Crime in England and Wales: year ending September 2025

Crime against individuals and households has generally decreased over the last 10 years with some notable exceptions, such as fraud. Estimates from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) year ending (YE) September 2025 showed that:

• there were around 9.3 million incidents of CSEW headline crime, which means there was no statistically significant change compared with the YE September 2024 survey (9.5 million incidents); CSEW headline crime includes theft, robbery, criminal damage, fraud, computer misuse, and violence with or without injury

• computer misuse decreased by 21% (to around 686,000 incidents) compared with last year's survey

• there was no statistically significant change in overall theft offences; however, there was a 20% fall in domestic burglary (to 342,000 incidents) and a 16% fall in vehicle-related theft (to around 617,000 incidents)

• there was no statistically significant change in overall fraud; however, there was a 19% rise in bank and credit account fraud (to around 2.6 million incidents) and a 40% decrease in "other fraud" (to 137,000 incidents)

Experiences of domestic abuse, sexual assault, stalking and harassment from the CSEW are presented separately as prevalence estimates (the proportion of all people who were victims in the previous 12 months) in our statistics. Latest data from the YE March 2025 CSEW showed no statistically significant change in these estimates compared with the YE March 2024 survey.

Police recorded crime does not tend to be a good indicator of general trends in crime, because of changes in how crimes are recorded over time. However, it can give more insight into lower-volume, higher-harm offences that are reported to the police, including those that the survey does not cover or capture well. Data for YE September 2025 showed that:

• the number of homicides decreased by 7% (to 499 offences) compared with YE September 2024 (539 offences); this was the lowest figure since current police recording practices began in YE March 2003

• offences involving knives or sharp instruments decreased by 9% (to 50,430 offences) compared with YE September 2024 (55,149 offences); decreases were seen across most regions in England and Wales

• offences involving firearms decreased by 9% (to 4,851 offences) compared with YE September 2024 (5,356 offences); this was the lowest figure since current police recording practices began in YE March 2003

• the number of robbery offences (82,678 offences) remained similar to YE September 2024 (82,354 offences)

• shoplifting offences increased by 5% (to 519,381 offences) compared with the previous year (492,660 offences)

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) is an interviewer-administered face-to-face survey asking people (aged 16 years and over), resident in households, about their experiences of crime in the past year. It provides a reliable measure of crime trends for the population, and the offence types it covers. This is because it is unaffected by police reporting or recording changes.

The survey excludes crimes against commercial or public sector bodies, tourists, or those living in communal establishments like care homes, student halls of residence and prisons. The survey does not cover crimes where there is not a specific victim, such as drug possession, and other crimes against the state.

CSEW headline crime includes theft, robbery, criminal damage, fraud, computer misuse, and violence with or without injury. Details of these crime types are collected through interviewer-administered sections of the survey. Estimates are reported as both incidents (the estimated number of crimes) and prevalence (the estimated proportion of the population that were victims).

Domestic abuse, sexual assault, stalking, and harassment are not included in CSEW headline crime figures. They are collected in a separate self-completion section of the survey (except harassment) to ensure respondent privacy. Prevalence estimates only are reported separately in Section 8: Domestic abuse, Section 9: Sexual offences and Section 10: Stalking and harassment.

In this bulletin, the latest estimates for these crime types are for year ending (YE) March 2025 (previously published in the YE March 2025 bulletin). This is because of recent and ongoing CSEW questionnaire development across these topics. The next set of estimates for these experiences will be released in the YE March 2026 bulletin. Further information on planned improvements to crime statistics are available in our Improving crime statistics for England and Wales - progress update: July 2025.

Police recorded crime figures cover a wider range of offences and populations, but do not capture all crimes. For example, they include those aged under 16 years, residents of institutions, tourists, crimes against commercial bodies, and crimes against society.

Figures are restricted to a subset of notifiable offences that have been reported to and recorded by the police, as described in the Home Office's Crime Recording Rules for frontline officers and staff guidance. Changes in recording practices have affected the reliability of these figures, particularly for violent crime. This makes them better indicators of police activity than crime trends. For further information, see Section 20: Data sources and quality.

Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) and police recorded crime data together give a fuller picture of crimes experienced by individuals and households (Table 1). The CSEW is better for tracking long-term trends in:

• violence with or without injury

• theft offences

• criminal damage

• fraud

• computer misuse

Police data are preferred for:

• homicide

• offences involving weapons

• robbery

Table 1: Number of crime incidents by main crime types, to year ending September 2025

Notes:

1. Police recorded crime are not designated as accredited official statistics.

2. CSEW data cover people aged 16 years and over. PRC data include crimes against individuals (including children), households, businesses, and society.

3. The change in CSEW computer misuse was statistically significant (S) at the 5% level. PRC figures are actual counts, not estimates, so they are not tested for significance.

Since the mid-1990s, the CSEW has shown long-term decreases in the number of incidents of theft, criminal damage and violence with or without injury. Fraud and computer misuse estimates are only available from year ending (YE) March 2017 onwards. While the number of fraud incidents has increased with some fluctuations over this time period, there has been a general decline in computer misuse incidents. For more information, see Table A1 in our Crime in England and Wales: Appendix tables dataset.

Our headline CSEW crime measure captures incidents of theft, robbery, criminal damage, fraud, computer misuse, and violence with or without injury. There were an estimated 9.3 million incidents of CSEW headline crime in the YE September 2025 survey, showing no statistically significant change, compared with the YE September 2024 survey (9.5 million incidents).

Providing context from a longer time period, CSEW headline crime remains 17% lower than in the YE March 2017 survey (11.2 million incidents), when fraud and computer misuse were first included.

The CSEW also presents prevalence estimates (the proportion of people who reported being a victim in the last 12 months) for victimisation. For more information, see Table A3 in our Crime in England and Wales: Appendix tables.

In YE September 2025, the police recorded 6.7 million crimes, similar to the previous year (6.7 million crimes) and up from 4.2 million in YE March 2015. Increases since YE March 2015 are largely because of changes in police activity and recording practices. While some of the rise may reflect genuine changes in trends in crimes reported to and recorded by police, these figures are largely influenced by improvements in recording standards. As a result, police recorded crime is not generally considered a reliable indicator of overall crime trends.

For further information see His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services' report, How effectively do the police record crime?.

Police recorded crime data can give more insight into lower-volume, higher-harm offences reported to the police, including those that the survey does not cover or capture well. This includes homicide, offences involving weapons, and robbery. These figures are reported in Section 4: Homicide, Section 5: Knife and sharp instrument offences, Section 6: Offences involving firearms and Section 12: Robbery.

Information on the investigative outcomes of crimes recorded by the police can be found in the Home Office's Crime outcomes in England and Wales publication.

The police recorded 499 homicide offences in year ending (YE) September 2025, a 7% decrease from 539 offences in the previous year. This was because of a 23% fall in knife or sharp instrument homicides to 174 offences compared with the previous year (227 offences). Overall, this was the lowest homicide figure since current police recording practices began in YE March 2003. The homicide rate was 8.1 per 1 million people, down from 8.9 in YE September 2024.

For the latest analysis on homicide offences held within the Home Office Homicide Index, see our Homicide in England and Wales: year ending March 2024 article. As the Homicide Index takes account of court outcomes, figures from this source will differ from the main police recorded crime collection and are not directly comparable.

Offences involving a knife or sharp instrument (knife-enabled crime) include offences where a knife or sharp instrument has been used to injure a victim, attempt to injure, or used as a threat. This includes offences where the weapon may not have been seen, but was believed to be present, at the time of the offence by the victim or another witness.

Knife-enabled crime recorded by the police decreased by 9% in year ending (YE) September 2025 (to 50,430 offences), compared with YE September 2024 (55,149 offences). This was also 9% lower than YE March 2020 (55,170 offences).

Most knife-enabled crimes were categorised as assault with injury and assault with intent to cause serious harm (43%) and robbery (41%) offences. Fewer than 1% of knife-enabled crimes were homicide offences (0.3%). Knife-enabled homicide fell by 23% (to 174 offences) compared with the previous year (227 offences).

Most knife-enabled crime takes place in metropolitan areas across England and Wales. The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) recorded 29% of all offences, the West Midlands Police recorded 8%, and Greater Manchester Police recorded 6%. The MPS recorded an 11% decrease in knife-enabled crime compared with the previous year (to 14,817 offences), West Midlands police recorded an 18% decrease (to 4,116 offences) and Greater Manchester Police recorded a 9% decrease (to 3,155 offences).

Police recorded "possession of article with a blade or point" offences increased by 1% in YE September 2025 (28,596 offences), compared with YE September 2024 (28,197 offences). Trends in possession offences are likely to be influenced by police activity and operations, particularly stop and search.

The latest provisional admissions data for NHS hospitals in England and Wales showed a 10% decrease in the number of admissions for assault by a sharp object in YE September 2025 (to 3,427 admissions) compared with YE September 2024 (3,800 admissions).

Data related to stop and search can be found in the Home Office's Police powers and procedures England and Wales statistics publication.

Offences involving firearms cover various weapon types, from imitation firearms to handguns and shotguns. Police recorded offences decreased by 9% (to 4,851 offences) in year ending (YE) September 2025 compared with YE September 2024 (5,356 offences).

The largest falls were in offences involving unidentified firearms, which decreased by 25% (to 683 offences) and offences involving handguns, which decreased by 12% (to 1,574 offences). Firearm offence levels were at their lowest levels since current police recording practices began in YE March 2003 and were much lower than at their peak in YE March 2006 (11,088 offences).

Imitation firearms like replica weapons and BB guns were the most used, closely followed by handguns. In the last year, 38% of these offences involved imitation firearms and 32% involved handguns.

More detailed data on offences involving firearms are available for YE March 2025 in our Offences involving the use of weapons: data tables.

The interviewer-administered parts of the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) give the best view of trends in violence, with or without injury, for the household population. It provides a good indication of the prevalence of violence, with or without injury, where the perpetrator is an acquaintance or a stranger (non-domestic violence). However, it underestimates domestic violence because victims may not disclose it to interviewers. Our preferred prevalence estimate can be found in Section 8: Domestic abuse. For information on sexual offences, stalking and harassment, see Section 9: Sexual offences and Section 10: Stalking and harassment.

In year ending (YE) September 2025 CSEW, people aged 16 years and over experienced an estimated 1.1 million incidents of violence with or without injury. There was no statistically significant change compared with the previous year. However, this was 34% lower than a decade ago (1.7 million incidents in YE March 2015) and 74% lower than its peak in YE December 1995 (4.5 million incidents).

In YE September 2025, around 0.8% of people aged 16 years and over reported being a victim of violence, with or without injury, where the perpetrator was a stranger; 0.4% reported being a victim where the perpetrator was an acquaintance. There was no statistically significant change compared with the previous year's survey.

While there was a 1% increase in police recorded violence without injury (to 826,222 offences) in YE September 2025, compared with YE September 2024 (815,520 offences), there was a 5% decrease in police recorded violence with injury (to 510,749 offences). This follows large increases in these offences since 2015, mainly because of improvements to recording practices over this period. While this year's decrease may reflect genuine falls in these offences, it may also be partly because of changes in the recording of conduct crimes (for a definition, see Section 19: Glossary. For further information, see Section 20: Data sources and quality.)

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) self-completion module is more reliable for measuring domestic abuse than police recorded crime data. The latest CSEW estimates available are for year ending (YE) March 2025 (see Section 2: Things you need to know about this release).

Around 7.8% of people aged 16 years and over experienced domestic abuse in the last year (around 3.8 million people), reported in the YE March 2025 survey. This represents no statistically significant change compared with the YE March 2024 survey.

The police categorised 826,523 offences as domestic abuse-related in YE September 2025, similar to the previous year (825,645 offences). Of these, 642,072 were violence against the person offences.

Further information and data related to domestic abuse can be found in our Domestic abuse in England and Wales overview: November 2025 bulletin.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) self-completion module provides a more reliable measure of trends in sexual offences than police recorded crime data. The latest CSEW estimates available are for year ending (YE) March 2025 (see Section 2: Things you need to know about this release). 

Around 1.9% of people aged 16 years and over had experienced sexual assault (including attempted offences) (around 900,000 people) in the last year, as reported in the YE March 2025 survey. This represents no statistically significant change compared with the YE March 2024 survey. 

When analysing long-term trends, we use the 16-to-59-years age range to give a comparable data time series. The prevalence of sexual assault among people aged 16 to 59 years has fluctuated between 1.5% and 3.0% over the last 20 years. Over the last 10 years, there has been an increase in sexual assault, after a previous decrease from YE March 2005 to YE March 2014. In the YE March 2025 survey, 2.4% of people aged 16 to 59 years had experienced sexual assault, compared with 1.7% in the YE March 2015 survey. 

There have been general increases in police recorded sexual offences over the last decade, largely because of improvements in police recording practices. There was an 8% increase in YE September 2025 (to 214,816 offences) compared with the previous year (198,373 offences). This is partly because of the introduction of two new sexual offences subcodes within the "other sexual offences" subgroup in January 2024. These subcodes relate to sending or sharing intimate photographs or films following the Online Safety Act 2023.

Within sexual offences, there was a 7% increase in rape offences (to 74,265 offences) compared with YE September 2024 (69,492 offences). Around 35% of all sexual offences recorded by the police in YE September 2025 were rape offences. 

Further data related to sexual offences were released on 4 November 2025 in our Sexual offences in England and Wales overview: year ending March 2025 bulletin.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) self-completion module provides a more reliable measure of stalking than police recorded crime data. The latest CSEW estimates available are for year ending (YE) March 2025 (see Section 2: Things you need to know about this release).

Around 2.9% of people aged 16 years and over had experienced stalking in the last year (around 1.4 million people) for the YE March 2025 survey. This represents no statistically significant change compared with the YE March 2024 survey. For more details, see our Stalking: findings from the Crime Survey for England and Wales dataset.

When analysing long-term trends, we use the 16-to-59-years age range to give a comparable data time series. The CSEW for YE March 2025 estimated that 3.5% of people aged 16 to 59 years had experienced stalking in the last year. The trend has been relatively stable over the last 10 years.

The CSEW also measures experiences of harassment, including one-off incidents. This is different from how the police define harassment where the behaviour must occur on more than one occasion. This is explained in the Home Office's Crime Recording Rules for frontline officers and staff guidance. In the CSEW YE March 2025, 8.6% (around 4.2 million people) had experienced some form of harassment. This represents no statistically significant change compared with the YE March 2024 survey.

Changes in recording rules in May 2023 removed the requirement to record two crimes reported at the same time involving the same perpetrator, when one of them was a conduct crime (for a definition, see Section 19: Glossary). This led to fewer crimes often associated with conduct crimes, such as malicious communications offences, which decreased by 26% in YE September 2025, compared with the previous year (to 94,034 offences). However, police recorded stalking increased by 7% to 141,645 offences, and harassment rose by 7% to 316,279 offences. This could mean that the changes are helping police focus more on these crimes.

We produced a "combined measure of domestic abuse, sexual assault and stalking" for the first time in July 2025. This refers to people who have experienced one or more of these crime types in the last year. This measure has been produced as the main measure for monitoring the Government's ambition to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) in a decade. The Home Office provided more detail on the use of this combined measure in a new cross-government VAWG strategy that was published in December 2025.

We estimated that 10.6% of people aged 16 years and over (12.8% of women and 8.4% of men), which is around 5.1 million people, had experienced at least one of the following crime types in the last year:

• domestic abuse

• sexual assault

• stalking

This estimate is based on data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) year ending March 2025 survey.

The estimates from this metric are official statistics in development. For further information please see our Developing a combined measure of domestic abuse, sexual assault and stalking, England and Wales: July 2025 article.

Robbery involves the use of force, or threat of force, to attempt or complete a theft (for a definition see Section 19: Glossary). Police recorded 82,678 robbery offences in year ending (YE) September 2025; this was similar to the previous year (82,354 offences). However, there was a 66% increase in robbery of business property (to 22,478 offences). This was offset by a 12% decrease in robbery of personal property (to 60,200 offences). Overall robbery offences were 8% lower than YE March 2020 (90,196 offences).

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimated 77,000 robbery incidents in YE September 2025. There was no statistically significant change compared with the previous year's survey. Police data are preferred for robbery offences. This is because the CSEW estimates are subject to year-to-year volatility because of the small number of victims found in the sample.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) is the best way to track long-term trends in common crimes like theft. Police data, however, can show trends in specific theft offences that are well reported and well recorded, such as burglary, and can highlight emerging trends.

The CSEW for year ending (YE) September 2025 estimated 2.6 million theft incidents. There was no statistically significant change compared with the previous year's survey (2.9 million incidents). However, this was 35% lower compared with the YE March 2015 survey (4.0 million incidents) and 77% lower than the peak in the YE December 1995 survey (11.6 million incidents).

Despite no change in overall theft, there were statistically significant changes in two of the main categories of theft. Incidents of vehicle-related theft decreased by 16% (to around 617,000 incidents) compared with the YE September 2024 survey (around 732,000 incidents) and there was a 20% decrease in domestic burglary (to around 342,000 incidents) compared with the previous year's survey (426,000 incidents).

The police recorded 1.7 million theft offences in YE September 2025, a 6% decrease compared with the previous year (1.8 million offences). This included falls in vehicle-related theft, burglary and theft from the person. Police recorded vehicle offences decreased by 13% (to 324,094 offences) during this period. Police recorded burglary, which includes both residential and non-residential burglaries, fell by 12% to 229,223 offences, while police recorded theft from the person also fell by 4% to 140,198 offences.

In contrast, there was a 5% increase in shoplifting (to 519,381 offences) in YE September 2025 compared with the previous year (492,660 offences). However, these figures are no longer the highest since current police recording practices began and are lower than the previous year ending period to June 2025 (529,994 offences).

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) year ending (YE) September 2025 estimated around 602,000 incidents of criminal damage. This showed no statistically significant change compared with the YE September 2024 survey. However, this was 55% lower compared with the YE March 2015 survey (1.3 million incidents) and 82% lower than the peak in the YE December 1995 survey (3.4 million incidents).

Police recorded 432,888 criminal damage offences in YE September 2025, a 5% fall compared with the previous year.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) year ending (YE) September 2025 estimated 4.2 million fraud incidents. There was no statistically significant change in overall fraud compared with the YE September 2024 survey. However, there was a 19% increase in bank and credit account fraud (to around 2.6 million incidents) and a 40% decrease in "other fraud" (to around 137,000 incidents). Out of the estimated 4.2 million incidents of fraud, around 3.1 million incidents involved a loss. Victims said that they were fully reimbursed in 2.3 million of these cases.

Levels of fraud have increased by 22% compared with the earliest comparable year, YE March 2017 CSEW (around 3.4 million incidents). While levels of bank and credit account fraud for YE September 2025 were similar, there was a 49% increase in consumer and retail fraud and a 305% increase in advance fee fraud compared with the YE March 2017 survey. (For definitions of the different types of fraud, see Section 19: Glossary).

The recorded crime series incorporates fraud offences collated from three reporting bodies. These are Action Fraud and two industry bodies - Cifas and UK Finance - who refer instances of fraud to Action Fraud where their member organisations have been a victim. The recorded crime series showed a 12% increase in fraud offences in YE September 2025 (1.4 million offences) compared with the previous year (1.2 million offences).

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimated around 686,000 incidents of computer misuse in year ending (YE) September 2025. This was a 21% decrease compared with the previous year's survey. This was because of a 20% fall in incidents of unauthorised access to personal information (to around 571,000 incidents). CSEW computer misuse was 61% lower than the YE March 2017 survey (around 1.8 million incidents), which is the earliest comparable year.

Action Fraud records computer misuse offences and refers those with good investigative leads to the police. They reported a 29% increase in these offences for YE September 2025 (to 62,151 offences) compared with YE September 2024 (48,305 offences).

Computer misuse is also a concern for businesses and organisations. Findings from the Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025 showed that 20% of businesses and 14% of charities had been victims of at least one cybercrime in the past year. This was similar to the previous year's survey.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) for year ending (YE) September 2025 showed that an estimated 38% of people experienced or witnessed anti-social behaviour (ASB). This was a statistically significant increase from the previous year (36%).

The number of police-recorded ASB incidents, including those by the British Transport Police, remained similar at 1 million incidents.

Computer misuse

Computer misuse is when fraudsters hack or use computer viruses or malware to disrupt services, obtain information illegally or extort individuals or organisations.

Conduct crime

Conduct crime is defined as stalking, harassment, or controlling and coercive behaviour, which are offences where there has been unwanted or unwarranted behaviour that amounts to a course of conduct. The course of conduct or behaviour must comprise two or more occasions or events for an offence to be recorded by the police.

Criminal damage

Criminal damage results from any person who, without lawful excuse, destroys or damages any property belonging to another. This includes either:

• intending to destroy or damage any such property

• being reckless as to whether any such property would be destroyed or damaged

Fraud

Fraud involves a person dishonestly and deliberately deceiving a victim for personal gain of property or money, or causing loss or risk of loss to another. Most incidents fall under the legal definition of "fraud by false representation", where a person makes a representation that they know to be untrue or misleading (for example, banking and payment card frauds, and dating scams). The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimates cover a broad range of fraud offences including:

• "Bank and credit account fraud", which usually involves falsely obtaining or using personal bank or payment card details to carry out fraudulent transactions; this can involve using a false identity, deceitful credit application, credit or debit cards, cloned cards, cheque books, or online accounts

• "Consumer and retail fraud", which occur when goods or services were paid for but failed to materialise, were misrepresented at point of sale, or were faulty or stolen; this includes bogus callers, ticketing fraud, phone scams and computer software service fraud

• "Advance fee fraud", which occur when a payment is made to fraudsters, who claim to be in a position of authority, to transfer money or for a promise of employment, wealth or gifts (including lottery scams and inheritance fraud)

• "Other fraud" includes types of fraud not covered elsewhere, such as investment or charity fraud

Overall theft offences

CSEW theft offences include all personal and household crime where items are stolen, including:

• theft from the person

• other theft of personal property

• domestic burglary and other household theft

• vehicle-related theft and bicycle theft

Robbery

Robbery is an offence in which force, or the threat of force, is used either during or immediately before a theft or attempted theft. "Mugging" is an informal term for robbery. In this bulletin, we use the term "robbery".

Violence with or without injury

Violent crime covers a range of offence types from minor assaults, such as pushing and shoving that result in no physical harm, to murder. This includes offences where the victim was intentionally stabbed, punched, kicked, pushed, or jostled, as well as offences where the victim was threatened with violence, regardless of injury.

More information and further definitions can be found in Section 5: Offence types of our User guide to crime statistics for England and Wales: March 2025.

Crime statistics are based on the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) and police recorded crime. CSEW estimates are accredited official statistics and were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in October 2024. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled "accredited official statistics".

Police recorded crime data are not designated as accredited official statistics.

Crime Survey for England and Wales

The CSEW is primarily an interviewer-administered face-to-face victimisation survey of people (aged 16 years and over) resident in households in England and Wales. It covers selected crimes experienced in the 12 months before the interview, including those not reported to the police. However, it excludes crimes against non-household populations and businesses and does not cover all crime types.

The interviewer-administered questions give headline estimates of CSEW crime and include theft, robbery, criminal damage, fraud, computer misuse, and violence with or without injury. Domestic violence and sexual assault are also covered, but because of underreporting in interviews, these are better captured via a self-completion section and reported separately. While sexual assault estimates from the interviewer-administered questions are excluded from CSEW headline crime, domestic violence is included as it is a form of violence with or without injury.

The CSEW uses a sample, not the whole population, so estimates have some uncertainty and are not precise figures. This affects how changes in estimates should be interpreted. View more information on how we measure and communicate uncertainty for our surveys.

It tracks long-term crime trends from year ending (YE) December 1981 to YE September 2025. The CSEW is better for tracking long-term trends than police recorded crime because it is unaffected by changes in reporting or recording practices. The survey's methods have remained comparable since the CSEW began in 1981. The latest figures are based on interviews between October 2024 and September 2025, covering crimes that occurred between October 2023 and August 2025.

For more information on the Crime Survey for England and Wales, please see Section 2 of our User guide to crime statistics in England and Wales: March 2025.

Police recorded crime

The Home Office collects crime data from the 43 police forces in England and Wales, plus the British Transport Police, covering offences on the notifiable list. Figures in this bulletin represent a snapshot taken on 08 December 2025, covering data up to September 2025.

Police recorded crime covers a broader range of offences and populations than the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW). It's the main source for local crime statistics and is effective for tracking well-reported and well-recorded crimes, including lower-volume offences like homicide. It also provides timely insights into emerging trends.

However, it excludes unreported or unrecorded crimes. Trends may be influenced by changes in recording practices, police activity, and public reporting, making long-term comparisons difficult. Inconsistencies in recording quality across forces and over time have particularly affected violent crime data over the past decade.

To improve consistency, the National Data Quality Improvement Service (NDQIS) tool now flags offences involving knives, domestic abuse, child sexual abuse, and online crime across four police collections. NDQIS is available to 42 forces, with usage details in the relevant datasets.

Action Fraud were responsible for recording fraud and computer misuse offences related to data in this bulletin. However, a new fraud and cybercrime reporting system, Report Fraud, was launched on 4 December 2025 and aims to improve the quality, consistency and transparency of fraud and cybercrime data. Therefore, we will no longer refer to Action Fraud in subsequent bulletins.

For more information on police recorded crime, please see Section 3 of our User guide to crime statistics for England and Wales: March 2025.

Further quality and methodology information is available in our Crime in England and Wales Quality and Methodology Information (QMI) report.