You asked
How many people have been arrested for carrying peppers spray in the U.K?
How many convictions have there been related to pepper spray?
If possible, please could you also provide any demographic data you hold on the above.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
Unfortunately we do not hold the information you have requested.
We publish statistics taken from the Crime Survey for England and Wales and crimes recorded by the police. We do not hold statistics relating to arrests or convictions. The only data we publish in relation to pepper spray is in Appendix table 3.02 of our Focus on violent crime and sexual offences, England and Wales: year ending Mar 2016 publication. This table provides offences recorded by the police in which firearms were reported to have been used, by type of principal weapon, including pepper spray.
The Ministry of Justice may be able to help with your enquiry regarding convictions, and can be contacted at: statistics.enquiries@justice.gsi.gov.uk.
We have been in contact with the Home Office who have confirmed they are unable to provide specific arrest statistics for carrying pepper spray, as their arrest data are collected at an offence category level (for example, violence against the person). You may wish to contact individual police forces, as they may be able to provide this information for their specific force.
We regret we are unable to assist you further. For future reference, you do not need to use a Freedom of Information request to ask for data. You can email CrimeStatistics@ons.gov.uk and we will endeavour to help.