England and Wales

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes crime figures in England and Wales. These are based on police recorded crime and the Crime Survey for England & Wales.

The Home Office provides the ONS with police recorded crime figures. The Home Office collates this data from all 43 police forces in England and Wales, plus British Transport Police. The Recorded Crime publications are official statistics, but not accredited official statistics. The OSR removed accreditation in 2014 following a
decision that the data may not be reliable.

The Crime Survey for England & Wales (CSEW) gathers information from a representative sample of people aged over16, rather than from the whole population. The survey includes crimes that victims have not reported to the police. However the survey only covers crimes against people who live in households, and
it does not include all crime types. The survey results therefore hold some uncertainty and are not precise figures.

The OSR has suspended the CSEW from accredited official statistics status. They are currently reviewing a request for reaccreditation following a data quality review. This review showed that the quality of CSEW data for 2023 was broadly in line with 2020, when they were last accredited by the OSR.