Arrests
Published
1. Main facts and figures
- there were 698,737 arrests in 2017/18, a fall of 8% on the previous year – both years’ figures exclude Lancashire Police (see ‘Things you need to know’)
- Black people were over 3 times as likely to be arrested as White people – there were 35 arrests for every 1,000 Black people, and 11 arrests for every 1,000 White people
- overall, men were over 5 times as likely to be arrested as women – there were 22 arrests for every 1,000 men, and 4 arrests for every 1,000 women
- Black women were more than twice as likely to be arrested as White women – there were 7 arrests for every 1,000 Black women, and 3 arrests for every 1,000 White women
Things you need to know
When looking at arrest rates by area, it’s important to know that someone arrested in a particular area may not necessarily live in that area.
Population estimates for police force areas are based on permanent residents of that area (and do not include visitors), as reported in the 2011 Census. It is likely that the populations have changed since 2011 and these changes are not accounted for in the figures. Figures that compare the total population with the number of arrests should be treated with caution and be considered estimates only.
You can see the number of arrests by area and ethnicity if you download the data
Where someone's ethnicity wasn't identified or known, they have been classed as 'unknown'. The overall rate given in this data (presented under the ‘All’ in the charts and tables) includes people recorded as ‘Unknown’. Over the period studied, the percentage of people arrested whose ethnicity wasn't known ranged from 2% to 7%.
Due to changes in data collection:
- Staffordshire police force were unable to provide complete data for 2006/07
- Suffolk police force were unable to provide complete data for 2006/07 and 2007/08
- Cambridgeshire police force were unable to provide detailed ethnicity data for 2015/16
- Humberside police force were unable to provide complete data for 2014/15
- police forces in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Nottinghamshire, Suffolk were unable to provide complete data for 2015/16
- Lancashire police force were unable to provide any data on arrests in 2016/17 and 2017/18
Therefore, some data has been estimated for these forces, but no estimates were made for Lancashire Police in 2017/18.
Due to the small number of people living in the City of London compared with the numbers who visit, its police force has been excluded from the analysis.
What the data measures
This data measures the number of arrests for 'notifiable offences', which are offences for which the police must complete a crime report. Data is broken down by ethnicity, gender and area.
The arrest rate is calculated as the number of people arrested from a particular ethnic group out of every 1,000 people from the same group.
Estimates of rates per 1,000 people in charts and tables are given to the nearest whole number. Comparisons between different ethnic groups have been calculated using unrounded data
Data comes from the 43 police forces in England and Wales.
Population data is taken from the 2011 Census.
The ethnic categories used in this data
The data is broken down into the following 5 broad groups:
- Asian/Asian British
- Black/African/Caribbean/Black British
- Mixed/Multiple ethnic groups
- White
- Other ethnic group (including Chinese)
There’s a separate category for people whose ethnicity was unknown.
2. By ethnicity
| Ethnicity | Rate per 1,000 people | Number of arrests |
|---|---|---|
| All | 13 | 698,737 |
| Asian | 12 | 46,276 |
| Black | 35 | 65,919 |
| Mixed | 25 | 23,805 |
| White | 11 | 505,780 |
| Other inc Chinese | 9 | 11,075 |
| Unknown | N/A* | 45,882 |
Summary
This data shows that:
- there were 698,737 arrests in England and Wales in 2017/18 (excluding the Lancashire police force area), at a rate of 13 arrests per 1,000 people
- there were 62,501 fewer arrests in 2017/18 compared with the previous year, a fall of 8% (excluding Lancashire Police from both years)
- Black people were over 3 times as likely to be arrested as White people – there were 35 arrests for every 1,000 Black people, and 11 arrests for every 1,000 White people
- people with Mixed ethnicity were over twice as likely to be arrested as White people – there were 25 arrests for every 1,000 people with Mixed ethnicity, and 11 arrests for every 1,000 White people
3. By ethnicity over time
| All | Asian | Black | Mixed | White | Other inc Chinese | Unknown | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time | Arrest rate | Number of arrests | Arrest rate | Number of arrests | Arrest rate | Number of arrests | Arrest rate | Number of arrests | Arrest rate | Number of arrests | Arrest rate | Number of arrests | Arrest rate | Number of arrests |
| 2006/07 | 26 | 1,474,843 | 18 | 69,591 | 56 | 105,145 | 43 | 40,882 | 24 | 1,133,468 | 16 | 19,408 | N/A* | 106,349 |
| 2007/08 | 26 | 1,475,266 | 20 | 74,755 | 59 | 109,206 | 43 | 40,726 | 24 | 1,170,527 | 17 | 21,103 | N/A* | 58,949 |
| 2008/09 | 26 | 1,462,139 | 21 | 78,422 | 60 | 111,271 | 42 | 40,256 | 24 | 1,178,536 | 17 | 20,931 | N/A* | 32,723 |
| 2009/10 | 25 | 1,385,322 | 20 | 78,124 | 60 | 110,977 | 42 | 40,133 | 23 | 1,103,206 | 17 | 20,249 | N/A* | 32,633 |
| 2010/11 | 24 | 1,353,740 | 21 | 79,540 | 61 | 113,085 | 43 | 40,779 | 22 | 1,075,562 | 16 | 19,556 | N/A* | 25,218 |
| 2011/12 | 22 | 1,225,123 | 19 | 72,361 | 55 | 102,326 | 39 | 37,516 | 20 | 972,938 | 14 | 17,289 | N/A* | 22,693 |
| 2012/13 | 19 | 1,068,823 | 17 | 65,277 | 47 | 88,540 | 34 | 32,587 | 18 | 844,957 | 13 | 15,398 | N/A* | 22,064 |
| 2013/14 | 18 | 1,024,969 | 17 | 64,376 | 46 | 86,337 | 33 | 31,223 | 17 | 803,069 | 12 | 14,737 | N/A* | 25,227 |
| 2014/15 | 17 | 947,658 | 16 | 60,737 | 45 | 83,519 | 31 | 29,631 | 15 | 735,879 | 11 | 13,928 | N/A* | 23,964 |
| 2015/16 | 16 | 886,342 | 15 | 59,183 | 44 | 82,072 | 30 | 28,667 | 14 | 655,279 | 12 | 14,301 | N/A* | 46,840 |
| 2016/17 | 14 | 781,250 | 14 | 51,850 | 39 | 71,937 | 27 | 25,383 | 12 | 569,207 | 10 | 12,155 | N/A* | 50,718 |
Summary
This data up to 2016/17 shows that:
- overall, rates of arrest in England and Wales fell from 26 arrests per 1,000 people in 2006/07 to 14 arrests per 1,000 people in 2016/17
- there were 105,092 fewer arrests in 2016/17 compared with the previous year, a fall of 12%
- arrest rates for people from the Asian, White, and Other (including Chinese) ethnic groups were lower than average in almost every year of the period studied, while the rates for people from the Black and Mixed ethnic groups were consistently higher than average
- between 2006/07 and 2016/17, the arrest rate for White people went down from 24 arrests per 1,000 to 12 arrests per 1,000 – a decrease of 50%
- in the same period, the arrest rate for people with Mixed ethnicity went down from 43 arrests per 1,000 to 27 arrests per 1,000 – a decrease of 38%
- the arrest rate for people from the Other ethnic group went down from 16 arrests per 1,000 people in 2006/07 to 10 per 1,000 in 2016/17 – a decrease of 38%
- the arrest rate for Black people went down from 56 arrests per 1,000 people in 2006/07 to 39 per 1,000 in 2016/17 – a decrease of 32%
- the arrest rate for Asian people went down from 18 arrests per 1,000 people in 2006/07 to 14 per 1,000 in 2016/17 – a decrease of 26%
4. By ethnicity and area
| Geography | All | Asian | Black | Mixed | White | Other inc Chinese |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arrest per 1,000 | Arrest per 1,000 | Arrest per 1,000 | Arrest per 1,000 | Arrest per 1,000 | Arrest per 1,000 | |
| All | 13 | 12 | 35 | 25 | 11 | 9 |
| Avon & Somerset | 16 | 16 | 66 | 29 | 14 | 14 |
| Bedfordshire | 12 | 13 | 33 | 22 | 10 | 9 |
| Cambridgeshire | 21 | 26 | 97 | 38 | 19 | 18 |
| Cheshire | 11 | 12 | 74 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| Cleveland | 19 | 18 | 50 | 20 | 19 | 18 |
| Cumbria | 15 | 27 | 104 | 19 | 14 | 29 |
| Derbyshire | 11 | 16 | 43 | 18 | 10 | 10 |
| Devon & Cornwall | 7 | 14 | 63 | 8 | 6 | 9 |
| Dorset | 10 | 11 | 108 | 15 | 9 | 9 |
| Durham | 14 | 17 | 41 | 10 | 14 | 19 |
| Dyfed-Powys | 8 | 11 | 51 | 10 | 8 | 6 |
| Essex | 9 | 9 | 29 | 22 | 7 | 12 |
| Gloucestershire | 8 | 11 | 67 | 23 | 7 | 28 |
| Greater Manchester | 10 | 10 | 24 | 16 | 9 | 8 |
| Gwent | 9 | 14 | 37 | 12 | 9 | 33 |
| Hampshire | 10 | 9 | 59 | 16 | 9 | 11 |
| Hertfordshire | 11 | 10 | 36 | 18 | 9 | 10 |
| Humberside | 12 | 14 | 58 | 14 | 12 | 5 |
| Kent | 15 | 14 | 60 | 18 | 13 | 29 |
| Lancashire | N/A* | N/A* | N/A* | N/A* | N/A* | N/A* |
| Leicestershire | 11 | 9 | 43 | 15 | 10 | 9 |
| Lincolnshire | 12 | 18 | 72 | 23 | 12 | 35 |
| London, City of | N/A* | N/A* | N/A* | N/A* | N/A* | N/A* |
| Merseyside | 17 | 18 | 49 | 19 | 16 | 15 |
| Metropolitan Police | 15 | 11 | 32 | 20 | 12 | 12 |
| Norfolk | 12 | 3 | 26 | 4 | 4 | 6 |
| North Wales | 18 | 12 | 89 | 10 | 17 | 21 |
| North Yorkshire | 12 | 9 | 30 | 15 | 11 | 13 |
| Northamptonshire | 12 | 14 | 42 | 20 | 10 | 21 |
| Northumbria | 14 | 11 | 35 | 6 | 14 | 1 |
| Nottinghamshire | 12 | 11 | 37 | 16 | 10 | 8 |
| South Wales | 16 | 13 | 50 | 20 | 16 | 10 |
| South Yorkshire | 10 | 9 | 21 | 7 | 7 | 6 |
| Staffordshire | 11 | 23 | 58 | 30 | 10 | 23 |
| Suffolk | 9 | 5 | 20 | 5 | 4 | 6 |
| Surrey | 8 | 10 | 51 | 13 | 7 | 9 |
| Sussex | 10 | 11 | 67 | 14 | 8 | 10 |
| Thames Valley | 14 | 16 | 43 | 31 | 11 | 11 |
| Warwickshire | 9 | 8 | 44 | 19 | 6 | 7 |
| West Mercia | 9 | 15 | 53 | 12 | 6 | 11 |
| West Midlands | 15 | 12 | 31 | 24 | 13 | 11 |
| West Yorkshire | 16 | 18 | 35 | 28 | 15 | 11 |
| Wiltshire | 10 | 11 | 55 | 21 | 10 | 16 |
Summary
This data shows that:
- in 2017/18, the biggest difference in the arrest rates between Black people and White people was in Dorset (where Black people were almost 12 times as likely to be arrested as White people), followed by Devon and Cornwall (where Black people were 10 times as likely to be arrested as White people)
- Black people had the highest arrest rates per 1,000 people in every police force area for which there was data
- the arrest rate for Asian people was 3 times higher than the rate for White people in West Mercia
- the arrest rate for people with Mixed ethnicity was 3 times the rate for White people in Essex, Gloucestershire and Staffordshire
- in London, there were 19 arrests for every 1,000 ethnic minority people compared with 12 arrests for every 1,000 White people
- Cambridgeshire had the highest overall rate of arrests, at 21 arrests for every 1,000 people
- the police forces with the lowest overall rates of arrests were Devon and Cornwall (7 arrests for every 1,000 people), followed by Gloucestershire, Surrey, and Dyfed-Powys (each with 8 arrests per 1,000 people)
- differences in the rate of arrests in England and Wales are likely, in part, to reflect population differences in those areas (with many more people from the Asian, Black, Mixed and Other ethnic groups living in London than in North Wales, for example)
5. By ethnicity and gender
| Female | Male | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethnicity | Arrest rate per 1,000 | Number of arrests | Arrest rate per 1,000 | Number of arrests |
| All | 4 | 102,919 | 22 | 595,818 |
| Asian | 2 | 3,321 | 23 | 42,955 |
| Black | 7 | 6,913 | 66 | 59,006 |
| Mixed | 6 | 3,538 | 34 | 20,267 |
| White | 3 | 80,632 | 18 | 425,148 |
| Other inc Chinese | 3 | 1,508 | 19 | 9,567 |
| Unknown | N/A* | 7,007 | N/A* | 38,875 |
Summary
This data shows that:
- overall in 2017/18, there were 4 arrests for every 1,000 women and 22 arrests for every 1,000 men
- Black men were over three times as likely to be arrested than White men – there were 66 arrests for every 1,000 Black men, and 18 arrests for every 1,000 White men
- Black women were over twice as likely to be arrested as White women – there were 7 arrests for every 1,000 Black women, and 3 arrests for every 1,000 White women
- Asian men were 13 times as likely to be arrested as Asian women, the biggest difference between men and women from the same ethnic group – there were 23 arrests for every 1,000 Asian men, and 2 arrests for every 1,000 Asian women
6. Methodology
A person arrested for a notifiable offence is counted for each occasion on which they are arrested, provided that the offence is not connected or related to an offence for which the person has already been subject to arrest during the year.
If it is connected, or if a person has been arrested for more than one notifiable offences on the same occasion, the offence with the highest maximum penalty is recorded.
Arresting officers are required to record details of an arrest at the time of arrest, or as soon as possible after. A universal code of practice (PACE code G) ensures arrests are standardised across forces, both in terms of the processes involved, and the data recorded.
The person arrested states their ethnicity at the time of arrest.
Police forces have their own internal auditing methods to ensure that data is accurate and up to date before it's submitted to the Home Office.
Rounding
Rates of arrest per 1,000 people are rounded to the nearest whole number.
Further technical information
Police forces' recording of arrests, and use of the data, are monitored by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS).
HMICFRS carries out regular inspections and produce reports on the inspections. Home Office statisticians undertake quality assurance checks which include looking for missing and incomplete data, inconsistencies in the data, and extreme values.
Trend analyses also look for unusual or unexpected trends in the data. Any inconsistencies or unusual trends are flagged with forces, who are requested to either explain the trends, or resubmit to amend the data.
All data is then confirmed by forces during a data reconciliation before the figures are published.
7. Data sources
Source
Police powers and procedures England and Wales statistics
Type of data
Administrative data
Type of statistic
National Statistics
Publisher
Home Office
Publication frequency
Yearly
Purpose of data source
It is mandatory for police forces in England and Wales to provide the Home Office with the number of arrests carried out each financial year by ethnicity.
Arrest records form part of custody records, which in turn are used for a number of administrative purposes, including monitoring performance.
8. Download the data
This file contains the following: ethnicity, year, police force area, number of arrests, population and rate and proportions of arrests