No-one charged in 9 out of 10 crimes - Home Office
Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2018 6:18 pm
Only 9% of crimes end with suspects being charged or summonsed in England and Wales, Home Office figures suggest
In the 12 months to March, 443,000 crimes resulted in a charge or summons out of 4.6 million offences - the lowest detection rate since 2015.
Data also shows police closed nearly half (48%) of all cases because no suspect could be identified.
It comes as new figures show the number of homicides has increased for the fourth year running.
The Home Office statistics on crime outcomes are published at the same time as quarterly crime figures and the Crime Survey for England and Wales, which is based on people's experiences of crime.
The changing picture of how successfully police are catching criminals comes against a backdrop of rising crime.
Overall, crimes recorded by police went up 11% in the year to March, figures published by the Office for National Statistics suggested.
The Home Office said that along with a growing caseload, there was evidence to suggest that more recorded crimes were in the most challenging offence types to investigate.
It gives the example of sexual offences - up 24% on last year - giving officers a bigger workload and becoming more complex.
Rape cases take an average of 129 days to solve compared with, for example, two days for theft or criminal damage.
The Home Office figures show a continuing downward trend since 2015 in the proportion of cases police have resolved, falling from 15 to 9%.
They also showed a fall in the number of cautions and penalty notices served to adults and young people - from about 112,00 in the 12 months to March 2017 down to 88,000 a year later.
Ché Donald, of the Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, said the new figures were proof that policing in the UK was "on the critical list".
"We are sleepwalking into a nightmare," he said.