some cases, especially those recorded towards the end of the financial year, may be subsequently revised once investigations have been completed, or new lines of enquiry open. While all crimes will eventually have an outcome, this may take considerable time for some offences. At any given point, police forces will be undertaking crime investigations to which they will not yet have assigned a final outcome. Police forces will therefore submit revised data to the Home Office as investigations are completed and some data previously published will be revised in subsequent releases.

Outcome groupings in this bulletin

Some of the tables and charts in this bulletin show grouped outcomes to simplify presentation. For transparency, Open Data tables are also published that show the full range of police outcomes. These are accessible from the Police recorded crime and outcomes open data tables.

For statistical purposes, all recorded crimes are assigned one outcome type. Please refer to the General Rules Section H of the Home Office Counting Rules for information on recording outcomes.

Table 1.1 shows the grouping of outcomes used in this report. These take account of user feedback following a consultation in 2014.

Table 1.1: Grouping the Outcomes Framework from April 2013 onwards (Outcomes 1-22)

Outcome Group	Outcome Types
Charged/Summonsed	1
Taken into consideration	4
Out-of-court (formal)	2, 3, 6
Out-of-court (informal)	7, 8
Prosecution prevented or not in the public interest	5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 17
Evidential difficulties (suspect identified; victim supports action)	15
Evidential difficulties (victim does not support action)	14, 16
Investigation complete – no suspect identified	18
Action undertaken by another body/agency (from April 2015)	20
Further investigation to support formal action not in the public interest (police decision) (from January 2016)	21
Diversionary, educational or intervention activity, resulting from the crime report, has been undertaken and it is not in the public interest to take any further action (voluntary from April 2019)	22

Notes:

Outcome 19 not shown as this applies to fraud offences recorded by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau only which are reported on separately, see section 4.

See Annex A6 of the Technical Annex for detailed descriptions of each outcome type.

Supplementary Data Tables

The chapters in this bulletin discuss key topics of interest in the outcomes data. Data presented in these chapters as both charts and tables are available online via bulletin tables published on the Home Office website.

In addition to the tables found in the main bulletin, a number of supplementary tables are available here which provide additional data on the topics discussed, plus data on areas not covered. Data on transferred and cancelled records, and “old-style” outcomes are also published.

Outcomes for offences recorded in quarter (New Style)

This is the principal method used to present data in this bulletin; it looks at outcomes for offences recorded in the same period (referred to as “Recorded in quarter” in linked data tables) in which the offence was recorded. It allows the distribution of outcomes to be shown for individual crimes that were recorded and given an outcome in the same time period. However, as some crime types take longer to investigate than others, the final outcome may not be available for a proportion of offences at the time of the first release of data for a given time period.

It is not possible to present outcomes data for fraud and computer misuse offences in this format as the data provided by the NFIB cannot be linked to offences.

Outcomes recorded in quarter (Old Style)

This measure relates to outcomes recorded in a particular year regardless of when the associated crime was recorded, that is it will include outcomes for cases recorded in a previous year. Ratios can be calculated showing the number of outcomes recorded in the year as a proportion of all crimes recorded in the same year. This is how rates were presented before it was possible to link individual crimes with their outcomes.

This approach provides a fuller measure of police activity in relation to crime in a given year. However, comparing the number of outcomes with the number of recorded offences in this way should be done with caution since rates could appear to change from one year simply because of a changing balance between crimes and outcomes recorded over time. For example, some crime types could show a rate of over 100 per cent against a particular outcome, which is sometimes the case for relatively low volume crimes.

Data availability

Due to issues following a migration to a new force crime record management system, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) have been unable to provide the Home Office with crime and outcome data for the period from July 2019 to March 2020. Therefore, data presented for the year ending March 2020 exclude GMP.

The bulletin focuses on changes in the latest year, comparing data for the year ending March 2022 with data for the year ending March 2021. However, given the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on crime levels in the year ending March 2021, comparable figures for the year ending March 2020 are referenced for context. As above, figures for the year ending March 2020 exclude data for GMP.

Question 4

2.  Outcomes assigned to offences recorded in the year ending 31st March 2022

Accepted Answer

Reporting in this section excludes fraud and computer misuse, which are covered separately in section 4.

Key findings

police recorded crime levels fell during the pandemic, with a 13% fall in the total number of offences in the year ending March 2021 (4.6 million offences) compared with the year ending March 2020 (5.3 million offences); since the relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions, police recorded crime levels have increased by 16% in the year ending March 2022 compared with the year ending March 2021, marking a return to pre-pandemic levels with 5.3 million offences recorded in the latest year
the number of recorded crimes resolved via a charge/summons fell by 10%, equivalent to over 30,000 charges, compared with the previous year (from around 330,000 to around 300,000); this represented 5.6% of crimes recorded in the same period, lower than the previous year (7.1%), and continued the downward trend since the year ending March 2015 (when the comparable figure was 16%)
as in previous years, the most common reason for a case being closed was due to no suspect being identified; this occurred in over a third of all crimes recorded, a similar proportion to the previous year (36.4% and 36.8% respectively)
the proportion of investigations closed where the victim did not support further action was in line with last year, at 26.5% (compared with26.6% in the year ending March 2021)
with the rise in recorded crime levels in the latest year and subsequent increase in police caseload, the proportion of offences not yet assigned an outcome at the year-end also rose from 7.8% last year to 11.7% this year

This section covers how the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales, and the British Transport Police (BTP), have dealt with crimes recorded in the year ending March 2022, excluding Fraud and Computer Misuse Act (CMA) offences. Since April 2011 the recording of fraud and CMA offences has been centralised via Action Fraud (the UK’s national fraud and cyber-crime reporting centre) and managed by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) at the City of London Police. From the data supplied to the Home Office by the NFIB, it is not currently possible to link individual outcomes to offences at record level. Therefore, the outcomes for fraud and CMA offences reported in section 4 are presented on an “old style” basis and are not directly comparable with outcomes for other offence types.

It should be noted that not all offences recorded in the year ending 2022 had been assigned an investigative outcome at the time that the data was prepared for this bulletin. A fuller picture of how crimes have been resolved by the police will become available in updated tables; published on a quarterly basis. This means that the figures presented here are not final and are subject to change. For example, the proportion of offences in the year ending March 2021 receiving an outcome of charged/summonsed was 7.1% when first published in July 2021 but the latest update shows this has increased to 8.2%. However, to allow like-for-like comparisons, in this bulletin we report on trends using data as first published.

The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted on crime and outcomes trends over the last two years. National lockdowns in the year ending March 2021 led to a reduction in levels of some types of crime compared with the year ending March 2020. Levels of most crime types have increased in the year ending March 2022, and this can largely be attributed to the relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions. Police recorded crime fell by 13% in year ending March 2021 (4.6 million) compared with the pre-pandemic year ending March 2020 (5.3 million). Crime levels have since risen by 16% in the year ending March 2022 (5.3 million) compared with the year ending March 2021, marking a return to pre-pandemic levels, as restrictions related to the pandemic have been eased. This is particularly evident for criminal damage and arson, which rose by 13% (from around 470,000 offences in year ending March 2021 to around 530,000 in the year ending March 2022); only 1.7% lower than levels recorded in the year ending March 2020 (540,000). Police were dealing with a much higher caseload in the year ending March 2022 than in previous year.

The suppression of normal crime levels during the lockdowns in place during the year ending March 2021 makes meaningful comparisons with the latest 12-month period challenging.

Prior to the pandemic, some increases in recorded crime levels were thought to be due to improved recording practices. Furthermore, in 2014, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) published a critical report on crime recording which revealed significant under-recording of crimes that had been reported by victims to the police. This was followed by a programme of rolling inspections of forces to examine compliance with the Home Office’s National Crime Recording Standard (NCRS). This has led to improved compliance and increased caseloads as more crimes were correctly recorded than in previous years. The HMICFRS has estimated in their State of Policing 2019 report that, compared with their findings from their 2014 inspection, better compliance with recording standards meant police forces recorded around 570,000 more crimes during 2019.

In addition to improvements in recording, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have commented that some of the increases in recorded crime in recent years may also reflect changes in society. These include genuine increases in some types of crime and a greater willingness of some victims to come forward to report crimes to the police.

As a result, since 2013/14 the volume of the crime caseload being dealt with by the police has grown. In addition, the crime mix has also changed with rising numbers of more complex offences like rape, the number of recorded offences of which has more than doubled since the year ending March 2015. The increasing volume of digital evidence (which may require more intensive work to investigate) across a wide spectrum of offences from harassment to sexual offences is also thought to have added to the investigative demands on the police.

At the same time, it has been reported that forces have sought to reduce demand by adopting local policies to prioritise the use of investigative resources. These factors are likely to have an impact on the distribution of outcomes over time and across forces.

Variation in how cases were closed by outcome type

Table 2.1 summarises the investigative outcomes given to all crimes recorded in the year ending March 2022 at the time that data were finalised for analysis (May 2022). It also shows how this compares with outcomes assigned to crimes recorded in the previous year as they were when first published in July 2021. Some of the key points (see Figure 2.1 and Table 2.2) are as follows:

the proportion of cases at the year-end that had not yet received an outcome increased from around 360,000 in the year ending March 2021 to around 620,000 in the year ending March 2022; as a proportion of all crimes recorded, this represented an increase from 7.8% to 11.7%; this largely reflects the increase in police caseload over the same period, with total recorded offences increasing from 4.6 million in the year ending March 2021 to 5.3 million in the year ending March 2022
the number of offences closed with a charge/summons fell by around 10% from 330,000 to around 300,000; as a proportion of all crimes recorded, this represented a fall from 7.1% to 5.6% and continued a downward trend that started in the year ending March 2015, when the comparable proportion was 15%
as in the previous year, the most common reason for a case being closed was no suspect having been identified; over a third of all cases were closed in this way (36.4% in March 2021 similar to 36.7% in March 2021)
similar proportions of cases were closed with out of court (formal) disposals (1.1% in the year ending March 2022 and 1.4% in the year ending March 2021) and out of court (informal) disposals (2.5% in the year ending March 2022 and 3% in the year ending March 2021)
the proportion of offences closed with evidential difficulties where the victim supported action and a suspect was identified remained similar to last year, at 12.2% in the year ending March 2022 and 12.9% in the year ending March 2021
for cases closed due to evidential difficulties where the victim did not support further action, the proportion also remained similar at 26.5% in the year ending March 2022 and at 26.6% in the previous year; these cases can be split into those where a suspect was identified (21.1% in the year ending March 2022), and where the suspect was not identified (5.4% in the year ending March 2022).

Table 2.1: Outcomes assigned to offences recorded in the year ending March 2021 and the year ending March 2022 (as first published), by outcome type and group, England and Wales^{[note 1], [note 10]}

Outcome number	Outcome type/group	Volume year to March 2021 ^{[note 2,3,4]}	Volume year to March 2022 ^{[note 2,3,4]}	% Year to March 2021 ^{[note 2,3,4]}	% Year to March 2022 ^{[note 2,3,4]}
1	Charged/Summonses	328,932	296,189	7.1%	5.6%
4	Taken into consideration ^{[note 5]}	1,882	1,909	0%	0%
	Out-of-court (formal)	63,544	58,304	1.4%	1.1%
2	Caution - youths	5,628	5,400	0.1%	0.1%
3	Caution - adults	45,459	43,961	1.0%	0.8%
6	Penalty Notices for Disorder	12,457	8,943	0.3%	0.2%
	Out-of-court (informal)	136,588	135,560	3.0%	2.5%
7	Cannabis/Khat warning	16,030	7,550	0.3%	0.1%
8	Community resolution	120,558	128,010	2.6%	2.4%
	Prosecution prevented or not in the public interest	68,737	73,633	1.5%	1.4%
5	Offender died	1,214	1,311	0%	0%
9	Not in public interest (CPS)	2,121	1,719	0%	0%
10	Not in public interest (Police)	29,699	28,352	0.6%	0.5%
11	Prosecution prevented - suspect under age	6,153	8,061	0.1%	0.2%
12	Prosecution prevented - suspect too ill	14,659	16,883	0.3%	0.3%
13	Prosecution prevented - victim/key witness dead/too ill	2,461	2,060	0.1%	0%
17	Prosecution time limit expired	12,430	15,247	0.3%	0.3%
15	Evidential difficulties (suspect identified; victim supports action)	596,881	649,344	12.9%	12.2%
	Evidential difficulties (victim does not support action)	1,228,176	1,411,650	26.6%	26.5%
14	Evidential difficulties: suspect not identified; victim does not support further action	218,375	287,092	4.7%	5.4%
16	Evidential difficulties: suspect identified; victim does not support further action	1,009,801	1,124,558	21.9%	21.1%
18	Investigation complete - no suspect identified	1,695,081	1,941,935	36.7%	36.4%
20	Action undertaken by another body/agency	51,220	61,914	1.1%	1.2%
21	Further investigation to support formal action not in the public interest^{[note 6]}	61,057	52,039	1.3%	1.0%
22	Diversionary, educational or intervention activity, resulting from the crime report, has been undertaken and it is not in the public interest to take any further action^{[note 7]}	20,455	29,402	0.4%	0.6%
	Total offences assigned an outcome (type 1-18, 20-22)	4,252,553	4,711,879	92.2%	88.3%
	Offences not yet assigned an outcome	360,101	623,927	7.8%	11.7%
	Total offences ^{[note 1], [note 5]}	4,612,654	5,335,806	100%	100%

Notes:

Excludes fraud and Computer Misuse Act (CMA) offences, which are recorded centrally by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) rather than police forces. Outcome 19 is not shown as this applies only to offences recorded by the NFIB.
Proportions show the percentage of crimes recorded in the year receiving each outcome.
Data are as at the time they were provided to the Home Office.
Based on data from all 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales, and British Transport Police (BTP).
Offences asked to be taken in to consideration by a court (TICs).
Outcome 21 was introduced from January 2016 on a voluntary basis and became mandatory from April 2016.
Outcome 22 was introduced on a voluntary basis from April 2019.

How outcomes varied by offence group

As in previous years, how crimes were resolved varied considerably by the type of crime and it is likely to reflect a range of factors including: the nature of the offence, differing police priorities and the varying challenges in gathering evidence. For example, it will generally be far more difficult to identify a suspect for a criminal damage offence that was not witnessed or caught on CCTV, than one where such intelligence is available. In contrast, for some crimes, such as drug possession offences, the police may have apprehended the offender at the time the crime came to their attention, making a formal or informal criminal justice sanction much easier to achieve. Similarly, for an offence where substantial forensic evidence exists, it will be easier to proceed to a charge than for one where such evidence does not exist. The willingness of victims or witnesses to engage with the police can also vary by type of offence and the relationship between victim and offender.

These factors many also subsequently impact on the length of time needed to complete an investigation and on the distribution of outcomes. For example, a fairly large proportion of sexual offences recorded in the year ending March 2022 had not yet been assigned an outcome (30.1%). This and the relatively high proportion of such cases closed with evidential difficulties reflect challenges associated with investigating such crimes, such as those related to evidence and/or support of the victim.

The variation in outcomes across offence groups is highlighted by the difference in the four offence types illustrated in Figure 2.1 (a more detailed breakdown can be found in Table 2.2). While around six in ten (60.2%) drug offences resulted in either a charge/summons or an out of court disposal, the other three offence types illustrated in Figure 2.1 had much lower rates of such outcomes. For example, in around four in ten robbery offences (42.2%) no suspect had been identified. In contrast, offences involving violence against the person or sexual offences continued to be much more likely to have an outcome of evidential difficulties recorded compared with other offences.

Figure 2.1: Outcome proportions by outcome group and offence group, for year ending March 2022, England and Wales

Drug offences

as above, around six in ten drug offences received a formal or informal criminal justice sanction, with around two in ten receiving a charge/summons outcome (19.4%) and around four in ten receiving an out of court disposal (40.8%), such as cautions or community resolutions; the latter are typically used for dealing with less serious offences, but the suspect must admit guilt for such outcomes to be applied
drug trafficking offences received a higher proportion of charges (23.2%) than drug possession offences (18.3%)
compared with other offence groups, a small proportion of drug offences were closed due to no suspect being identified (3.8%) which is to be expected given the nature of the offence, most of these outcomes arising from drug trafficking offences recorded where drugs are posted from one location to another
within drug possession offences, there was a difference between how possession of cannabis and possession of other drugs were resolved; cannabis possession had a much lower charge/summons rate (14.2%) than other drug offences (32.1%); this reflects that possessions of small amounts of cannabis for personal use will often be dealt with through a Cannabis warning or Community Resolution; nearly half (47.8%) of all cannabis offences were assigned such outcomes, compared with 12.9% of possession offences involving other drugs; the majority of drug possession offences recorded in the year ending March 2022 related to Cannabis (around 107,000 compared with around 32,000 offences of all other drug types); as a result, the overall charge rate for possession of drug offences has been driven by the charge rate for possession of Cannabis
it should also be noted that police forces have differing local policies to using out of court disposals; for example, Lancashire Constabulary, Leicestershire Police, the Metropolitan Police and Staffordshire Police do not use Cannabis/Khat warnings for simple possession of cannabis offences, instead preferring the use of Community Resolutions when appropriate; this needs to be considered when looking at force level breakdowns

Sexual offences

sexual offences were the offence type most likely to have not yet been assigned an outcome (30.1%) at the year end, reflecting the greater complexity and the extended time required to investigate such offences compared with other crime types (see Section 3)
this also contributed to the apparently low proportion of sexual offences with a charge/summons (2.9%). The charge/summons rate has remained similar over the previous four years; it stood at 3.5% for the year ending March 2021, 3.2% for the year ending March 2020, and 3.5% for the year ending March 2019; other contributory factors included a higher than average proportion of cases assigned to one of the ‘evidential difficulties’ categories; for example, around two in five rape offences (42%) were closed because the victim did not support further police action against a suspect
conversely, sexual offences had a much lower level of suspects not identified (12.9% compared with an average of 36.4% for all offences)

Violence against the person

this is a broad offence group covering a wide spectrum of offending, from homicide and serious violent crime through to lower harm and less serious common assault; it also includes offences involving psychological or emotional, rather than physical, abuse; such as harassment and stalking
generally, violence against the person offences were the most likely to result in victims not supporting police action (42.4%)
outcomes varied within this offence group by the type of crime, with the charge/summons rate for violence with injury offences being 1.8 percentage points higher than that for violence without injury (7.2% and 5.5% respectively); most of this difference was accounted for by victims of violence without injury not supporting police action; in contrast, there was a much higher charge/summonses rate for homicide offences, with over half of cases closed with this outcome (54.8%); homicide offences can often take longer to investigate and this was reflected in the finding that nearly four in ten (38.3%) have not yet been assigned an outcome

Table 2.2: Outcomes assigned to offences recorded in the year ending March 2022, by outcome group and offence group, England and Wales ^{[note 9], [note 10]}

Outcome group	Violence against the person	Sexual offences	of which: Rape	Robbery	Theft Offences	Criminal damage and arson	Drug offences	Possession of weapons offences	Public order offences	Misc. crimes against society	Total year to March 2022^{[note 1]}
Charged/summonsed	5.2%	2.9%	1.3%	6.3%	4.1%	4.2%	19.4%	27.5%	5.9%	9.5%	5.6%
Taken into consideration (TICs)^{[note 2]}	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Out-of-court (formal)^{[note 3]}	1.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%	0.3%	1.2%	9.2%	4.6%	1.0%	0.8%	1.1%
Out-of-court (informal)^{[note 4]}	1.8%	0.3%	0.0%	0.4%	0.9%	2.2%	31.6%	3.4%	2.0%	1.6%	2.5%
Prosecution prevented or not in the public interest ^{[note 5]}	2.0%	2.0%	1.1%	0.2%	0.3%	0.8%	3.1%	2.8%	1.6%	2.4%	1.4%
Evidential difficulties (suspect identified; victim supports action)	17.1%	13.6%	11.6%	6.5%	5.0%	7.5%	8.1%	17.3%	16.9%	17.0%	12.2%
Evidential difficulties (victim does not support action) ^{[note 6]}	42.4%	33.8%	42.0%	21.1%	8.8%	17.5%	0.8%	9.3%	30.6%	22.1%	26.5%
Investigation complete - no suspect identified	14.0%	12.9%	6.5%	42.2%	71.7%	58.0%	3.8%	13.4%	30.1%	15.3%	36.4%
Action undertaken by another body/agency	2.2%	2.6%	0.8%	0.1%	0.1%	0.3%	0.2%	0.7%	0.5%	3.2%	1.2%
Further investigation to support formal action not in the public interest ^{[note 8]}	0.9%	1.1%	0.1%	0.1%	0.4%	0.5%	2.7%	2.2%	1.5%	6.5%	1.0%
Diversionary, educational or intervention activity, resulting from the crime report, has been undertaken and it is not in the public interest to take any further action ^{[note 8]}	0.7%	0.4%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%	0.3%	3.4%	1.1%	0.4%	1.2%	0.6%
Offences not yet assigned an outcome	12.6%	30.1%	36.5%	23.0%	8.2%	7.5%	17.8%	17.7%	9.6%	20.4%	11.7%

Notes:

Excludes fraud and Computer Misuse Act (CMA) offences, which are recorded centrally by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) rather than police forces. Outcome 19 is not shown as this applies only to offences recorded by the NFIB.
Offences asked to be taken into consideration by a court (TICs).
Includes caution - adults; caution - youths; Penalty Notices for Disorder.
Includes Cannabis/Khat warnings and Community Resolutions.
Includes not in the public interest (CPS); Not in public interest (Police); Offender Died; Prosecution prevented (suspect under age; suspect too ill; victim/key witness dead/too ill); Prosecution time limit expired.
Includes evidential difficulties where the suspect was/was not identified, and the victim does not support further action.
Outcome 21 (Further investigation to support formal action not in the public interest) was introduced from January 2016 on a voluntary basis and became mandatory from April 2016.
Outcome 22 was introduced on a voluntary basis from April 2019.
Proportions show the percentage of crimes recorded in the year receiving each outcome.
Based on data from all 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales, and British Transport Police (BTP).

Longer term trends in how crimes were resolved

Figure 2.2: Proportion of offences assigned outcomes of charge/summons or evidential difficulty (victim did not support further action) in the year ending March 2015 to the year ending March 2022, as first published by the Home Office, England and Wales

There has been a downward trend in the proportion of offences with a charge/summons outcome assigned within the same year that the crime was recorded since the year ending March 2015 (falling from 15.5% in the year ending March 2015 to 5.6% the year ending March 2022).

At the same time, there has also been a growing proportion of cases recorded where victims did not support police action (from 8.7% in the year ending March 2015 to 26.5% in the year ending March 2022). These trends are likely to have been influenced by the changing caseload and crime mix being dealt with by the police.

ongoing work to improve crime recording by police forces has both increased the volume of crimes forces are dealing with and changed the crime mix to include more complex cases, such as sexual offences and domestic abuse, which can be more challenging to resolve
at the same time, police forces have increasingly prioritised high harm crimes such as rape and domestic abuse, leading to less focus on lower harm crimes, such as theft; this has meant the proportion of rape offences assigned charges has fallen from 1.4% in the year ending March 2020 to 1.3% in the year ending March 2022 compared to shoplifting down from 17.4% in year ending March 2020 to 13.8% in the year ending March 2022
the effects of the pandemic on the criminal justice system have resulted in backlogs in criminal courts and agencies which has led to cases taking longer to investigate

Question 5

3.  Timeliness of investigations

Accepted Answer

Reporting in this chapter excludes fraud and computer misuse, which are covered separately in Section 4.

Key results

as reported in Section 2, there was an increase in the proportion of offences not yet assigned an outcome in the year ending March 2022 compared with the previous year (from 7.8% to 11.7%); alongside this, over the same period, there was an overall increase of 1 day in the average (median) time taken to assign an outcome from the date the crime was initially recorded (from 11 days in the year ending March 2021 to 12 days in the year ending March 2022)
the median days for an outcome to be assigned has generally been rising since the year ending March 2018 (when it was 6 days); in Section 2, the increasing crime levels and complexity of caseloads being dealt with by the police were referenced as possible factors in the reduction of offences assigned a charge/summons outcome in the year ending March 2022 compared with the previous year; these are also likely to be factors behind the increase in average time to assign an outcome
for most offence groups the median number of days for outcomes to be assigned rose compared with the previous year (the size of the increase ranging from 1 to 4 days); however, sexual offences and the sub-category of rape saw a decline in the average number of days for an outcome to be assigned (down by 7 and 3 days respectively); for sexual offences, the decrease in median days to all outcomes was primarily influenced by a fall of 25 days in the average number of days to charge/summons; for the sub-category of rape offences, the outcome ‘evidential difficulties (suspect identified, victim supports action)’ was the main contributing factor in reducing the overall days to outcome (with a fall of around 10 days)
for those cases closed with a charge/summons outcome, the median days rose slightly from 43 days in the year ending March 2021 to 44 days in the latest year; there has been a steady increase in the average days to assign a charge/summons outcome since the year ending March 2016, from 14 to 44 days (an increase of 30 days), which is likely a reflection of the growing caseload and changing crime mix
there was a mixed picture in the number of days to assign a charge/summons outcome when breaking down by offence groups, with decreases for some crime types and increases for others. For sexual offences, robbery, and theft offences, the average time to assign a charge/summons outcome was lower than in the previous year (with falls of 25 days for sexual offences, 17 days for robbery and 6 days for theft offences; see Table 3.3); for robbery offences, although on average the police were quicker to reach a charge/summons outcome, in contrast, looking at the total overall outcomes, there was an increase in the average time to close all cases; this was not the case for sexual offences which saw timelier finalisation of both charge/summons and the overall total outcomes
offence types which showed increases in the median number of days to assign a charge/summons outcome included: violence against the person, rape (despite the overall decrease for sexual offences as a whole, as reported above) and possession of weapons offences

This section explores the variation in the time that elapsed from the initial recording of a crime to the point at which the outcome of an investigation was registered on a police force’s crime record management system (RMS).

In contrast with the previous section, the data presented in this section cover all outcomes recorded in the year ending March 2022, regardless of when the offence was initially recorded. This enables a more complete picture of cases finalised in the latest year. Time, in days, is presented using the median average as this measure is less susceptible to being skewed by a small number of unusually high or low values. It should be noted that this measure will not always reflect the actual time taken to deal with an individual case since, for example, there may be a delay between an offender being charged and the force crime RMS being updated.

Timeliness by offence and outcome type

In the year ending March 2022, it took a median of 12 days to assign an outcome to an offence. Around four in ten (39%) of all outcomes were assigned within five days of the offence being recorded and around two-thirds (64%) within 30 days. These proportions were similar to the previous year when 42% of all outcomes were assigned within five days and 65% within 30 days.

The proportion of cases taking over 100 days to assign an outcome remained at 16% in the year ending March 2022.

The averages for all crime types masks significant variation across offences and outcomes, which is visible when analysis is broken down to that level.

Figure 3.1: The time taken (median days) for outcomes to be assigned for offences broken down by offence groups, year ending March 2022, England and Wales

Source: Home Office Data Hub

Table 3.1 shows the median length of time to assign an outcome by offence type for the last six years. Following a fall between the year ending March 2017 and the year ending March 2018, there has been an increasing trend, from 6 days in the year ending March 2018, to 12 days in the latest year. This upward trend is likely to reflect a range of factors, including the growing caseload and changing crime mix. For example, in the latest year, the volume of violence against the person and sexual offences increased by 18% and 32% respectively. These offences tend to take longer to investigate and to be given higher priority for investigative resource.

The median days to assign an outcome for drug offences increased to 23 days in the year ending March 2022 from 20 days the previous year, but this figure was still lower than the pre-pandemic year ending March 2020, when the average was 26 days. The increase to 23 days this year may reflect a return to normal activity as we leave the pandemic era.

The median days to assign a charge/summons outcome for all drug offences increased by 11 days to 63 days. Some forces in the past have reported a backlog of forensic examinations, including analysis of items such as mobile phones, to ascertain evidence of drug dealing, as well as testing to identify the drugs that have been seized. This is likely to have also contributed to the increase in median days.

Table 3.1: The difference in the average (median) length of time taken to assign an outcome between the year ending March 2017 and the year ending March 2022, by offence type

	Y.e. March 2017	Y.e. March 2018	Y.e. March 2019	Y.e. March 2020	Y.e. March 2021	Y.e. March 2022	Difference between y.e March 2021 and y.e March 2022
Violence against the person	17	15	18	18	18	21	3
Sexual offences	79	73	77	66	69	62	-7
of which: Rape	144	129	126	98	97	94	-3
Robbery	31	23	24	28	42	46	4
Theft offences	4	2	2	4	3	3	0
Criminal Damage and Arson	3	2	3	4	4	5	1
Drug offences	13	14	21	26	20	23	3
Possession of weapons offences	13	13	18	25	28	29	1
Public order offences	13	8	12	12	11	13	2
Miscellaneous offences	20	19	24	25	25	28	3
All crimes (excluding fraud)	8	6	9	10	11	12	1

Source: Home Office Data Hub

Notes:

Median days for the year ending March 2017 to the year ending March 2021 are as first published.
Only includes data for forces who send offence-level data to the Home Office Data Hub. In 2016-19, only 2 forces did not submit offence-level data and in the following years (2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22) 3, 4 and 5 forces respectively did not submit offence level data.

Table 3.1 also shows:

overall, theft and criminal damage and arson offences took the least time to assign an outcome; a median of 3 and 5 days respectively; criminal damage and arson outcome times showed an increase of 1 day compared with the previous year and theft offences showed no change; both these offence types have a high proportion of outcomes closed as ‘Investigation complete; no suspect identified’ and the median days to outcome for that specific outcome group is relatively low (2 days and 1 day respectively) and therefore driving the low overall figure; this reflects the nature of these types of offence, whereby a police decision is taken relatively quickly as they are generally less complicated in nature
the median days to assign an outcome for possession of weapons offences has increased slightly compared with the previous year (29 days for the latest year compared with 28 days in the year ending March 2021) but has increased from 13 days in the year ending March 2017; this rise could be a result of an increase in the number of these types of offences being recorded; during the latest year, the number of possession of weapons offences has increased by around 10% (from around 45,000 offences in the year ending March 2021 to just under 50,000 offences in the year ending March 2022)

Figure 3.2: The difference in the average (median) length of time taken to assign an outcome between the year ending March 2016 and the year ending March 2022, by outcome group

Source: Home Office Data Hub

Figure 3.2 shows the average length of time to assign outcomes by type of outcome and how this has changed over the past six years. The main findings are:

the average time taken to assign a charge/summons outcome has been increasing since the year ending March 2016, when the average was 14 days; gradual increases were seen up to the year ending March 2018, when the average was 18 days; a period of steeper increases followed until the year ending March 2021, when the average was 43 days; this steep incline has flattened out again in the latest year, with an average of 44 days reported for the year ending March 2022
as in previous years, the median number of days taken for a charge/summons outcome to be assigned varied considerably by offence type, however, there was a mixed picture regarding trends in timeliness; there was timelier finalisation of charges for sexual offences (down by 25 days from 286 to 261), robbery (down by 17 days from 86 days to 69) and theft offences (down by 6 days from 36 to 30 days); in contrast, the median days for a charge/summons outcome to be assigned increased for other crime types, with a larger increase seen for drug offences, up by 11 days (from 52 to 63), followed by violence against the person, which increased by 6 days (from 46 to 52) and possession of weapons offences which rose by 1 day (from 21 to 22)
the number of days to assign an outcome of ‘evidential difficulties (victim does support action)’ increased by 5 days, from 38 days in the year ending March 2021 to 43 days in the year ending March 2022; there was also a smaller increase in cases where the victim does not support action where the median days rose by 3 days to 17 days; the increases in days have been impacted by the rise in evidential difficulties outcomes for violence against the person offences (a rise from 1.18 to 1.33 million offences)^{[footnote 1]}; this runs in parallel to rise in the average number of days to assign an evidential difficulties outcome for violence against the person; for the outcome ‘evidential difficulties (suspect identified; victim supports action)’, there has been an 8-day increase in violence against the person offences; for ‘evidential difficulties (victim does not support action)’, there was a 4-day increase for violence against the person offences; anecdotal evidence suggests that the backlog in crown courts have caused victim attrition to increase, as referenced in the HMICFRS report mentioned in Section 2
the median length of time for investigations to be closed with no suspect identified for all offences was 3 days, 1 day more than the previous year but similar to that seen in the year ending March 2020 (also 3 days); there was an increase in the median days to assign an outcome for all offence groups, with the highest increases seen in drug and robbery offences, up by 12 (to 36 days) and 7 (to 42 days) respectively; the next highest increases were seen in possession of weapons offences (up by 4 to 15 days), then violence against the person and sexual offences followed suit, with an increase of 3 (to 11 days) and 2 (to 37 days) respectively
as in previous years, sexual offences took much longer to have outcomes assigned than other offence types, reflecting the fact they are generally more challenging to investigate; the median was 62 days, with 38% taking over 100 days
for rape offences, the median average for an outcome to be assigned was 94 days (down 3 days compared with the previous year), with nearly half (48%) in the year ending March 2022 taking over 100 days, a similar proportion to that seen last year (49%); the length of time reflects the sensitive nature and complexity of investigating such offences; a detailed breakdown of the amount of time for all sexual offences to receive an outcome by the type of outcome applied is presented in Figure 3.3

Figure 3.3 shows that the overall increase in 1 day of the median number of days for an outcome to be assigned masked variation between different offence types and different outcome types.

charge/summons outcomes for sexual offences took the longest amount of time to be assigned, at a median of 261 days, down from 286 days the previous year; however, this remained higher than the average recorded in previous years, with 233 days in year ending March 2020 and 195 days in year ending March 2019
the median number of days taken for cases of sexual offences to be closed due to evidential difficulties where the victim supported action decreased from 141 to 127 days; however, cases closed with evidential difficulties where the victim did not support action remained at 49 days in the latest year

Figure 3.3 The time taken (median days) for sexual offences to receive an outcome, broken down by the type of outcome, for the years ending March 2021 and 2022, England and Wales

Source: Home Office Data Hub

Length of time taken to assign an outcome by outcome type

Around four in ten (39%) of all outcomes were assigned within five days of recording the offence, and about two-thirds (64%) within 30 days. The proportion of cases taking over 100 days to assign an outcome stayed the same (at 16%) compared with last year. Table 3.2 below shows how this varied by offence group.

Table 3.2 Timeliness: The length of time between offences and outcomes being recorded for outcomes recorded in the year ending March 2022, by offence group, England and Wales

	Same day	1 to 5 days	6 to 30 days	31 to 100 days	More than 100 days
Violence against the person	10%	18%	29%	24%	18%
Sexual offences	5%	8%	22%	28%	38%
of which: Rape	3%	5%	16%	28%	48%
Robbery	6%	13%	22%	28%	32%
Theft offences	31%	25%	19%	14%	10%
Criminal damage and arson	29%	23%	22%	16%	10%
Drug offences	10%	21%	23%	19%	27%
Possession of weapons offences	11%	16%	24%	23%	27%
Public order offences	16%	21%	27%	21%	14%
Miscellaneous offences	11%	15%	25%	21%	27%
All offence types	19%	21%	25%	20%	16%

Source: Home Office Data Hub

Over the last six years, the number of offences taking over 100 days to be assigned a charge/summons outcome has increased, see Figure 3.4. For the year ending March 2022, 35% of all offences with an outcome of charge and/or summons took over 100 days to close, compared with 16% for the year ending March 2016 and 34% for the year ending March 2021. This reflects an increase in the volume of recorded offences for some offence types, mainly sexual offences which, this year alone, has increased by 32%, totalling to around 195,000 offences, and the complexities that surround these cases can be contributing to the overall increase in days to assign a charge/summons outcome.

Figure 3.4: The length of time between offences and outcomes being recorded for offences assigned a charge/summons outcome in the years ending March 2016 to March 2022, England and Wales

Source: Home Office Data Hub

Sexual offences took longer to assign an outcome than any other crime types, with around 38% of offences closing after 100 days (of which, rape offences took even longer with around 48% of cases closing after 100 days). This was lower than seen in the year ending March 2021, where the equivalent proportions were 41% for sexual offences and 49% for rape offences. A contributing factor to this decrease could be police taking further action to provide swifter justice following the rape review conducted in 2021, which aims to hold each part of the criminal justice system more accountable via the use of taskforce, monthly progress reports and scorecards.

In contrast, for the year ending March 2022, nearly one out of every three theft (31%) and criminal damage and arson offences (29%) were closed on the same day that the offence was recorded (see Table 3.2). This was similar to the previous year when 29% of theft offences and 30% of criminal damage and arson offences closed on the same day the offence was recorded.

Question 6

4.  Experimental Statistics: Investigative outcomes assigned to fraud and Computer Misuse Act (CMA) offences

Accepted Answer

Key results

the number of fraud offences reported increased by 17% between the year ending March 2021 and the year ending March 2022, from around 800,000 offences to around 940,000 offences; this was largely driven by an increase in reports from UK Finance, which more than trebled with a 151% increase from around 100,000 offences to around 250,000 offences (based on partial data for the year ending March 2022^{[footnote 2]} – once data are finalised, this increase will be higher)
this continues the increasing trend in numbers of recorded fraud offences in recent years, and the level of recorded fraud is 25% higher than that seen pre-pandemic in the year ending March 2020 (around 750,000 offences)
the number of Computer Misuse Act (CMA) offences reported decreased by 5%, from around 30,000 in the year ending March 2021 to around 29,000 in the year ending March 2022; despite the fall, levels of recorded CMA offences remain 10% higher than those seen pre-pandemic, in the year ending March 2020 (when around 26,000 CMA offences were recorded)
the number of fraud offences disseminated to forces increased by 8% (from around 25,000 offences disseminated to around 27,000 offences disseminated) compared with the year ending March 2021, and by 2% compared with the year ending March 2020 (from around 26,000 offences disseminated to around 27,000 offences disseminated); similarly, the number of CMA offences disseminated to forces rose by 9% (from around 4,000 offences disseminated to around 4,300 offences disseminated); however, this represented a larger increase (of 30%) on the pre-pandemic number (around 3,300 offences disseminated in the year ending March 2020)
the total number of fraud offences assigned an investigative outcome decreased from around 53,000 in the year ending March 2021 to around 50,000 (down 7%) in the year ending March 2022, while the total number of CMA offences assigned an outcome decreased from 7,900 to around 7,600 (down by 5%)
levels of recorded investigative outcomes assigned to fraud offences have returned to those seen pre-pandemic (also around 50,000 outcomes in the year ending March 2020), while numbers of outcomes assigned to CMA offences are much higher (around 4,500 in the year ending March 2020)

4.1 Introduction

Action Fraud is the UK’s national fraud and cybercrime reporting centre, having taken over the recording of fraud offences from individual police forces on a rolling basis from March 2013. More information on the recording of fraud and Computer Misuse Act (CMA) offences can be found in the Crime Statistics User Guide.

Action Fraud reports are reviewed by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB), based at the City of London Police, who are responsible for allocating offences to forces for them to investigate (these are known as a ‘dissemination package’). Each dissemination package can be made up of any number of offences, from one to hundreds. This depends on the size of the suspected fraud network, as many similar crimes may be linked together if investigators believe one suspect, or set of suspects, is responsible for a number of different offences. Also, an offence can be included in more than one dissemination, if it links to multiple crime networks. However, each offence only receives one final investigative outcome.

The police recorded crime series, published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), also incorporates offences reported to the NFIB by two fraud prevention industry bodies: Cifas and UK Finance. Figures for these fraud bodies have been included in fraud and total counts only, as neither industry body collects or provides reports relating to CMA offences.

The disseminations and outcomes dataset provided by the NFIB continues to be subject to development and quality assurance and so these statistics continue to be badged as experimental. The outcomes presented in this chapter differ to those relating to other crime types as they are based on the old-style outcomes, i.e. the number of outcomes recorded within a year regardless of when the offence occurred.

In previous updates to the Action Fraud system, NFIB have looked into building in the capability to report on outcomes against fraud offences recorded in the year but, to date, this has not been possible.

Outcomes data for the year ending March 2021 differ from those published last year and are based on updated data received from NFIB. For the year ending March 2022, revised figures will be published next year, as additional outcomes records are added to the system over the coming months. Where comparisons are made to last year’s data, these are based on the revised data. Where comparisons are made to the year ending March 2020, the figures used are those published in the year ending March 2021 edition of this publication.

For further information on NFIB’s outcomes recording process please see the Technical Annex Section.

4.2 Fraud and Computer Misuse Act offences, disseminations and outcomes in the year ending March 2022 - headline findings

The findings from the disseminations and outcomes data for the year ending March 2022 are presented below. Fraud and CMA offences have been presented separately since 2020, to provide more detail on the outcomes of these related crime types, which differ in their nature and investigation.

Table 4.1 shows the number of unique fraud and CMA offences sent to police forces for investigation, alongside the total number of fraud and CMA offences recorded in the years ending March 2021 and 2022.

The number of recorded fraud offences have been on an upward trend since the NFIB took over responsibility for recording fraud in April 2011. Unlike most other crime types, fraud and CMA offences continued to rise during the pandemic. There was a 17% increase in the year ending March 2022 compared with the previous year (up from around 800,000 to around 940,000 offences). This followed a 7% increase the previous year (from around 750,000 offences recorded in the year ending March 2020).

While levels of fraud offences continued to increase, the number of disseminations decreased in the year ending March 2021, from around 26,000 in the year ending March 2020 to around 25,000 in the year ending March 2021, before increasing again to around 27,000 in the year ending March 2022.

In contrast, disseminated CMA offences have continued to increase in the same period, by 20%, from around 3,300 in the year ending March 2020, to around 4,000 in the year ending March 2021, then an increase of 9% to around 4,300 in the year ending March 2021.

Table 4.1: Number of fraud and CMA offences and disseminations, year ending March 2021 and year ending March 2022 (Experimental Statistics) [note 1, 2, 3]

	Year ending Mar 2021	Year ending Mar 2021	Year ending Mar 2021	Year ending Mar 2022	Year ending Mar 2022	Year ending Mar 2022	% change between Mar 2021 and Mar 2022	% change between Mar 2021 and Mar 2022	% change between Mar 2021 and Mar 2022
	Fraud	CMA	Total	Fraud	CMA	Total	Fraud	CMA	Total
Total number of offences:	797,897	30,467	828,364	936,276	28,886	965,162	17%	-5%	17%
Number recorded by Action Fraud	398,022	30,467	428,489	354,758	28,886	383,644	-11%	-5%	-10%
Number recorded by Cifas [note 5]	301,755	[x]	301,755	335,233	[x]	335,233	11%	[x]	11%
Number recorded by UK Finance [note 5,6]	98,120	[x]	98,120	246,285	[x]	246,285	151%	[x]	151%
Total number of unique offences within disseminations [note 4]	24,805	3,991	28,796	26,903	4,335	31,615	8%	9%	10%

Notes:

Caution should be taken when comparing data for fraud offences and disseminations. Data presented are for offences and disseminations recorded within the year. Offences which are disseminated will not necessarily be disseminated in the year the offence was recorded.
These data are Experimental Statistics, which means that caution should be taken when interpreting the figures.
Recorded fraud and CMA offences for the year ending March 2021 will not match previously published figures due to data revisions received.
Some offences can be included in more than one dissemination or can be disseminated to a force in multiple months. This number reflects the total number of unique offences that have been disseminated to forces for further investigation, and offences which are part of two or more dissemination packages are only counted once.
Cifas and UK Finance do not report CMA offences.
There was a data submission issue from one of UK Finance’s member firms whereby a large number of records were duplicated throughout February 2022. All February 2022 records have been removed until the issue is resolved.

[x] indicates that data are not available.

4.3 Outcomes recorded against fraud and Computer Misuse Act offences by outcome type

Table 4.2 shows the number of investigative outcomes recorded by the police against fraud and CMA offences in the year ending March 2022, by outcome type. These are presented alongside the total number of fraud and CMA offences disseminated to the police and the total number of recorded fraud and CMA offences for the latest and previous year. The figures presented here differ from the method used in Section 2 for all other recorded crime since it is not possible to link individual crime records to their outcomes for fraud and CMA offences.

It is important to note that the number of outcomes will not necessarily correspond to the number of disseminations in a given year, since investigations can extend beyond the year in which they were initially sent to forces for investigation before they are complete. Therefore, a number of offences disseminated to the police in the year ending March 2022 remain under investigation.

Table 4.2: Number of fraud and CMA outcomes recorded in the year ending March 2021 and the year ending March 2022 by outcome type (Experimental Statistics)[note 1]

	Year ending Mar 2021 [note 5]	Year ending Mar 2021 [note 5]	Year ending Mar 2021 [note 3,5]	Year ending Mar 2022	Year ending Mar 2022	Year ending Mar 2022 [note 3]	% change between Mar 2021 and Mar 2022	% change between Mar 2021 and Mar 2022	% change between Mar 2021 and Mar 2022
Outcome type/group	Fraud	CMA	Total [note 3,6]	Fraud	CMA	Total[note 3,6]	Fraud	CMA	Total
Charged/Summonsed	5,078	74	5,152	4,816	97	4,913	-5%	31%	-5%
Taken Into Consideration [note 2]	110	-	110	97	8	105	-12%	-	-5%
Out-of-court (formal)	599	32	631	449	28	477	-25%	*	-24%
Caution - youths	28	1	29	21	-	21	*	-	*
Caution - youths	566	31	597	426	28	454	-25%	*	-24%
Penalty Notices for Disorder	5	-	5	2	-	2	*	-	*
Out-of-court (informal)	453	18	471	498	32	530	10%	*	13%
Cannabis/Khat warning [note 4]	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Community resolution	453	18	471	498	32	530	10%	*	13%
Prosecution prevented or not in the public interest	813	39	852	829	16	845	2%	*	-1%
Offender died [note 7]	23	2	25	259	-	259	*	*	*
Not in public interest (CPS)	119	5	124	70	1	71	-41%	*	-43%
Not in public interest (Police)	459	23	482	296	8	304	-36%	*	-37%
Prosecution prevented - suspect under age	8	0	8	3	-	3	*	-	*
Prosecution prevented - suspect too ill	18	0	18	31	1	32	*	-	*
Prosecution prevented - victim/key witness dead/too ill	169	3	172	130	-	130	-23%	-	-24%
Prosecution time limit expired	17	6	23	40	6	46	*	*	*
Evidential difficulties (suspect identified; victim supports action)	11,841	774	12,615	11,466	752	12,218	-3%	-3%	-3%
Evidential difficulties (victim does not support action)	7,796	1,242	9,038	8,296	1,328	9,624	6%	7%	6%
Evidential difficulties: suspect not identified; victim does not support further action	2,256	698	2,954	2,659	826	3,485	18%	18%	18%
Evidential difficulties: suspect identified; victim does not support further action	5,540	544	6,084	5,637	502	6,139	2%	-8%	1%
Investigation complete - no suspect identified	22,958	5,410	28,368	20,410	5,135	25,545	-11%	-5%	-10%
Action undertaken by another body/agency	1,655	148	1,803	1,522	75	1,597	-8%	-49%	-11%
Further investigation to support formal action not in the public interest	1,825	121	1,946	1,444	61	1,505	-21%	-50%	-23%
Disruption activity undertaken NIPI to take further action [note 6]	159	42	201	187	24	211	18%	*	5%
Total number of outcomes	53,287	7,900	61,187	50,014	7,556	57,570	-6%	-4%	-6%
Total number of unique offences within dissemination	24,805	3,991	28,796	26,903	4,335	31,615	8%	9%	10%
Total recorded offences [note 8]	797,897	30,467	828,364	936,276	28,886	965,162	17%	-5%	17%

Notes:

These data are Experimental Statistics, which means that caution should be taken when interpreting the figures.
Offences asked to be taken into consideration by a court (TICs).
Offences recorded by Action Fraud, Cifas and UK Finance with outcomes recorded by NFIB in the year ending March 2021 or the year ending March 2022.
This outcome does not apply to fraud offences.
Following updates from forces, figures for the year to March 2021 have been revised from last year’s publication.
This outcome was introduced in April 2019 and this is the second year it has been presented for fraud and CMA offences. This was previously a voluntary outcome type for police forces to record.
The large increase in the ‘offender died’ outcomes for the year to 2021 was attributed to two prolific suspects.
There was a data submission issue from one of UK Finance’s member firms whereby a large number of records were duplicated throughout February 2022. All February records have been removed until the issue is resolved.

* an asterisk indicates that percentage changes have been suppressed for cases under 50

- hyphen refers to zero

Table 4.2 shows:

compared with other crime types (reported in Section 2), a relatively low number of recorded fraud and CMA offences were subject to investigative outcomes, since such a small percentage of cases were disseminated to police forces for investigation; the NFIB consider a number of factors before disseminating fraud and CMA offences to the police, including whether or not there are viable lines for enquiry ^{[footnote 3]}
between the year ending March 2021 and March 2022, an 8% increase was seen in the number of fraud offences disseminated to police forces (up by around 2,000 offences disseminated), compared with a 9% increase in CMA disseminations (up by around 350 offences disseminated); it should be noted that CMA volume increases were relatively small (up from around 4,000 in the year ending March 2021 to around 4,350 in the year ending March 2022)
the increases in disseminations follow falls in the previous year, though figures remain higher than in the pre-pandemic year ending March 2020 (a 2% increase in the volume of fraud disseminations and a 30% increase in CMA disseminations between the year ending March 2020 and the year ending March 2022)
the number of disseminated fraud offences that were closed with a ‘charge and/or summons’ outcome fell by 5% (from around 5,100 to around 4,800) between the year ending March 2021 and the year ending March 2022
in the same period, there was a small increase in the number of CMA offences that received a ‘charge and/or summons’ outcome up from 74 to 97), representing a 31% rise; however, it remains relatively unlikely for CMA offences to be closed with a ‘charge and/or summons’ outcome
for both fraud and CMA offences there was a decrease in the number of cases closed with an outcome of ‘investigation complete: no suspect identified’; the number of fraud offences closed with this outcome in the latest year decreased by 11%, down from around 23,000 to around 20,000; this was equivalent to 41% of fraud investigative outcomes (down from 43% the previous year); the number of CMA offences that received this outcome also decreased (by 5%) from around 5,400 in the year ending March 2021 to around 5,000 in the year ending March 2022; in both years, this accounted for 68% of CMA outcomes

4.4 Disseminations and outcomes by Police Force Area

Tables 4.3.1 and 4.3.2 show fraud and CMA disseminations and outcomes data for the years ending March 2021 and March 2022 by police force area (PFA).

As previously mentioned, it is important to note that the number of outcomes will not necessarily correspond to the number of disseminations in a given year. Caution should be taken when comparing the number of outcomes to disseminated offences as fraud and CMA investigations can take months or longer to complete, meaning the offence may have occurred in a previous year.

Table 4.3.1: Fraud and Computer Misuse Act (CMA) offences disseminated to forces [note 2], by police force area, years ending March 2021 and March 2022 (Experimental Statistics) [note 1]

Police Force	Year ending Mar 2021	Year ending Mar 2021	Year ending Mar 2021	Year ending Mar 2022	Year ending Mar 2022	Year ending Mar 2022	%Change Total
Police Force	Fraud [note 3]	CMA [note 3]	Total [note 3]	Fraud	CMA	Total [note 3,4]	%Change Total
Avon and Somerset	1,544	69	1,613	355	144	504	-69%
Bedfordshire	550	57	607	332	60	399	-34%
Cambridgeshire	179	40	219	284	49	335	53%
Cheshire	340	146	486	393	80	476	-2%
City of London	366	36	402	1,479	30	1,526	280%
Cleveland	84	13	97	98	30	128	32%
Cumbria	48	41	89	70	37	107	20%
Derbyshire	302	33	335	178	36	216	-36%
Devon and Cornwall	337	86	423	387	173	561	33%
Dorset	240	62	302	312	79	410	36%
Durham	182	33	215	139	37	177	-18%
Essex	565	137	702	665	155	842	20%
Gloucestershire	122	26	148	339	30	370	150%
Greater Mancherster	1,290	113	1,403	1,497	128	1,639	17%
Hampshire	309	151	460	504	209	764	66%
Hertfordshire	431	149	580	426	106	533	-8%
Humberside	198	85	283	452	60	515	82%
Kent	843	148	991	729	100	833	-16%
Lancashire	639	96	735	359	91	465	-37%
Leicestershire	540	46	586	738	54	799	36%
Lincolnshire	240	63	303	291	34	326	8%
Merseyside	341	58	399	586	55	646	62%
Metropolitan	8,935	758	9,693	8,328	1,045	9,655	0%
Norfolk	246	25	271	188	50	241	-11%
North Yorkshire	89	27	116	91	45	149	28%
Northamptonshire	189	126	315	234	104	338	7%
Northumbria	194	65	259	399	49	453	75%
Nottinghamshire	406	103	509	1,419	111	1,537	202%
South Yorkshire	453	70	523	624	39	714	37%
Staffordshire	194	81	275	270	55	327	19%
Suffolk	122	51	173	138	23	161	-7%
Surrey	397	123	520	322	136	465	-11%
Sussex	600	159	759	421	120	546	-28%
Thames Valley	781	86	867	1,163	182	1,367	58%
Warwickshire	85	41	126	106	45	152	21%
West Mercia	346	50	396	247	59	308	-22%
West Midlands	1,374	168	1,542	1,773	188	2,002	30%
West Yorkshire	1,332	101	1,433	720	126	856	-40%
Wiltshire	187	44	231	269	43	313	35%
England	24,340	3,748	28,088	26,413	4,107	30,893	10%
Dyfed-Powys	65	68	133	100	94	196	47%
Gwent	97	17	114	64	17	81	-29%
North Wales	68	82	150	121	39	161	7%
South Yorkshire	236	75	311	190	80	272	-13%
Wales	466	242	708	474	228	707	0%
England and Wales [note 3,4]	24,801	3,989	28,790	26,884	4,335	31,596	10%
British Transport Police	4	2	6	20	0	20	*
Grand Total	24,805	3,991	28,796	26,903	4,335	31,615	10%

Notes:

These data are Experimental Statistics, which means that caution should be taken when interpreting the figures.
The number of outcomes will not necessarily correspond to the number of disseminations in a given year since investigations can take months or longer to complete.
Offences reported by Cifas and UK Finance are now included in the relevant fraud categories. In previous publications, these figures were only included in the total number of disseminated offences.

* an asterisk indicates that percentage changes have been suppressed for cases under 50

Table 4.3.2: Outcomes assigned to recorded fraud and Computer Misuse Act (CMA) offences [note 2, 3], by police force area, year ending March 2021 to year ending March 2022 (Experimental Statistics) [note 1]

	Year ending Mar 2021	Year ending Mar 2021	Year ending Mar 2021	Year ending Mar 2022	Year ending Mar 2022	Year ending Mar 2022	%Change Total
Police Force	Fraud [note 3]	CMA [note 3]	Total [note 3]	Fraud	CMA	Total [note 3,4]	%Change Total
Avon and Somerset	464	167	631	722	365	1,087	72%
Bedfordshire	1,018	102	1,120	1,290	143	1,433	28%
Cambridgeshire	881	102	983	644	87	731	-26%
Cheshire	269	317	586	267	152	419	-28%
City of London	1,480	38	1,518	1,291	19	1,310	-14%
Cleveland	264	26	290	322	20	342	18%
Cumbria	550	86	636	481	89	570	-10%
Derbyshire	717	133	850	359	76	435	-49%
Devon and Cornwall	1,225	372	1,597	769	180	949	-41%
Dorset	1,087	190	1,277	933	169	1,102	-14%
Durham	172	13	185	230	18	248	34%
Essex	1,458	117	1,575	1,166	114	1,280	-19%
Gloucestershire	865	113	978	845	98	943	-4%
Greater Manchester [note 5]	1,891	187	2,078	3,338	197	3,535	70%
Hampshire	710	266	976	442	208	650	-33%
Hertfordshire	862	243	1,105	809	227	1,036	-6%
Humberside	752	117	869	843	38	881	1%
Kent	1,624	174	1,798	1,898	278	2,176	21%
Lancashire	1,479	367	1,846	1,299	245	1,544	-16%
Leicestershire	398	94	492	512	171	683	39%
Lincolnshire	1,293	144	1,437	1,197	101	1,298	-10%
Merseyside	351	102	453	263	85	348	-23%
Metropolitan	10,245	1,033	11,278	8,617	1,030	9,647	-14%
Norfolk	798	110	908	663	126	789	-13%
North Yorkshire	74	14	88	32	14	46	*
Northamptonshire [note 4]	1,738	181	1,919	966	164	1,130	-41%
Northumbria	584	91	675	446	37	483	-28%
Nottinghamshire [note 5]	2,869	346	3,215	4,521	539	5,060	57%
South Yorkshire	1,165	243	1,408	925	232	1,157	-18%
Staffordshire	884	70	954	603	21	624	-35%
Suffolk	474	76	550	364	89	453	-18%
Surrey [note 4]	1,481	190	1,671	910	156	1,066	-36%
Sussex [note 4]	3,014	252	3,266	1,688	220	1,908	-42%
Thames Valley	1,034	80	1,114	1,404	195	1,599	44%
Warwickshire	584	68	652	442	55	497	-24%
West Mercia	1,099	152	1,251	865	67	932	-25%
West Midlands	2,232	632	2,864	1,980	642	2,622	-8%
West Yorkshire [note 6]	557	101	658	1,891	373	2,264	244%
Wiltshire	572	149	721	627	150	777	8%
England	49,214	7,258	56,472	46,864	7,190	54,054	-4%
Dyfed-Powys	560	133	693	517	77	594	-14%
Gwent	501	24	525	342	19	361	-31%
North Wales	1,493	222	1,715	1,027	106	1,133	-34%
South Yorkshire	1,438	262	1,700	1,138	163	1,301	-23%
Wales	3,992	641	4,633	3,024	365	3,389	-27%
England and Wales [note 3,4]	53,206	7,899	61,105	49,888	7,555	57,443	-6%
British Transport Police	81	1	82	126	1	127	55%
Grand Total	53,287	7,900	61,187	50,014	7,556	57,570	-6%

Notes:

These data are Experimental Statistics, which means that caution should be taken when interpreting the figures.
The number of outcomes will not necessarily correspond to the number of disseminations in a given year since investigations can take months or longer to complete.
Following updates from forces, figures for the year ending March 2021 have been revised from last year’s publication.
Northamptonshire, Surrey, and Sussex reported their decreases can be explained by more accurate recording practices.
Greater Manchester and Nottinghamshire report their increases are due to work they have undertaken to close long-standing investigations and improve recording.
In the year ending March 2021, West Yorkshire attributed the drop in the number of outcomes recorded to the impact of coronavirus, with courts being closed causing a backlog of cases. In April 2021, they changed some reporting practices and this in part explains the increase.

* an asterisk indicates that percentage changes have been suppressed for cases under 50

Question 7

5.  Further Information

Accepted Answer

References

The Home Office (2017), “Crime outcomes in England and Wales 2016/17”, and subsequent quarterly data tables. Available here.

Office for National Statistics (2018), “Crime in England and Wales: Year ending March 2018”. Available here.

Office for National Statistics (2017), “User Guide to Crime Statistics for England and Wales”.

UK Statistics Authority (2014) “Assessment Report 268”.

Important Information

Before April 2013, official statistics about how the police deal with crimes focused narrowly on ‘detections’ (the number of cases resolved with a formal or informal criminal justice outcome). In April 2013, the Home Office introduced the new outcomes framework and changed the presentation of its crime outcomes statistics.

From April 2014 onwards, police forces have supplied data to the Home Office on a broader set of outcomes including those that do not result in a formal or informal criminal justice outcome. The year to March 2014 bulletin ^{[footnote 4]} , published in July 2014, showed the first provisional statistics from the new outcomes framework. We have since developed the statistics with input from police forces and users.

We continue to ensure that these police recorded crime outcomes statistics are:

meeting identified user needs, including providing new analysis and greater transparency
well explained and readily accessible
produced according to sound methods
managed impartially and objectively in the public interest

The statistics in this bulletin are designated as Official Statistics as in January 2014, the UK Statistics Authority found that police recorded crime statistics did not meet the required standard for designation as National Statistics. The full assessment report against the Code of Practice for Official Statistics can be found on the UK Statistics Authority.

In July 2014, the Home Office Chief Statistician and the UK Statistics Authority Head of Assessment agreed to badge the year to March 2014 Crime Outcomes bulletin as Official Statistics, rather than National Statistics. This reflects the move to the new outcomes framework, and also the possibility that outcomes data are affected by similar issues to those that led to the de-designation of police recorded crime statistics.

Full details are available here:

Letter from David Blunt to Ed Humpherson

Letter from Ed Humpherson to David Blunt

It is our intention that the statistics will be assessed with a view to them gaining National Statistics status in due course.

Previous Releases

Previous editions of this bulletin included a chapter analysing outcomes for domestic abuse related offences. This has not been produced for this edition as it is our intention for it to be included in the cross-government compendium on Domestic Abuse due to be released by the Office for National Statistics in November 2019.

Previous editions of “Crime Outcomes in England and Wales” bulletins, are available here

Copies of other Home Office publications (including crime statistics releases prior to April 2012) are available here

Copies of crime statistics publications from April 2012 are available from the Office for National Statistics website

This includes the ‘User Guide to Crime Statistics’, a useful reference guide with explanatory notes regarding the issues and classifications that are key to the production and presentation of the crime statistics.

Contact Details

For further information about crime outcomes statistics, please email:

CrimeandPoliceStats@homeoffice.gov.uk or write to:

Crime and Policing Statistics
5th Floor
Fry Building
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

Home Office Responsible Statistician

John Flatley, Programme Director of Crime and Policing Statistics

Contact via CrimeandPoliceStats@homeoffice.gov.uk

Year ending March 2021 as first published figure excludes data from GMP, which partially explains the increase seen in year ending March 2022. ↩
UK Finance figures for fraud offences recorded in February 2022 have been excluded due to an issue with duplicate records. ↩
Fraud and cyber crime national statistics - Action Fraud, see Section on ‘How we choose which crimes are sent to forces’. ↩
Crime outcomes in England and Wales 2014 to 2015 ↩

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Key findings

Proportion of offences resulting in a charge and/or summons or evidential difficulties outcome, or where an outcome is yet to be assigned, year ending March 2015 to year ending March 2022, England and Wales

Executive Summary

Overview

Key Findings

1. Introduction

Overview

The full outcomes framework

Outcome groupings in this bulletin

Table 1.1: Grouping the Outcomes Framework from April 2013 onwards (Outcomes 1-22)

Supplementary Data Tables

Outcomes for offences recorded in quarter (New Style)

Outcomes recorded in quarter (Old Style)

Data availability

2. Outcomes assigned to offences recorded in the year ending 31st March 2022

Key findings

Variation in how cases were closed by outcome type

Table 2.1: Outcomes assigned to offences recorded in the year ending March 2021 and the year ending March 2022 (as first published), by outcome type and group, England and Wales[note 1], [note 10]

How outcomes varied by offence group

Figure 2.1: Outcome proportions by outcome group and offence group, for year ending March 2022, England and Wales

Table 2.2: Outcomes assigned to offences recorded in the year ending March 2022, by outcome group and offence group, England and Wales [note 9], [note 10]

Longer term trends in how crimes were resolved

Figure 2.2: Proportion of offences assigned outcomes of charge/summons or evidential difficulty (victim did not support further action) in the year ending March 2015 to the year ending March 2022, as first published by the Home Office, England and Wales

3. Timeliness of investigations

Key results

Table 3.1: The difference in the average (median) length of time taken to assign an outcome between the year ending March 2017 and the year ending March 2022, by offence type

Figure 3.2: The difference in the average (median) length of time taken to assign an outcome between the year ending March 2016 and the year ending March 2022, by outcome group

Figure 3.3 The time taken (median days) for sexual offences to receive an outcome, broken down by the type of outcome, for the years ending March 2021 and 2022, England and Wales

Length of time taken to assign an outcome by outcome type

Table 3.2 Timeliness: The length of time between offences and outcomes being recorded for outcomes recorded in the year ending March 2022, by offence group, England and Wales

Figure 3.4: The length of time between offences and outcomes being recorded for offences assigned a charge/summons outcome in the years ending March 2016 to March 2022, England and Wales

4. Experimental Statistics: Investigative outcomes assigned to fraud and Computer Misuse Act (CMA) offences

Key results

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Fraud and Computer Misuse Act offences, disseminations and outcomes in the year ending March 2022 - headline findings

Table 4.1: Number of fraud and CMA offences and disseminations, year ending March 2021 and year ending March 2022 (Experimental Statistics) [note 1, 2, 3]

4.3 Outcomes recorded against fraud and Computer Misuse Act offences by outcome type

Table 4.2: Number of fraud and CMA outcomes recorded in the year ending March 2021 and the year ending March 2022 by outcome type (Experimental Statistics)[note 1]

4.4 Disseminations and outcomes by Police Force Area

Table 4.3.1: Fraud and Computer Misuse Act (CMA) offences disseminated to forces [note 2], by police force area, years ending March 2021 and March 2022 (Experimental Statistics) [note 1]

Table 4.3.2: Outcomes assigned to recorded fraud and Computer Misuse Act (CMA) offences [note 2, 3], by police force area, year ending March 2021 to year ending March 2022 (Experimental Statistics) [note 1]

5. Further Information

References

Important Information

Previous Releases

Contact Details

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Table 2.1: Outcomes assigned to offences recorded in the year ending March 2021 and the year ending March 2022 (as first published), by outcome type and group, England and Wales^{[note 1], [note 10]}

Table 2.2: Outcomes assigned to offences recorded in the year ending March 2022, by outcome group and offence group, England and Wales ^{[note 9], [note 10]}