National statistics

Police powers and procedures: Stop and search and arrests, England and Wales, year ending 31 March 2021 second edition

Updated 5 May 2022

Applies to England and Wales

Frequency of release: Annual

Forthcoming releases: Home Office statistics release calendar

Home Office responsible statistician: Jodie Hargreaves

Press enquiries: pressoffice@homeoffice.gov.uk

Telephone: 0300 123 3535

Public enquiries: crimeandpolicestats@homeoffice.gov.uk

Privacy information notice: Home Office Crime and Policing Research and Annual Data Requirement (ADR) data – Privacy Information Notices

1. Introduction

1.1 Changes to the Police Powers and Procedures statistics release

The Home Office has undertaken a review of the annual ‘Police powers and procedures’ statistical bulletin and, given the volume and variety of topics covered, a decision has been made to split the release into two separate statistical bulletins. Furthermore, new data have been collected for stop and search (see section 1.2), meaning that more in-depth analysis has been conducted and included in this report.

This release is the first of the two to be published on police powers and contains statistics on the use of the powers of stop and search and arrest by the police in England and Wales up to the year ending 31 March 2021.

The second release, which is due to be published on 14 December 2021, will contain statistics on the use of other police powers under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, fixed penalty notices and other outcomes for motoring offences, breath tests, pre-charge bail, released under investigation and detentions under the Mental Health Act.

1.2 Improved data collection and new analysis in this release

In response to stakeholder feedback and requests for more granular data from users, and in line with ‘V4:Innovation and Improvement’ of the Code of Practice (CoP) for Statistics, the Home Office expanded the stop and search collection from aggregate-level data to individual record-level data. As part of the consultation process, several forces were asked about the feasibility of making such a change. Many forces responded positively, as moving to this type of format would make it easier for them to extract the data from their systems and would require less manual input when returning the data to the Home Office. As with any change to an ADR collection, the proposal to move to a record-level data collection was made to the Policing Data Requirement Group, who approved the change. This group is made up of stakeholders including national policing leads. This group considers the ‘need of the data against the reporting burden to forces’ for all collections; along with reviewing the quality of the data collected. Increasing the amount of available information not only adds to the insights and analysis possible with more data but also increases value and transparency for users (‘V1: Relevance to Users’ of the CoP).

For the first time in the year ending March 2021, the Home Office has collected record-level data on stop and search from police forces, meaning that each row of data relates to a single incident of stop and search. Prior to this, data were collected at an aggregate level in multiple separate tables, which limited the type of analysis that was possible. For example, one limitation with the data collected in previous years was that the ‘reason for search’ could not be linked with the ‘outcome of search’, since they were collected in separate tables. Record-level data now provides the opportunity for this type of analysis to be conducted.

Furthermore, the Home Office has expanded the data collected on stop and search to cover the age and gender of a person searched, details on whether a weapon was found, the date and time information of the search, and the precise geographic location (using X-Y coordinates) of where the search was recorded.

This improved method of data collection, as well as the additional data collected, has allowed for more in-depth analysis of stop and search in England and Wales. These include:

• stop and search rates for sub-groups of the population (by age, gender and ethnicity)
• exploring alternative approaches to disparity rates
• stop and search by date

In addition, Annex A contains new analysis on stop and search in the Metropolitan Police Service at a more granular level of geography to consider hotspots of stop and search in London, and Annex B provides new information on weapons found following a stop and search.

In light of the new method of data collection, and the subsequent additional analysis in this report, Home Office statisticians have carried out extra quality assurance checks with police forces to ensure that the data are robust. Quality assurance checks conducted have included:

• checks for duplicate records or records outside of the reporting period
• checks to identify missing or unusual data
• comparison checks with previous years’ data

In line with the Code of Practice for Statistics and as part of our commitment to continuous development and improving the statistics, we invite users to provide feedback on the statistics and analysis presented in this bulletin and associated data tables. Users can contact Home Office statisticians at crimeandpolicestats@homeoffice.gov.uk.

1.3 Contents of this release

The stop and search section of this release contains information provided by the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales, and the British Transport Police (BTP). It presents statistics on the:

• number of stop and searches carried out under a range of legislative powers, including
  • section 1 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE)
  • section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994
  • section 47A (previously section 44) of the Terrorism Act 2000
• reason for conducting a search
• outcomes following stop and search
• ethnicity, gender and age of persons searched
• change in the use of stop and search throughout the year ending March 2021
• hotspot analysis of stop and search locations in London (Annex A)
• weapons found (Annex B)

Data on the age and gender of persons stopped and searched, within-year trends in stop and search, precise location of stop and search and details on whether a weapon was found in a stop and search under PACE are included in these statistics for the first time.

The arrests section contains information provided by the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales on a financial-year basis. It includes statistics on the:

• number of arrests for notifiable offences
• reason for which persons were arrested
• ethnicity, gender and age of those arrested

Key findings can be found at the start of each chapter.

1.4 National Statistics status

These statistics have been assessed by the UK Statistics Authority to ensure that they continue to meet the standards required to be designated as National Statistics. This means that these statistics meet the highest standards of trustworthiness, impartiality, quality and public value, and are fully compliant with the Code of Practice for Statistics. While the new method of data collection at the incident-level has yet to be specifically assessed, the source of the data (police stop and search records) remains the same and it is only the format in which the Home Office receives the data that has changed.

The Home Office worked closely with the UK Statistics Authority to improve information on the quality and limitations of the various datasets, and the ways in which the Home Office engages with users of the statistics. This is documented in the user guide, which is published alongside this release.

Given the known issues around the quality of the data, statistics in this release on outcomes and whether the outcome was linked to the reason for the search (formerly referred to as ‘Best Use of Stop and Search’ data) are designated as Official Statistics, and not National Statistics. Data published in the accompanying experimental statistics are not National Statistics. They are labelled as experimental statistics to acknowledge that further development work will take place in the coming years.

1.5 Revisions to this bulletin

Following the first publication of this release, analysts found an error in the year ending March 2021 arrests data supplied by Derbyshire Constabulary. Their data on the number of males arrested for ‘possession of weapons’ offences was provided as a duplicate of the number of males arrested for ‘drug offences’, causing the number of arrests in the former category to be overstated. When providing the new data, minor revisions were also made to the number of arrests in other categories. This release has therefore been revised, and a summary of revisions can be found in Table 1.1 below.

Table 1.1: Revisions made since first publication

Force	Metric	First publication (number of arrests)	Revised (number of arrests)	Difference (number of arrests)	Percentage difference
Derbyshire	Male arrests – possession of weapons	1,315	220	-1,095	-83.3%
All – England and Wales	Male arrests – possession of weapons	21,720	20,625	-1,095	-5.0%
Derbyshire	Total arrests	11,254	10,098	-1,156	-10.3%
All – England and Wales	Total arrests	646,292	645,136	-1,156	-0.2%

Notes:

1. Excludes British Transport Police.

At a national level, the number of males arrested for possession of weapons has been revised down by 5%, from 21,720 to 20,625. The total number of arrests in Derbyshire has been revised down by 10%, from 11,254 to 10,098. The overall number of arrests in England and Wales has been revised down 0.2% from 646,292 to 645,136.

Relevant sections of Chapter 3 have been updated to reflect this revision, as have the following:

• Arrests summary tables
• Arrests open data tables

2. Stop and search

For the first time in the year ending March 2021, the Home Office has collected record-level data on stop and search from police forces, meaning that each row of data relates to a single incident of stop and search.

Furthermore, the Home Office has expanded the data collected on stop and search to cover the age and gender of a person searched, details on whether a weapon was found, the date and time information of the search, and the precise geographic location (using X-Y coordinates) of where the search was recorded.

For more information on the changes to the data collection see section 1.2.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) were only able to provide robust data for part of the year ending March 2020. Their stop and search data has been removed from year-on-year comparisons below, to provide a consistent time series.

Key results

In the year ending March 2021:

There were 695,009 stop and searches conducted under section 1 PACE by police in England and Wales (including British Transport Police). This is an increase of 135,808 (24%) compared with the previous year and the highest number of stop and searches since the year ending March 2014 (872,518), but 41% below the peak in the year ending March 2011 (1,179,746).

Figure 2: Number of stop and searches under section 1 PACE and associated legislation, England and Wales, year ending March 2002 to March 2021

Source: Stop and Search table SS_02, Home Office

Notes:

1. Data prior to the year ending March 2010 do not include the British Transport Police (BTP). Data from the year ending March 2010 onwards includes the BTP but excludes GMP. Due to this, stop and search data before the year ending March 2010 are not directly comparable with more recent years. BTP usually account for between 1.0% and 1.5% of all and search across England and Wales per year.

The biggest volume increase was in the number of searches for drugs, which rose by 36% from 350,904 in the year ending March 2020 to 478,576 in the year ending March 2021.

Of those 695,009 searches under section 1 PACE (and associated legislation), 79,391 led to an arrest. While the volume of arrests is 8% higher than the previous year, the arrest rate has fallen from 13% to 11% (since the increase in the number of arrests is lower than the rise in stop and searches). In 77% of stop and searches the outcome was recorded as needing ‘No further action’, similar to the previous year.

Police in England and Wales carried out 9,230 stop and searches under section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act in anticipation of violence, a decrease of 49% compared with the number of searches under the same power in the year ending March 2020 (down from 18,043 to 9,230).

New analysis shows that 70% of stop and searches in the year ending March 2021 were on males aged between 15 and 34, whilst this cohort comprises 13% of the overall population. Males aged 15-19 had the highest rate of stop and search, at 99 stop and searches per 1,000 population in the year ending March 2021.

The increased number of stop and searches in the year ending March 2021 was driven by an increase in searches of White individuals (up by 73,146 (26%) from 280,952 to 354,098). Based on self-defined ethnicity, individuals from a Black or Black British background were searched at a rate 7.0 times higher than that of those from a White ethnic group (compared with 8.8 times in the previous year), across England and Wales. Individuals identifying as Asian or Asian British were searched at a rate 2.4 times that of those from a White ethnic group (compared with 2.5 in the previous year), as were people from a Mixed ethnic group (2.6 times in the previous year). People from Other ethnic groups were searched at a rate 2.7 times higher than that of those from a White ethnic group (compared with 2.9 times in the previous year). These differences do not account for different likelihoods of being either a suspect or a victim of crime. This release, and exploratory analysis in an accompanying set of Experimental Statistics consider alternative approaches to calculating these rates.

2.1 Introduction

This section presents the latest statistics on stop and searches conducted by the territorial police forces in England and Wales (as well as the British Transport Police) under three different legislative powers. These are:

• section 1 of the Police and Criminal Evidence (PACE) Act 1984 and associated legislation^{[footnote 1]}
• section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act (CJPOA) 1994
• section 47A (previously section 44) of the Terrorism Act (TACT) 2000

These powers allow police to search persons and vehicles without a warrant in specific situations. Details of the above legislation and the legislation associated with section 1 of PACE are included in the user guide.

This section includes statistics on the:

• number of stop and searches, and subsequent arrests carried out under different legislation
• reason for the stop and search
• ethnicity of persons stopped
• gender of persons stopped (for the first time)
• age of persons stopped (for the first time)
• change in the use of stop and search throughout the year ending March 2021

Data on the age and gender of persons stopped and searched, within-year trends in stop and search, precise location of stop and search and details on whether a weapon was found in a stop and search under PACE are included in these statistics for the first time.

Calculating disparity rates

The new record-level data collection (where data are received for every stop and search incident), as well as the additional information received on the age and gender of those searched, has allowed analysts to consider new methods for calculating disparity rates between stop and searches of those from a Black, Asian or other minority ethnic background compared with White people.

The different measures are:

Raw disparity: the traditional method based on self-defined ethnicity of people stopped and searched and the number of people within that ethnic group in the overall population (based on the 2011 Census). Rates based on this measure are available for the year ending March 2011 through to the year ending March 2021.

Raw disparity+: same as above, but the officer-observed ethnicity of the person stopped and searched is used if their self-defined ethnicity was not stated. This approach is designed to reduce uncertainty in estimates based solely on self-defined ethnicity, due to missing data. Rates based on this measure are available for the latest year only as they rely on record-level data which were collected for the first time in the year-ending March 2021.

Age and gender adjusted disparity: An expanded version of raw disparity+, in which the stop and search and population data is split by age and gender, as well as ethnicity. Rates based on this measure are available for the latest year only.

Suspect-adjusted disparity: A method of calculating stop and search disparity at more granular geographical levels (London Boroughs, as opposed to the whole Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) area), using serious violent crime suspect data in place of population data. This method builds on the Risk Adjusted Disparity (RAD) Index^{[footnote 2]}. Given that this is a new methodology, on which we are seeking feedback, and the analysis currently only covers the MPS area, this analysis is explored in an accompanying set of Experimental Statistics. Rates based on this measure are available for the latest year only.

For comparability with previous years, the main measure used in this release continues to be the ‘raw disparity’, where rates are calculated based on the self-defined ethnicity of those searched and the Census 2011 population estimates.

Missing data

Following the transition from a legacy IT system to a new force system, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) were unable to provide data returns to the Home Office, including stop and search, for the full year ending March 2020. Data for the first quarter of the year ending March 2020 was collected prior to these issues, and is included in stop and search open data tables accompanying this publication. Work is ongoing to rectify and improve the information held on their system, and GMP have provided full data for the year ending March 2021. However, given ongoing improvement work, the data should be interpreted with caution, and is likely to be revised in future editions of these statistics. Additionally, as the force were only able to provide robust data for part of the year ending March 2020, Greater Manchester’s stop and search data has been removed from year-on-year comparisons in this chapter, to provide a consistent time series.

2.2 Section 1 PACE and associated legislation

In the year ending March 2021 there were 695,009 stop and searches conducted under section 1 PACE by police in England and Wales (including British Transport Police but excluding Greater Manchester Police). This was the third annual increase following a period in which the use of such powers had been declining between the year ending March 2011 and the year ending March 2018 (Figure 2.1). This increase (up by 135,808 or 24%) was smaller than last year’s (when there was a rise of 52%). The number of stop and searches conducted in the year ending March 2021 was 41% below the peak recorded in the year ending March 2011 (when there were 1,179,746).

The rate of reduction between the year ending March 2011 and the year ending March 2018 in stop and searches accelerated following the then Home Secretary’s decision in 2014 to re-focus the use of such powers. This trend has reversed in the latest three years and is in part thought to reflect willingness to make greater use of such powers as part of the operational response to a rise in knife crime, and encouragement to the police from the current Home Secretary to use stop and search powers. Furthermore, the Government’s pledge to recruit an additional 20,000 officers by March 2023, of which 8,762 had been recruited by March 2021, may have an impact on these figures. The rise in stop and search has been driven by an increase in the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) force area, which accounted for 32% of the total rise in England and Wales in the year ending March 2021. Rises in the Merseyside Police Force Area (PFA) accounted for 11% of the England and Wales increase.

Figure 2.1: Number of stop and searches under section 1 PACE and associated legislation, England and Wales, year ending March 2002 to March 2021

Source: Stop and Search table SS_02, Home Office

Notes:

1. Data prior to the year ending March 2010 do not include the British Transport Police (BTP). Data from the year ending March 2010 onwards includes the BTP but excludes GMP. Due to this, stop and search data before the year ending March 2010 are not directly comparable with more recent years. BTP usually account for between 1.0% and 1.5% of all and search across England and Wales per year.

Thirty nine of the 43 forces showed an increase in stop and searches in the year ending March 2021 compared with the previous year, with most of the increases in the range of 15% to 50%. Four forces showed small decreases in the latest year with Staffordshire Police showing the largest percentage fall (down 7% from 6,346 in the year ending March 2020 to 5,930 in the year ending March 2021).

Several police forces reported that a reduction in demand for other calls to service, such as response to crime^{[footnote 3]}, in parts of the year ending March 2021 in which there were restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, gave increased capacity for proactive policing. Some police forces, including the Metropolitan Police, stated that proactive policing involved targeting drug dealers and County Lines operations, which may be part of the reason for the increase in drug searches across the latest year. Furthermore, other forces cited that the increase in officer numbers as part of the Police Uplift Programme, and officers cancelling annual leave, may have also been factors in the proactivity increase. However, this may have been partially counteracted by officer sickness or isolation.

The number of resulting arrests following a stop and search increased by 8% compared with the previous year. As Figure 2.2 shows, the number of arrests following a stop and search generally follows a similar pattern to the total number of stop and searches (Figure 2.1 above). However, arrest numbers remained fairly flat while there was a large fall in the number of searches between the years ending March 2011 and 2014, suggesting improved targeting of the power during this period.

Figure 2.2: Number of resultant arrests under section 1 PACE and associated legislation, England and Wales, year ending March 2002 to March 2021

Source: Stop and Search table SS_02, Home Office

Notes:

1. Data prior to the year ending March 2010 do not include the British Transport Police (BTP). Data from the year ending March 2010 onwards includes the BTP but excludes GMP. Due to this, stop and search data before the year ending March 2010 are not directly comparable with more recent years. BTP usually account for between 1.0% and 1.5% of all and search across England and Wales per year.

Arrest rate – the proportion of stop and searches resulting in an arrest

While the number of arrests following a section 1 PACE search rose by 8% in the latest year (up from 73,478 to 79,391), this was a smaller increase than the total number of section 1 PACE searches over the same time period (24%). This led to a reduction in the arrest rate, down from 13% in the previous year to 11% in the latest (Figure 2.3). This is the third consecutive annual decrease and returns the arrest rate to a similar level to that seen in the year ending March 2013, when there were 978,454 searches and 103,027 arrests (an arrest rate of 11%).

Figure 2.3: Arrest rate under section 1 of PACE, England and Wales, year ending March 2002 to March 2021

Source: Stop and Search table SS_02, Home Office

Notes:

1. Data prior to the year ending March 2010 do not include the British Transport Police (BTP). Data from the year ending March 2010 onwards includes the BTP but excludes GMP. Due to this, stop and search data before the year ending March 2010 are not directly comparable with more recent years. BTP usually account for between 1.0% and 1.5% of all and search across England and Wales per year.

Arrest is just one possible outcome following a stop and search. Data on other outcomes resulting from stop and search can be found in section 2.6 - Stop and search outcomes.

Reason for search

There are several reasons why the police may carry out a section 1 PACE stop and search, such as suspecting an individual is carrying drugs or a weapon. Any subsequent arrests resulting from a PACE search may not be related to the initial reason for the search; for example, an officer may suspect that an individual is carrying drugs but arrest them if they are found to be carrying a weapon. As a result, while arrest rates give an overall picture of the number of searches leading to arrests, they do not give insight into arrest rates for specific offence categories. More information on how frequently arrests (and other outcomes) are linked to the initial reason for the search can be found in the link between search reason and outcome section.

As in previous years, the most common reason for carrying out a PACE stop and search was on suspicion of drug possession. These accounted for 69% of all stop and searches in the latest year, a higher proportion than the previous one (63%) (Table 2.1). The proportion and volume of drugs searches has been increasing steadily since the year ending March 2018, and accounts for 75% of the total increase in searches under section 1 PACE between the year ending March 2018 and the year ending March 2021.

The proportion of searches on suspicion of the subject being in possession of offensive weapons or stolen property decreased in the latest year.

Table 2.1: Proportion of PACE stop and searches, England and Wales, year ending March 2020 and year ending March 2021

Reason for search	Proportion in year ending March 2020	Proportion in year ending March 2021
Drugs	62.8	68.9
Offensive weapons	16.0	12.1
Stolen property	10.2	7.9
Going equipped	7.3	7.1
Other	2.2	2.4
Criminal damage	0.8	0.9
Firearms	0.8	0.7

Source: Stop and Search table SS_03, Home Office

Notes:

1. The ‘other’ search category includes searches for reasons such as fireworks, as well as searches under section 43 of the Terrorism Act 2000.
2. Due to rounding, percentages may not sum to 100.

Apart from stolen property and offensive weapons, the number of searches conducted in the latest year rose across all other search reasons (Figure 2.4). The largest volume increase was in the number of searches for drugs, which rose by 36% from 350,904 in the year ending March 2020 to 478,576 in the year ending March 2021. This matches trends observed in police recorded crime data, where there was an increase in drug offences, but decreases in acquisitive crimes and possession of weapon offences, which reflects the fact that these offences are often discovered through stop and search. Further details on these changes and potential explanations for them are outlined in the section 2.9, which reviews stop and search trends within the latest year.

Figure 2.4: PACE stop and searches by reason for search, England and Wales, the year ending March 2020 compared with the year ending March 2021

Source: Stop and Search table SS_03, Home Office

Notes:

1. The ‘other’ search category includes searches for reasons such as fireworks, as well as searches under section 43 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

2.3 Section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act

Section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act (CJPOA) 1994 enables officers to conduct ‘no suspicion’ stop and searches for dangerous instruments or offensive weapons for a limited time within a specified area, in anticipation of violence occurring in that area. This will often follow a major incident or from intelligence gathered by the police. Further details can be found in the user guide.

From April 2019, under a pilot scheme agreed by the then Home Secretary, some changes were made to the conditions under which a section 60 search could be carried out. The changes aimed to make it easier for the police to use such powers when they judged it necessary to do so and included:

• reducing the rank of authorising officer from senior officer to inspector
• relaxing the grounds from a reasonable belief that serious violence will take place to a belief that it may take place

A phased approach was taken with 7 forces joining the pilot from 1st April 2019 whilst the remaining 37 forces joined from August 2019. Three further changes were made at that time:

• increasing the length of time the initial Section 60 order can be in place from 15 to 24 hours
• reducing the rank of officer who can extend the order for up to a further 24 hours from senior officer to superintendent
• removing the requirement for forces to communicate to local communities in advance, where practicable, where a Section 60 order is in place

In July 2021, as part of the Beating Crime Plan, the Home Secretary announced a permanent relaxation of all five voluntary conditions outlined above.

In the year ending March 2021, police in England and Wales carried out 9,230 stop and searches under section 60 CJPOA, a decrease of 49% compared with the previous year (when 18,043 such searches were undertaken). This is the first decrease in the number of searches under section 60 since the year ending March 2017, following three years of increases between the year ending March 2018 and the year ending March 2020 (Figure 2.5). This likely reflects restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the year ending March 2021, such as the inability of people to gather in large groups and the cancellation of large events.

The decrease in the latest year was driven by a reduction in stop and searches conducted by the Metropolitan Police Service, which decreased by 53% from 11,412 to 5,395. Several other forces, including Cheshire, Lancashire, Sussex and West Midlands saw large decreases in the number of searches under section 60 CJPOA in the latest year. However, some forces conducted more section 60 searches in the latest year, including Thames Valley, which increased by 51% from 674 to 1,021.

Figure 2.5: Stop and searches under section 60 CJPOA, England and Wales, year ending March 2007 to March 2021

Source: Stop and search open data tables, Home Office

Notes:

1. Data from the year ending March 2010 onwards includes the British Transport Police (BTP) but excludes Greater Manchester Police. Prior to this data are not directly comparable with more recent years.

The number of forces making at least one stop and search under section 60 powers decreased from 24 to 21 of the 43 forces in England and Wales (including BTP, excluding Greater Manchester Police) in the latest year. As in previous years, most section 60 stops took place in London with the MPS accounting for more than half (58%) of all section 60 searches in England and Wales. This was followed by Thames Valley Police and Merseyside Police (11% and 10% respectively of the England and Wales total).

The proportion of section 60 searches that resulted in an arrest in the latest year was 4%, unchanged from the previous year. Between the year ending March 2003 and the year ending March 2016, the arrest rate fluctuated between 2% and 6% then, in the year ending March 2017 the arrest rate peaked at 12% (72 of 622 searches resulted in arrest). However, since then, the arrest rate has steadily declined to 8% in the year ending March 2018, 5% in the year ending March 2019 and 4% in each of the last two years. As in previous years, the arrest rate for section 60 searches (4%) was much lower than those under section 1 of PACE (11%).

2.4 Section 47A (previously section 44) of the Terrorism Act 2000

Section 47A (as amended by the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012) of the Terrorism Act 2000 (TACT) allows the police to exercise stop and search powers when there is reasonable suspicion an act of terrorism will take place, and only when such powers are considered necessary to prevent such an act taking place. This must be authorised by a senior officer, at least at the rank of Assistant Chief Constable, and the area and duration of the authorisation must be no greater than is necessary to prevent such an act. Section 47A of TACT stop and search powers replaced similar powers under section 44 of TACT on 18 March 2011. Further information on these searches can be found in the user guide.

In the last three years, stop and search powers under section 47A of TACT were not used. In year ending March 2018, there were 149 stop and searches under section 47A of TACT, details of which can be found in the bulletin from that year.

2.5 Stop and search by Police Force Area

The MPS continued to account for a large proportion of all stop and searches^{[footnote 4]} conducted in England and Wales (44% in the year ending March 2021).

When examining the use of stop and search amongst different police forces, a traditional approach is to express rates of stop and search per head of resident population, using population figures produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This allows for more meaningful comparisons between areas than solely using the volume of searches in that area. However, calculating the rate based on the resident population has several limitations, such as not accounting for the volume of commuters and tourists in areas with substantial influx of non-residents. Additionally, looking at the rate across the Police Force Area (PFA) as a whole masks variation within the area (see Annex A – hotspot analysis). Lastly, looking at the overall population within a PFA ignores the fact that stop and search is particularly concentrated on young men. To address this issue, the rate of stop and search by age and gender is examined in Section 2.8 - Age and gender of persons stopped and searched.

In England and Wales there were 12 stop and searches per 1,000 population in the year ending March 2021. The Metropolitan Police Service PFA had the highest rate at 35 per 1,000 population^{[footnote 5]}, followed by Merseyside PFA, which had a rate of 34 per 1,000 population.

Searches conducted under section 1 PACE and section 60 CJPOA combined resulted in an 11% arrest rate in England and Wales for the latest year (Figure 2.6). By comparison, stop and searches in the City of London resulted in the highest arrest rate (26%) followed by Dyfed-Powys (18%). Merseyside had the lowest arrest rate, with 7% of searches leading to an arrest.

Figure 2.6: Arrest rate following a stop and search, England and Wales, year ending March 2021

Source: Stop and Search table SS_20, Home Office

Notes:

1. Includes stop and searches under section 1 of PACE and associated legislation, and section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.
2. South Wales Police have informed the Home Office of inconsistency in how their stop and search outcomes are recorded, which may cause the number of searches resulting in arrest to be undercounted in their data. These figures should therefore be interpreted with caution and may be revised in future editions of these statistics.

While an arrest is one possible outcome of a stop and search, there are a range of other outcomes that could indicate a successful search, including the issuing of police cautions, cannabis or khat warnings, community resolutions and summonses. These are included in the stop and search outcomes section (section 2.6).

2.6 Stop and search outcomes

Historically, forces have provided data on the number of stop and searches conducted, and the number of resultant arrests. Arrests represent only one of several possible outcomes available to the police when conducting a stop and search. Since the year ending March 2017, police forces have reported on a wider range of outcomes including:

• arrests
• cautions
• summons
• penalty notices for disorder
• cannabis or khat warnings
• community resolutions
• no further action

For the year ending March 2021, the Home Office have expanded the list of viable outcomes to include:

• voluntary attendance
• verbal warning or words of advice
• seizure of property
• other action

In previous years, the new options for the year ending March 2021 would have been classed as ‘no further action’. To ensure consistency in comparisons between the year ending March 2020 and the year ending March 2021, the new additional outcomes continue to be classed as ‘no further action’ in this chapter. A full breakdown of stop and search outcomes is available in the data tables accompanying this publication.

One outcome per stop and search

For each stop and search, only the first outcome is recorded. For example, where a criminal sanction follows an arrest, only the arrest will be shown in these statistics. Therefore, outcomes that follow an arrest (such as cautions) will be an under-count of the actual number of such outcomes. The data should therefore not be used to infer, for example, the total number of cautions that result from stop and searches.

Outcome linked to reason for stop and search

Forces are also required to report on whether the outcome was linked to the initial reason for conducting the search. For example, police may stop someone on suspicion of carrying drugs. If cannabis is found during the search and the person is given a cannabis warning, then the outcome is linked to the reason for the search. However, if a weapon is found instead of cannabis and the person is arrested, the outcome is not linked to the initial reason for the search.

Tracking whether or not the outcome is linked to the reason for the search aims to increase transparency by allowing for a distinction between outcomes where the officer found what they were searching for, those where the item found was not what the officer was initially searching for, or where nothing was found.

Limitations of outcomes data

The findings in this section should be considered with caution. They give a reasonable indication of the picture at the national level, but users should be wary of making force level comparisons.

While the outcome of each stop and search is relatively straightforward to record, the link between the reason for the search and the search outcome is more complex. In many forces, officers themselves assess whether a link is involved, and so there is an element of subjectivity involved. It is likely that different officers may classify whether there is a link or not in different ways.

Furthermore, a number of forces have adopted mobile devices to allow officers to directly record stop and searches at the scene, as well as the outcome following a stop and search. Some forces have reported inconsistencies in the way officers use these devices, leading to difficulties when deciding whether the outcome of the search was linked to the reason for the search (for example, more than one outcome was recorded, or the officer had marked the outcome as “linked” to the reason for the search where it did not appear that the outcome was linked).

Given the known issues around the quality of stop and search link and outcome data, these statistics are designated as Official Statistics, and not National Statistics.

Principal outcome following a stop and search

These data include the initial outcome given following the search only. It should be noted that ‘no further action’ can include a wide range of scenarios. It is therefore possible that, in some cases, an outcome of ‘no further action’ could be given where the officer finds what they were looking for (outcome linked) but decides not to deal with it by means of arrest, cautions, community resolutions or another outcome.

These data include searches under both section 1 Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) and section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. In 77% of stop and searches the outcome was recorded as needing ‘No further action’. In a further 11% the initial outcome was an arrest and an alternative outcome was given in the remaining 12% of cases. These proportions are all similar to the previous year (Table 2.2).

Figure 2.7: Principal outcome following stop and search, England and Wales, year ending March 2020 and year ending March 2021

Source: Stop and Search outcomes table SSO_01, Home Office

Notes:

1. Includes stop and searches under section 1 of PACE and associated legislation, and section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.
2. Includes vehicle only searches.
3. Includes British Transport Police, excludes Greater Manchester Police.

Table 2.2: Proportion of outcomes following a stop and search, in the year ending March 2020 and the year ending March 2021

Outcome	Proportion in year ending March 2020	Proportion in year ending March 2021
Arrest	13	11
Community Resolution	6	6
Khat / Cannabis Warning	2	2
No further action	76	77
Other	4	4

Source: Stop and Search outcomes table SSO_01, Home Office

Notes:

1. Includes British Transport Police, excludes Greater Manchester Police.
2. ‘Other’ includes cautions, penalty notices for disorder, and summonses.

The latest figures show a 59% increase in Penalty Notices for Disorder following a stop and search, up from 8,006 in the year ending March 2020 to 12,746 in the year ending March 2021. This may be partly due to the issuing of Fixed Penalty Notices for non-compliance with lockdown measures in the latest year. Although these outcomes would not be a direct consequence of a stop and search (rather a stop and account), officers may have recorded it as the outcome of the encounter on a stop and search form. As such, this change should be interpreted with caution.

Link between outcome and reason for a stop and search

In the latest year, 1 in 5 stop and searches (20%) resulted in an outcome that was linked to the reason for the search, a similar proportion to last year. However, this varied by the reason for search. For example, 25% of drugs searches resulted in a linked outcome, whereas only 4% of searches under Section 60 of Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 resulted in a linked outcome.

Table 2.3: Proportion of stop and search where the outcome of the stop was linked to the reason for the stop and search, by reason for stop, England and Wales, year ending March 2021

Reason for search	Outcome linked to reason for search	Outcome not linked	Nothing found
Drugs	25	3	72
Stolen property	17	7	76
Firearms	11	8	80
Offensive weapons	10	6	83
Criminal damage	11	9	80
Going equipped	8	8	84
S.43 (Terrorism)	9	6	85
Other	15	7	78
Total Section 1 PACE	21	5	75
S.60 (Violence)	4	7	89
Total	20	5	75

Source: Stop and Search open data table, Home Office

Notes:

1. Proportions are calculated excluding cases where an object was found however the link between the reason for search and outcome is unknown, or where it’s unknown whether an object was found.
2. The ‘other’ search category includes searches under Section 1 PACE that do not fall into other categories.
3. Due to rounding, percentages may not sum to 100.

2.7 Ethnicity of persons searched

When a stop and search is undertaken, the person being searched is asked by the police which ethnic group they consider themselves to belong to. This is a measure of “self-defined” ethnicity rather than “officer observed”. For the purpose of analysis, the 18 ethnicity categories as defined by the ONS 2011 Census, were grouped into the following categories:

• White
• Black (or Black British)
• Asian (or Asian British)^{[footnote 6]}
• Mixed
• Other Ethnic Group
• Not Stated

Additionally, officer-observed ethnicity may also be recorded as one of the following:

• White
• Black
• Asian
• Other

For the first time, the Home Office have collected stop and search data on both the “officer observed” ethnicity and the self-defined ethnicity of the person searched, for individual records. This means that if the self-defined ethnicity of the person searched was not stated, officer-observed ethnicity can be used as a proxy, for analytical purposes.

This section begins by examining the ethnicity of people stopped and searched using the traditional method, based solely on self-defined ethnicity. The latter section adopts a new approach, in which when the self-defined ethnicity of the person searched was not stated, officer-observed ethnicity is used instead. The approach is an attempt to reduce uncertainty in disparity rates based solely on self-defined ethnicity, caused by the growing proportion of records in which this information is not stated (19% in the year ending March 2021). This latter approach is only possible for data in the latest reporting year.

Self-defined ethnicity of persons searched

The MPS consistently account for a large proportion of all stop and searches in England and Wales (44% in the year ending March 2021) and also has a larger proportion of Black, Asian and other minority ethnic people within its resident population (40%) than the rest of England and Wales (10% - excluding MPS)^{[footnote 7]}. Table 2.4 presents the data for the MPS area separately, as well as distinct England and Wales totals, with one including and the other excluding the MPS area. Table 2.4 shows that for both section 1 PACE searches and section 60 searches, stops of individuals who define themselves as Black, Asian and other minority ethnic groups accounted for a larger proportion of all stops in the MPS area when compared with forces in the rest of England and Wales.

Table 2.4: Proportion of stop and searches by self-defined ethnic group, England and Wales and the MPS area, year ending March 2021

Legislation	Police Force Area(s)	White	Black	Asian	Other	Mixed	Not stated
Section 1	E&W excl. MPS	67	6	8	1	3	15
Section 1	MPS	32	24	14	3	3	23
Section 1	England & Wales	52	14	11	2	3	19
Section 60	E&W excl. MPS	57	9	7	1	4	22
Section 60	MPS	21	27	13	3	4	32
Section 60	England & Wales	36	19	11	2	4	28
All searches	E&W excl. MPS	67	6	8	1	3	16
All searches	MPS	32	24	14	3	3	23
All searches	England & Wales	52	14	11	2	3	19
Population	E&W excl. MPS	90	2	6	1	2	0
Population	MPS	60	13	18	3	5	0
Population	England & Wales	86	3	8	1	2	0

Source: Stop and Search open data tables, Home Office

Notes:

1. Excludes vehicle only searches.
2. Includes searches under section 1 PACE and associated legislation and section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.
3. Due to rounding, percentages may not sum to 100.

The increase in the use of stop and search over the last year was seen across all ethnic groups (Figure 2.8), with the largest volume increase shown for White individuals (up by 73,146 (26%) from 280,952 to 354,098). The next-highest volume increase was for those from the Asian (or Asian British) group (which rose by 13,047 (22%) from 60,589 to 73,636). There were smaller increases in searches of people from Mixed ethnic backgrounds (which rose by 2,763 (15%) from 18,390 to 21,153), Other ethnic groups (which rose by 1,794 (19%) from 9,566 to 11,360) and of people of Black (or Black British) ethnicity, which had the smallest increase (up by less than 1% from 96,840 in the year ending March 2020 to 97,088 in the year ending March 2021). The proportionate increases were higher for individuals from a White ethnic group (26%) than for those from all other ethnic groups combined (10%).

Figure 2.8: Change in stop and searches by ethnicity, England and Wales, the year ending March 2021 compared with the year ending March 2020

Source: Stop and Search table SS_16, Home Office

Notes:

1. Includes searches under section 1 PACE and associated legislation, section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, and section 47A of the Terrorism Act 2000.
2. Includes British Transport Police, excludes Greater Manchester Police.

The above aggregate numbers do not take into account the variation in the size and geographical distribution of different ethnic groups. The following analysis considers the self-defined ethnicity of those searched relative to the population as a whole, by calculating search rates for each ethnic group. Population data is based on the 2011 Census, and so should be considered with caution given the length of time since the figures were collated and the likely changes in the size and distribution of the population in the last decade. Caution should be taken when interpreting search rates at the national level because, as stated above, force areas vary in their ethnic composition; an average national figure presumes that all stop and searches and ethnic groups are spread evenly across forces, whereas these differ considerably between forces. Furthermore, even within a PFA there can be significant variation in terms of the distribution of different ethnic groups, which may be masked by the force level averages. One notable example of this is the Metropolitan Police PFA^{[footnote 8]} which is comprised of several boroughs where Black, Asian and other minority ethnic groups combined comprise the majority of the resident population, and others where they form a minority of the resident population. For this reason, more insightful analysis is possible at smaller geographical levels than PFA.

It is also important to be mindful of the fact that the population data are based on residential estimates and do not account for the transient population – people who move into and out of an area, but do not live there.

To account for the limitations in this method, an accompanying set of Experimental Statistics contains exploratory analysis at a smaller geographical level on the rates of stop and search across different ethnic groups within the MPS Police Force Area.

Furthermore, when calculating rates, individuals who have not provided their ethnicity have been excluded. In the latest year, the level of missing ethnicity data (self-defined) was 19%, a higher proportion compared with the previous year (17%). This proportion has steadily increased since the year ending March 2014, in which self-defined ethnicity was not stated for only 5% of searches. This adds further uncertainty to the trends discussed below.

Data are presented in terms of the rate that ethnic minorities were searched compared with White people.

In the year ending March 2021, based on the traditional measure of using self-defined ethnicity and the ONS 2011 Census population estimates to calculate rates, people identifying as Black or Black British were searched at a rate 7.0 times higher than those from a White ethnic group across England and Wales. Between the year ending March 2011 and the year ending March 2015 the differential generally reduced (going from 7 to 4 times higher respectively). However, it started to rise from the year ending March 2016, reaching a peak in the year ending March 2018 and year ending March 2019, with the rate around 9.5 times higher for those identifying as Black or Black British compared with those who identify as White), before falling to 8.8 in the year ending March 2020 and then to 7.0 in the year ending March 2021.

In the latest year, people identifying as Asian or Asian British were searched at a rate 2.4 higher than those from a White ethnic group. Similarly to people of a Black or Black British background, this differential has widened since the year ending March 2015, when the rate was 1.3 times higher for Asian or Asian British people compared with White people. A similar pattern has also occurred for people who identify as Mixed or from an Other ethnic group. In the latest year, people identifying as Mixed were searched at a rate 2.4 higher than White people, and people from Other ethnic groups 2.7 higher.

Officer-observed ethnicity of people searched

As shown in table 2.4, in the year ending March 2021, self-defined ethnicity was ‘not stated’ for approximately 1 in every 5 searches of people. This increases the uncertainty in the figures presented above. Table 2.5 presents the data in a different way; where the self-defined ethnicity of the person searched is not stated, officer-observed ethnicity is used instead. This reduces the proportion of stops with unknown ethnicity from 19% to 2%.

Table 2.5: Proportion of stop and searches by ethnic group, England and Wales and the MPS area, year ending March 2021

Legislation	Police Force Area(s)	White	Black	Asian	Mixed or Other	Not stated
Section 1	E&W excl. MPS	75	8	10	4	2
Section 1	MPS	39	34	18	8	0
Section 1	England & Wales	59	20	14	6	2
Section 60	E&W excl. MPS	67	15	10	7	2
Section 60	MPS	28	41	20	11	1
Section 60	England & Wales	44	30	16	9	1
All searches	E&W excl. MPS	75	8	10	4	2
All searches	MPS	39	34	18	8	0
All searches	England & Wales	59	20	14	6	2
Population	E&W excl. MPS	90	2	6	2	0
Population	MPS	60	13	18	8	0
Population	England & Wales	86	3	8	3	0

Source: Stop and Search table SS_23, Home Office

Notes:

1. Excludes vehicle only searches.
2. Includes searches under section 1 PACE and associated legislation and section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.
3. Table uses officer-observed ethnicity in place of self-defined ethnicity for records where self-defined ethnicity is ‘not stated’.
4. Due to rounding, percentages may not sum to 100.

Looking at the data in this way increases the disparity rates for people from a Black, Asian or other minority ethnic group, especially for Black people. This suggests that self-defined ethnicity is more likely to be ‘not stated’ or missing when the person searched was from one of those ethnic groups. Using officer-observed ethnicity in place of self-defined ethnicity (when the latter is ‘not stated’) the disparity for Black, Asian or other minority ethnic groups in the year ending March 2021 was 4.2 (compared with 3.5 using the measure solely using self-defined ethnicity data). There was a relatively larger increase when looking at the differential for Black people, who had a disparity of 8.7 using this methodology (compared with 7.0 using the measure solely using self-defined ethnicity data), and a relatively smaller increase in the differential for Asian people, who had a disparity of 2.7 using this methodology (compared with 2.4 using the measure solely using self-defined ethnicity data).

2.8 Age and gender of persons stopped and searched

Introduction

As part of the year ending March 2021 Annual Data Requirement (ADR), police forces have supplied data on the age and gender of people stopped and searched for the first time. During a stop and search, the person stopped may provide their date of birth, or an officer may estimate the person’s age where this information is refused or not provided.

In this report, we refer to gender rather than sex of people stopped and searched. ‘Sex’ can be considered to refer to whether someone is male or female based on their physiology, with ‘gender’ representing a social construct or sense of self that takes a wider range of forms.

The data collection gives four options for the gender of the person searched: female, male, other and unknown. ‘Other’ may comprise people who define themselves as non-binary or transgender. However, only 17 of the 44 police forces recorded any stop and searches of people defined as ‘other’ gender. This suggests that different recording systems used by police forces have different levels of detail to which the gender of the person searched can be recorded. Additionally, it is likely that recording includes a mixture of physiological and personal identity. We are reporting the data in the format they are collected, and are working to bring these data in line with Government Statistical Service sex and gender harmonisation standards.

Age of persons searched

Over half (54%) of all stop and searches of persons in the year ending March 2021 were on people aged between 10 and 24 years old (368,418 out of 678,389 searches where the age of the person searched was provided). Of these, 115,633 were aged between 10 and 17 (17% of the total), and 252,785 were 18-24 (37% of the total).

There were some differences in the age of people searched depending on the reason for search. For example, people aged between 10 and 17 accounted for 46% of criminal damage searches, but only 13% of drug searches. In contrast, people aged 30 or over accounted for 44% of searches for stolen property, but only 22% of searches under section 60 CJPOA (Figure 2.9).

Figure 2.9: Proportion of stop and search by age of person searched and reason for search, year ending March 2021

Source: Stop and Search table SS_31, Home Office

Notes:

1. Excludes vehicle only searches, searches where the age of the person searched was not known and searches with a recorded age of under 10 years old (45 searches out of 678,389 searches where the age of the person searched was provided).

Gender of persons searched

Excluding vehicle only searches and searches where the gender of the person searched is not known, 90.5% of searches were of males and 9.4% of females. There were a small number of searches of people of ‘Other’ gender (212 out of 690,067 searches of people where the gender was recorded).

There was little variation in the gender of person searched by the reason for search (Figure 2.10). except that females comprised 13% of those searches for stolen property and only 6% of searches under section 60 CJPOA.

Figure 2.10: Proportion of stop and search by gender of person searched and reason for search, year ending March 2021

Source: Stop and Search table SS_28, Home Office

Notes:

1. Excludes vehicle only searches, and searches where the gender of the person searched was ‘Other’ or not known.

There was also a small difference in the arrest rate between males and females. 11% of searches of males resulted in arrest, slightly higher than the arrest rate for females (9%).

Ethnicity, gender and age of persons searched

This section takes a more in-depth look at the gender, age and ethnicity of persons searched, and how the profile of people stopped and searched compares with the population of England and Wales. Stop and search figures in this section include only those with a known age and gender of the person searched. These figures are the number of stop and search incidents, rather than number of unique individuals stopped and searched i.e. multiple searches on the same people are counted as separate incidents. Therefore, the rates in this section do not strictly refer to the proportion of the population (or sub-populations) that experienced stop and search in the latest year. Population rates quoted are based on Office for National Statistics (ONS) 2019 population estimates by broad ethnic group, which were produced specifically for use as part of the Race Disparity Audit. The population figures are not National Statistics and have not been produced using methods that have undergone formal quality assurance. Therefore, the figures in this section relating to proportion of the population and rates of stop and search should be interpreted with caution.

The MPS consistently account for a large proportion of all stop and searches in England and Wales (44% in the year ending March 2021) and also has a larger proportion of Black, Asian and other minority ethnic people within its resident population (43%) than the rest of England and Wales (11% - excluding MPS) based on mid-2019 ONS population estimates. The combination of the two can mean that data for the MPS area can skew the picture at a national level. Using national population estimates to calculate rates by ethnicity does not account for the effect of geographical differences, as explained by the Race Disparity Unit in their report on “Stop and search and the effect of geographical differences”. This is particularly apparent when considering stop and search rates for younger people. For example, the mid-2019 ONS population estimates show that in the MPS area, Black, Asian and other minority ethnic people make up 53% of the population of those aged under 30 years old, compared with 15% in the rest of England and Wales combined. Those under 30 years old make up 72% of searches in the MPS Police Force Area and 67% of all searches in the rest of England and Wales (excluding MPS). The greater differences between the ethnicity of the London and national population when broken down by age exacerbate the issue of using a national population denominator to calculate rates. For this reason, additional Experimental Statistics have been published alongside this release to consider alternative approaches to calculating stop and search rates in the MPS Police Force Area.

Figure 2.11 shows the age and gender of persons searched compared with the population of England and Wales. This shows that stop and search is largely targeted at young men. For example, 70% of stop and searches in the year ending March 2021 were on males aged between 15 and 34, whilst this cohort comprises 13% of the overall population. Males aged 15-19 had the highest rate of stop and search, at 99 stop and searches per 1,000 population in the year ending March 2021.

In contrast, females aged between 15 and 34 accounted for 7% of stop and search, despite accounting for 12% of the overall population. Searches of females aged 15-19 were roughly in proportion to their population (2.3% of searches compared with 2.7% of the population), however, at every age group, the proportion of females searched is lower than their proportion of the population. For males, only those aged under 15 or over 44 account for a lower proportion of stop and search than their proportion of the population.

There are disparities in the age of people searched, for both males and females. Males aged 15-19 were searched at a rate 8.9 times higher than those aged 45-49, and females aged 15-19 were searched at a rate 6.6 times higher than those aged 45-49.

Figure 2.11: Proportion of stop and search by age and gender of person compared with the population, year ending March 2021, England and Wales

Source: Stop and Search table SS_33, Home Office

Notes:

1. Excludes vehicle only searches, searches where the gender of the person searched was ‘Other’ or not known and searches where the age of the person searched was not known.

Figures 2.12 and 2.13 show the age and gender of people stopped and searched in the year ending March 2021, split by whether the ethnicity of the person searched was White or another ethnic group, and how that compares with the population of England and Wales within those ethnic groups. Where the self-defined ethnicity of the person searched is not stated, the officer-observed ethnicity is used instead. Searches where both the self-defined ethnicity and officer-observed ethnicity are unknown are excluded from the stop and search proportions. People from Black, Asian or other minority ethnic backgrounds are grouped together in this analysis due to sample size when splitting stop and search and population data by age and gender.

Figure 2.12: Proportion of stop and search conducted on White people, by age and gender of person, compared with the population, year ending March 2021, England and Wales

Source: Stop and Search table SS_34, Home Office

Notes:

1. Excludes vehicle only searches, searches where the gender of the person searched was ‘Other’ or not known and searches where the age of the person searched was not known.

Figure 2.13: Proportion of stop and search conducted on people from a Black, Asian or other minority ethnic group, by age and gender of person compared with the population, year ending March 2021, England and Wales

Source: Stop and Search table SS_35, Home Office

Notes:

1. Excludes vehicle only searches, searches where the gender of the person searched was ‘Other’ or not known and searches where the age of the person searched was not known.

Males aged 15-34 from a Black, Asian or other minority ethnic background account for 32% of stop and search in the year ending March 2021, despite only comprising 2.6% of the population. The highest rate of stop and search was for males aged 15-19 who belong to a Black, Asian or other minority ethnic group, who were searched at a rate of 208 per 1,000 people, a rate 3.0 times higher than White people of the same age group. For males from a Black, Asian or other minority ethnic group, only those aged under 10, or over 54, account for a lower proportion of stop and search than their proportion of the population. However, for females from a Black, Asian or other minority ethnic group, all age groups accounted for a lower proportion of total stop and search than their proportion of the population.

2.9 How did use of stop and search change throughout the latest year?

For the first time in the year ending March 2021, the Home Office collected information on the exact date on which stop and searches took place, enabling more insightful seasonal analysis on the data. As this is the first time data have been collected, comparisons to seasonal patterns with previous years are not possible.

Figure 2.14 shows the daily and rolling 7-day average number of searches in the year to March 2021, with periods in lockdown highlighted in grey. Whilst it is difficult to define exactly what constitutes a “national lockdown” given differing rules in different areas, and also when lockdowns start and finish, in this analysis “national lockdown” refers to dates when the majority of “non-essential retail” was closed.

Figure 2.14: Daily number and rolling 7-day average number of searches, year ending March 2021

Source: Stop and Search table SS_36, Home Office

Notes:

1. 7-day rolling average is calculated by taking the average of the number of searches on the three days prior to a certain date, the date itself, and the three following days.

Using the 7-day rolling average measure, the number of stop and searches peaked at 2,994 on 14 May 2020. Although the national trend shown above is largely driven by stop and search conducted by the Metropolitan Police Service, 26 out of 44 police forces had their highest monthly number of searches in May 2020.

This peak number of searches in May coincided with the middle of the first national lockdown. During this period, persons or vehicles travelling against regulations were more visible, and may have been more likely to be stopped and searched. Police forces reported that engagement with people may have started in relation to lockdown movement restrictions, but then led to a stop and search, for example due to suspicion that the person was in possession of drugs. On average, there were 2,151 searches per day during lockdowns, compared with 1,760 during non-lockdown periods.

The day with the most searches was 31 October 2020, on which 3,728 searches took place, perhaps reflecting a combination of that date being a Saturday (on which a higher number of searches take place in ordinary circumstances) and Halloween gatherings and celebrations. As might be expected, the day with the fewest searches was 25 December 2020, on which only 521 searches took place, reflecting the fact that most people are more likely to be at home on Christmas Day, which took place during tier 4 (“stay at home”) lockdown measures in 2020, and there may also be fewer police officers on duty.

2.10 Data quality

For the year ending March 2021, under the Home Office Annual Data Requirement (ADR), police forces have supplied stop and search data in a record-level format, increasing the opportunities for analysis. Though the format of the collection has changed, it is not expected to have any meaningful effect on the trends in stop and search at the national level.

As part of this data collection, police forces were supplied with reports to highlight potential issues with the data they supplied, including:

• duplicate records
• records with unusual age values
• incorrect date or time data
• any unusual changes in stop and search volumes

After reviewing these issues, police forces submitted revised data sets. Home Office analysts will continue to work with police forces to improve the quality of the stop and search data they provide under the ADR.

Data presented here have been provided to the Home Office by 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales and the British Transport Police (BTP). Since the year ending March 2010, BTP have been providing data to the Home Office. Data on total searches prior to this period are therefore not directly comparable with more recent years. However, as BTP typically only account for just over 1.5% of all stop and searches each year, their exclusion has only a marginal impact on the longer-term time series.

Following the transition from a legacy IT system to a new force system, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) were unable to provide data returns to the Home Office, including stop and search, for the full year ending March 2020. Data for the first quarter of the year ending March 2020 was collected prior to these issues, and is included in stop and search open data tables accompanying this publication. Work is ongoing to rectify and improve the information held on their system, and GMP have provided full data for the full year ending March 2021. However, given ongoing improvement work, the data should be interpreted with caution, and is likely to be revised in future versions of these statistics. Additionally, as the force were only able to provide robust data for part of the year ending March 2020, Greater Manchester’s stop and search data has been removed from year-on-year comparisons in this chapter, in order to provide a consistent time series.

The figures presented are correct at the time of publication and may include revisions submitted by forces for previous years.

For some years, certain forces were unable to provide all the requested breakdowns of the data; for example, the reason for some stop and searches or the ethnicity of the person searched may not have been provided for all cases. Such cases have been outlined in the relevant table notes. To ensure data are comparable over time, some forces may have been excluded from annual comparisons. These cases have been highlighted.

The user guide provides further information on the quality assurance checks on the data, as well as details relating to definitions, legislation and procedure around stop and search.

2.11 Other data sources

Quarterly figures for stop and searches conducted in Great Britain under the Terrorism Act 2000 appear in the Home Office series Operation of police powers under the Terrorism Act 2000.

MOJ publishes a biennial Race and the criminal justice system series that includes data supplied by the Home Office on stop and search. The next publication is due for release in November 2021.

The Metropolitan Police Service publishes monthly reports and a dashboard on the use of stop and search by the force. Other forces may publish similar reports.

3. Arrests

Key results

In the year ending March 2021:

There were 645,136 arrests carried out by territorial police forces in England and Wales, a reduction of 5% compared to the previous year in which there were 676,476 arrests.

The fall was driven by a 24% decrease in arrests for theft offences, the second largest arrest type. A fall of 16% was also seen in arrests for robbery, following an increasing trend in the previous three years. The closure of non-essential shops and the night-time economy, and people spending more time in their homes during national lockdown restrictions likely contributed to the falls.

The pattern across forces was mixed, with most of the forces (33) showing fewer arrests compared with last year while 10 police forces made an increased number of arrests.

As with previous years, the Metropolitan Police accounted for the greatest number of arrests (18% of total arrests).

The proportion of arrests comprised of people aged under 21 has continued to fall – under 21s accounted for 16% of arrests in the year ending March 2021 compared with 39% of arrests in the year ending March 2007.

3.1 Introduction

Data presented here are on the police power of arrest. In line with police recorded crime statistics, the arrest collection is designed to cover only arrests for notifiable offences^{[footnote 9]} carried out by police in England and Wales. Further, in this collection, an arrest is counted for each occasion a person is arrested, provided that the arrest is for an offence which is not related to an offence for which the person has already been subject to arrest during the same year. If the arrest is connected, or if a person has been arrested for one or more notifiable offences at the same time, only one arrest is counted and the offence with the highest maximum penalty should be recorded. Thus, it does not provide a measure of all arrests made by the police.

Data are provided to the Home Office by the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales and are presented on a financial-year basis. Lancashire Constabulary were not able to provide complete data in the years ending March 2019 and March 2018. Therefore, to ensure comparability with previous years, Lancashire Constabulary have been excluded from time-series analyses in the chapter and accompanying data tables that include data for the year ending March 2019 and prior years. In the latest year Lancashire contributed around 2% of the total number of arrests in England and Wales.

The Home Office does not receive data on arrests from the British Transport Police (BTP).

Figures on arrests reported to the Home Office reflect police activity and should not be used to infer levels of crime committed by offenders. For example, the number of arrests for drug offences is greatly dependent on police activities and priorities and does not give a reliable indication of trends in the level of drug offending.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) amended the offence groups for the police recorded crime series in the year ending March 2013. Since the publication of ‘Police powers and procedures’ in October 2016, arrests data collected by the Home Office on the reason for arrest are in line with the ONS crime groups. For this reason, data from year ending March 2016 on the reason for arrest are not directly comparable with earlier years.

Where a person has been arrested for one or more notifiable offence on the same occasion, forces are asked to record the arrest against the offence with the highest maximum penalty (the primary arrest). However, Devon and Cornwall Police and North Wales Police are unable to separately identify the primary arrest in a series of reasons for arrests. Due to this, these forces’ data includes all arrests for notifiable offences and are not directly comparable with other forces. These forces have minimal effect on national totals and have therefore been included in the England and Wales total.

3.2 Trends in the number of arrests

In the year ending March 2021 there were 645,136 arrests carried out by territorial police forces in England and Wales, a reduction of 5% from the 676,476 arrests in the previous year. The total number of arrests had remained stable for 3 years, following a downward trend between the years ending March 2008 to March 2018 (Figure 3.1). Over the past decade the proportion of arrests accounted for by males has remained similar, between 83-86%.

Figure 3.1 Number of arrests, by gender, England and Wales, years ending March 2007 to 2021

Source: Arrests table A.01, Home Office

Notes:

1. Arrests data excludes Lancashire Constabulary for all years.
2. In the year ending March 2021 ‘Other’ and ‘Unknown’ gender were also collected, however these account for only 1,657 arrests (0.26% of total arrests).

3.3 Arrests by offence group

Over two-fifths of all arrests by police in England and Wales were connected with violence against the person offences (42%). The next most common offence group was theft, which accounted for 14% of all arrests (Figure 3.2). The proportion of arrests in each offence group has changed slightly over the past 5 years, with violence against the person offences up from 35% 5 years ago, and theft offences down from 22% 5 years ago.

Figure 3.2 Proportion of arrests in each offence group, England and Wales, year ending March 2021

Source: Arrests table A.02, Home Office

Notes:

1. Other reasons for arrest include criminal damage and arson, miscellaneous crimes against society, possession of weapons offences, sexual offences, robbery and fraud offences. A full breakdown of reasons for arrests is in Table 3.2.

Many offence types were represented in the arrest collection in the same proportion as their distribution in the recorded crime series. Some exceptions were violence against the person offences (42%) which accounted for a higher proportion of arrests than the 33% it comprised of all police recorded crime in the year ending March 2021, while theft offences made up 24% of all police recorded crime (ONS Crime Statistics), yet 14% of all arrests. Other notable outliers were fraud, which comprised just 1% of all arrests but 15% of all recorded crime (Table 3.1) and drug offences, which comprised 11% of arrests but 4% of recorded crime.

Direct comparisons between the two series should be made with caution since arrests relate to persons and recorded crime relates to offences. For example, one offence may be committed by multiple offenders and therefore may generate several arrests. Conversely an offender may be arrested for committing two or more recorded crimes (e.g. shoplifting and possession of drugs) but only one arrest will be recorded. In addition, some offences can be resolved without the use of an arrest, for example through the issuing of a fixed penalty notice or cannabis warning. Finally, some crimes take longer to investigate than others and therefore arrests and charges may lag trends in recorded crime.

As noted elsewhere (Crime Outcomes in England Wales: year ending March 2021 statistical bulletin), in recent years police forces have been dealing with both an increased volume of crime and a more complex crime mix. This is thought to have contributed to a downward trend in both the volume and proportion of crimes resulting in a charge or summons and a growth in the proportion of cases in which victims do not support police action. This provides important context to the statistics on arrests presented here. Data on the outcomes assigned to police recorded crime, as well as the median length of time taken to assign an outcome by offence group, can be found in the ‘Crime outcomes, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin.

Table 3.1 Offence group breakdowns of persons arrested in England and Wales and police recorded crime, year ending March 2021

Offence group	Arrests	Police recorded crime
Violence against the person	42%	33%
Theft offences	14%	24%
Drug offences	11%	4%
Public order offences	8%	9%
Criminal damage and arson	7%	9%
Misc. crimes against society	6%	2%
Sexual offences	5%	3%
Possession of weapons	3%	1%
Robbery	2%	1%
Fraud offences	1%	15%
Total	100%	100%

Source: Arrests table A.02, Home Office and ONS Crime Statistics

Notes:

1. Following a change in offence groups (in the year ending March 2016) it is believed that a number of police forces are incorrectly recording some ‘public order’ offences against ‘miscellaneous crimes against society’. Caution should therefore be exercised when comparing these offences over time and across forces.

The change in the number of arrests in the latest year varied across different offence groups, however, most saw either a fall or little or no change, although this masked variation by Police Force Area for some offence groups such as violence against the person. Theft offences make up the second largest reason for arrest, and the fall in this offence type from 114,256 to 87,390 (down 24%) drove the overall fall in arrests. Proportionally large falls were also seen in arrests for fraud (down 21%) and robbery (down 16%). The closure of non-essential shops and people spending more time in their homes during national lockdown restrictions likely contributed to the falls in theft and robbery, however, theft had shown decreases in the previous two years, decreasing by 9-10% each year. Similar patterns were also shown in the Police recorded crime data, as published in the ‘Crime in England and Wales’ statistical bulletin, which reported large falls in theft (down 32%), and robbery (down 34%).

Despite the 36% increase in stop and searches for drugs (see Chapter 2), arrests for drug offences only increased by 1%.

Most arrest types continued similar trends as seen in previous years. Of exception was robbery offences. Arrests for robbery fell by 16% in the latest year, from 16,868 to 14,097, following increases for the previous three years. Police recorded crime data also reported the first fall in robbery offences in six years.

Looking at the long-term trend, all offence groups have shown a fall in the volume of arrests compared with the year ending March 2016 apart from possession of weapons offences which has increased by a third (33%). Stop and searches for offensive weapons also saw a 142% increase since the year ending March 2016 – the second largest percentage increase in any search reason during this time period other than anticipation of violence.

Table 3.2 Offence group breakdowns of persons arrested in England and Wales, year ending March 2020 compared with year ending March 2021

Offence group	Year ending 31 March 2020	Year ending 31 March 2021	% change
Violence against the person	271,133	273,724	1.0
Theft offences	114,256	87,390	-23.5
Drug offences	71,811	72,524	1.0
Public order offences	49,684	52,104	4.9
Criminal damage and arson	48,419	47,465	-2.0
Misc. crimes against society	42,468	39,640	-6.7
Sexual offences	31,166	29,860	-4.2
Possession of weapons offences	23,272	22,485	-3.4
Robbery	16,868	14,097	-16.4
Fraud offences	7,399	5,847	-21.0
Total	676,476	645,136	-4.6

Source: Arrests table A.02, Home Office

Notes:

1. Following a change in offence groups (in the year ending March 2016) it is believed that a number of police forces are incorrectly recording some ‘public order’ offences against ‘miscellaneous crimes against society’. Caution should therefore be exercised when comparing these offences over time and across forces.

3.4 Arrests by gender

In this report, we refer to gender rather than sex of people arrested. ‘Sex’ can be considered to refer to whether someone is male or female based on their physiology, with ‘gender’ representing a social construct or sense of self that takes a wider range of forms.

The data collection has been set up to accommodate four options for the gender of the person searched: female, male, other and unknown. ‘Other’ may comprise people who define themselves as non-binary or transgender. However, only 10 of the 43 police forces recorded any arrests of people defined as ‘other’ gender. This suggests that different recording systems used by police forces have different levels of detail to which the gender of the person arrested can be recorded as. Additionally, it is likely that recording includes a mixture of sex and gender. We are reporting the data in the format they are collected and we are working to bring these data in line with Government Statistical Service sex and gender harmonisation standards.

The majority of arrests in the latest year were of males (85% of total arrests), a percentage that has been stable for more than ten years. This is slightly lower than both the proportion of stop and searches that were of males (91%) and the proportion of stop and searches resulting in arrest that were of males (92%) (see Chapter 2).

The most common offence group related to the arrest, for both males and females, was violence against the person, followed by theft offences. However, there were some differences in arrest patterns for males and females. For example, females have consistently made up a very small proportion of those arrested for sexual offences (3%) and possession of weapons offences (8%), but a larger proportion of those arrested for fraud offences (22%). Figure 3.3 shows the split for each offence type.

Figure 3.3 Proportion of arrests by gender and offence group, England and Wales, year ending March 2021

Source: Arrests table A.02, Home Office

Notes:

1. Excludes Other gender (131 arrests) and those whose gender was unknown (1,526 arrests).

3.5 Arrests by age

Data on arrests by age are grouped into five categories: ‘Under 10’, ‘Aged 10 to 17’, ‘Aged 18 to 20’, ‘Aged 21 and over’, or, ‘Age unknown’. The legal minimum age for prosecution in England and Wales is 10 years old, so the ‘Under 10’ category includes persons who, after further investigation, were found to be too young to be charged with an offence.

The majority (84%) of all arrestees in the latest year were aged 21 or over (slightly up from 82% in the year ending March 2020). However, there was some variation in age when analysing the reasons for arrest. For example, although persons under 21 years old accounted for 16% of all arrests, they made up almost half (48%) of arrests for robbery offences and 29% of arrests for possession of weapons offences. Those aged 21 or over made up 89% of all arrests for fraud offences. The increase in the proportion of arrestees aged over 21 in the latest year was seen in all offence types. Figure 3.4 shows the number of persons arrested by offence type and age-group.

Figure 3.4 Age-group of persons arrested, by offence type, England and Wales, year ending March 2021

Source: Arrests table A.03, Home Office

Notes:

1. Excludes those whose age was unknown (336 arrests), and those who were under 10 years old at the time of the arrest (1).

In the latest year, the number of arrests of those aged 21 and over fell by 3%. Arrests of those in the younger age groups showed greater falls, with those aged 18 - 20 showing a 9% fall and arrests for those aged under 18 fell by 19%. As Figure 3.5 shows, arrests across all three age-groups have shown decreases over the past decade, but arrests of those age under 21 have fallen more sharply compared with those aged 21 and over. There has therefore been a shift in the age profile of those arrested over this period; in the year ending March 2007 those aged 21 and over accounted for 61% of all arrests but accounted for 84% in the latest year.

Figure 3.5 Number of arrests (indexed to 100 in the year ending March 2007) by age group, England and Wales, years ending March 2007 to 2021

Source: Arrests table A.01b, Home Office

Notes:

1. Excludes Lancashire Constabulary.

3.6 Arrests by ethnicity

When an individual is arrested, they are asked to define their ethnicity. For the purpose of this analyses, these are grouped into the following six categories:

• White
• Black (or Black British)
• Asian (or Asian British) – including Chinese from the year ending March 2020 onwards
• Mixed
• Other ethnic group
• Not stated

The ethnic breakdown of those arrested in the latest year was similar to the previous year. Excluding those who did not state their ethnicity (who accounted for around 15% of arrestees), 77% of those arrested defined their ethnicity as White, 10% as Black (or Black British) and 8% as Asian (or Asian British). The remaining 6% considered themselves either of mixed ethnicity (4%) or any other ethnic group (2%).

The following analysis considers the ethnicity of those arrested relative to the population as a whole, by calculating arrest rates for each ethnic group. Population data is based on the 2011 Census, and so should be considered with caution given the length of time since the last Census. Data are presented in terms of how likely Black, Asian and minority ethnic people are to be arrested compared with those who are White.

As in previous years, persons who identified as Black (or Black British) were arrested at a rate over 3 times higher than those who identified themselves as White; Mixed and Other ethnicities were arrested at a rate around 2 times higher, and people who identified as Asian or Asian British were arrested at a rate 1.2 times higher (Table 3.3).

Combined, people of Black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds were arrested at a rate of almost 2 times higher than those who identified themselves to be White in the latest year.

Table 3.3 Arrest rate per 1000 population by self-defined ethnicity, England and Wales, year ending March 2021

Self-defined ethnicity	Arrest rate per 1000 population
White	9
Black (or Black British)	29
Asian (or Asian British)	10
Mixed	17
Other	18
Black, Asian and other minority ethnic groups	16
Total	12

Source: Arrests table A.04, Home Office

Notes:

1. Population breakdowns are based on the 2011 census. It is likely that ethnicity breakdowns have changed since 2011, so figures in this table should be considered estimates only.

There were decreases in arrests of those who consider themselves to be White (down 4.5%), Black (down 7.5%), and Mixed (down 6.9%) (Table 3.4). However, the number of people arrested who identified as Asian or of Other ethnicity each remained stable compared with the previous year (each showing increases of 0.1%). Overall, the number of arrests of those who identify as Black, Asian or another minority ethnic group fell by 4.3%.

Table 3.4 Ethnic breakdown of persons arrested in England and Wales, year ending March 2021 compared with year ending March 2020

Self-defined ethnicity	Year ending 31 March 2020	Year ending 31 March 2021	% change
White	441,041	421,203	-4.5%
Black (or Black British)	58,502	54,102	-7.5%
Asian (or Asian British)	44,160	44,213	0.1%
Mixed	21,881	20,371	-6.9%
Other Ethnic Group	9,916	9,930	0.1%
Not stated	100,976	95,317	-5.6%
Black, Asian and other minority ethnic groups	134,459	128,616	-4.3%
Total	676,476	645,136	-4.6%

Source: Arrests table A.04, Home Office

3.7 Arrests by Police Force Area

Of the 43 forces in England and Wales, 10 showed an increase in the number of arrests in the latest year compared with the previous, while 33 forces showed a decrease.

As with previous years, the Metropolitan Police accounted for the greatest number of arrests (18% of total arrests). West Yorkshire and Thames Valley accounted for the second and third greatest number of arrests, each comprising 5% of the total.

The number of arrests expressed per 1,000 people of the population in England and Wales^{[footnote 10]} was 11 in the year ending March 2021. This varied by PFA^{[footnote 11]} with the highest rate in Humberside (24 per 1,000). The lowest arrest rate, at five arrests per 1,000 members of the population, was found in Staffordshire. In comparison, there were 78 police recorded crimes(excluding fraud) per 1000 population in England and Wales in the year ending March 2021.

Differences in the proportion of arrestees from Black, Asian and other minority ethnic backgrounds in some PFAs are likely to, in part, reflect the differing resident and day-time populations in those areas. For example, the proportion of those arrested who identified as Black, Asian, Mixed or Other ethnic background ranged from 3% (in Durham, Cumbria and Dyfed-Powys PFAs) to 55% (in the Metropolitan Police Service area). Population data from the 2011 Census shows that Durham, Cumbria and Dyfed-Powys areas had a 2% Black, Asian and minority ethnic population, whereas the Metropolitan Police area had 40%. However, comparisons in arrest rates between areas should be made with caution because population breakdowns are based on residents of a particular area (i.e. they do not include visitors).

Figure 3.6 Number of persons arrested per 1,000 population, by Police Force Area, England and Wales, year ending March 2021

Source: Arrests table A.05, Home Office

Notes:

1. Calculated using the mid-2020 population estimates for England and Wales, supplied by ONS.
2. City of London rates not shown due to the small resident population of the area relative to the transient or visiting population. City of London figures have been included in the England and Wales total.
3. Devon and Cornwall Police and North Wales Police are unable to separately identify the primary arrest in a series of reasons for arrests. Due to this, these forces’ data includes all arrests for notifiable offences and are not directly comparable with other forces.

3.8 Data quality and interpreting the figures

The figures presented are correct at the time of publication and include revisions submitted by forces for the previous years.

Between April 2016 and March 2019, Lancashire Constabulary were unable to supply complete arrests data. Figures for this force were therefore estimated in the open data tables for the year ending March 2017 but have been omitted for the years ending March 2018 and March 2019. Therefore, Lancashire Constabulary have been excluded from time series analyses that include data for the year ending March 2019 and prior years, but included in analysis of data from the most recent two years.

Devon and Cornwall Police and North Wales Police are unable to separately identify the primary arrest in a series of reasons for arrests. Due to this, these forces’ data includes all arrests for notifiable offences and are not directly comparable with other forces. Kent Police have only been able to identify primary arrests since November 2018, so caution should be taken when interpreting their data from the years ending March 2020 and March 2021 with previous years. These forces have minimal effect on national totals and have therefore been included in the England and Wales total.

3.9 Other data sources

While some ethnic breakdowns are provided here, more detailed figures and analyses are published by the Ministry of Justice (MOJ). The latest edition of its Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System series was published in November 2019. Figures presented relate to the period up to and including the financial year ending March 2018 and may since have been superseded by data included in this edition of ‘Police powers and procedures’.

MOJ also publishes biennial statistics on the representation of females and males as victims, suspects, offenders and employees in the criminal justice system. Its latest statistics can be found in Statistics on Women and the Criminal Justice System 2019, and includes arrest figures for the financial year ending March 2019.

The Youth Justice Board’s series on Youth Justice Statistics looks at the flow of young people through the Youth Justice System. The latest edition was released in May 2021 and includes arrests data for the financial year ending March 2020.

Data on individuals given an out of court disposal or proceeded against at court are published in MOJ’s Criminal Justice Statistics Quarterly.

Crime Statistics, including police recorded crime figures, are published by ONS on a quarterly basis.

Annex A - Stop and search hotspots

The Home Office stop and search data collection has expanded this year to include more detailed information on the locations that stop and search take place (six digit x and y coordinates), meaning that hotspots (areas of high stop and search activity hotspots within a Police Force Area) can be identified. This Annex contains information on stop and search hotspots conducted by the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) in London.

Analysis of stop and search conducted by the MPS in the year ending March 2021 at Lower Super Output Area (LSOA^{[footnote 12]}) level shows that there are certain small areas of London, such as parts of Westminster and Croydon, with high levels of stop and search activity, and large areas (predominantly, but not limited to, the outskirts of the Police Force Area) with comparatively low levels (Figure A.1). Approximately 25% of stop and search within London takes place in just 3% of LSOAs within London.

Figure A.1: Map of stop and search activity at LSOA level within London, year ending March 2021

Source: Stop and Search data collection, Home Office

Notes:

1. Includes searches carried out within the City of London by Metropolitan Police officers. Excludes searches undertaken outside London.
2. Approximately 89% of stop and search records submitted to the Home Office by the Metropolitan Police in the year ending March 2021 had a valid LSOA.

Stop and search powers are one of the tools used by the police in tackling serious violent crime, as discussed in the Serious Violence Strategy. In particular, there is a police focus to combat the violence associated with drugs and county lines gangs. Additional analysis has been undertaken to examine whether stop and search is being targeted at areas with high levels of police recorded serious violent crime. This showed that there is a moderately positive correlation between stop and search and serious violent crime at LSOA level (r = 0.54). There are some instances where you would not expect stop and search to correlate highly with violent crime. For example, areas with high violent crime but low stop and search could be those where there is a significant nighttime economy, which may experience violent events that cannot be prevented through intelligence-led stop and search. Areas with relatively higher stop and search but lower violent crime could be those with transport hubs, which may be targeted in operations for targeting County Lines drug trafficking.

Annex B - Weapons found from stop and search

The Home Office stop and search data collection was expanded in the year ending March 2021 to allow for provision of more detailed information on whether an offensive weapon or firearm was found in a stop and search encounter. Previously, data were only collected on whether an offensive weapon was found from a search conducted under s.60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act.

Different police forces may have different ways of recording the property found during a stop and search, and it may not always be clear whether an offensive weapon or firearm was found. For example, a record may state that a search was carried out for an offensive weapon, and that the outcome was related to the reason for the search, suggesting that an offensive weapon was found. However, the specific ‘property found’ part of the record may not mention an offensive weapon. Alternatively, a record of search for an offensive weapon may include information that states a stolen or prohibited article was not found as the link between the reason for search and outcome, but have items that could be considered to be offensive weapons (such as surgical or construction equipment) within the details of property found.

Additionally, other Home Office statistical collections have highlighted the challenges of determining whether a knife or sharp incident was involved in a crime, particularly when reliant on officers to tag records with that information. Therefore, the figures presented here are estimates and should be used with caution.

Approximately 15,800 (2%) of searches in the year ending March 2021 resulted in an offensive weapon or firearm being found. Approximately 4,300 of those weapons or firearms were found when the initial search reason was for drugs.

1. The associated legislation includes stop and search powers under section 47 of the Firearms Act 1968, section 23 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, section 43 of the Terrorism Act 2000 as well as other legislation. ↩

2. As developed by Professor Lawrence Sherman at the Cambridge Centre for Evidence-Based Policing: Equal Protection by Race with Stop and Frisk: a Risk-Adjusted Disparity (RAD) Index for Balanced Policing. ↩

3. For more information on crime trends in the year ending March 2021, see Crime in England and Wales: year ending March 2021. ↩

4. Includes searches under section 1 PACE, section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 and section 47A of the Terrorism Act 2000 (though this power was not used in the year ending March 2021). ↩

5. Based on the resident population of the Police Force Area. Calculated using the mid-2020 population estimates for England and Wales, published by ONS. ↩

6. Asian or Asian British group now includes people that identify as Chinese. Previously people who identify as Chinese were grouped as ‘Chinese or Other’. Details on groupings are available at List of ethnic groups. ↩

7. Population data from the 2011 Census, based on whole population. ↩

8. For more information on the Metropolitan Police’s stop and search rates at borough level, see stop and search dashboard. ↩

9. A Notifiable Offence is any offence where the police must inform the Home Office by completing a crime report form for statistical purposes. Notifiable offences cover all crimes that must or could be heard at a Crown Court and, except for common assaults, excludes summary only offences that are dealt with exclusively by magistrates’ courts. There are strict rules regarding the recording of crime which is outlined in the Home Office counting rules for recorded crime. ↩

10. Calculated using the mid-2020 population estimates for England and Wales, supplied by ONS. ↩

11. City of London Police Force Area has been excluded from this analysis, as the small resident population and large transient population within means that rates can be misleading. ↩

12. LSOA are a geographic hierarchy designed to improve the reporting of small area statistics in England and Wales. They are generated to be as consistent in population size as possible. ↩