Dear Jen,

Review of the quality of police recorded crime statistics for England and Wales

Today we published our review of the quality of police recorded crime statistics for England and Wales, produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

I would like to thank your team for its positive engagement throughout the review and for your ongoing commitment to improving these statistics.

Overall, we found that police forces have made significant improvements to crime recording since 2014. This has given us greater confidence in the quality of the police recorded crime data.

We identified a range of strengths regarding ONS’s processes. You publish clear information on the quality of the police recorded crime statistics which helps users understand many aspects of quality. It is good that you evaluate the consistency and comparability of police recorded crime statistics with other crime statistics, including the Crime Survey for England and Wales statistics.

To improve the quality of the police recorded crime statistics, you need to better communicate all aspects of the quality of the statistics and data quality improvement initiatives to users. Our report makes three recommendations for improving communication, including expanding quality information to cover police forces’ quality assurance arrangements, and better explaining the data quality framework that you use to assess the reliability of police recorded crime statistics for different offence types. Our report also calls for greater collaboration with the Home Office and HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services to support quality improvements.

You and the Home Office should work together to develop an action plan that sets out how you are going to address the recommendations in our report. These recommendations are what we deem as critical to address before we undertake a reassessment of compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics. The action plan should be published by early 2025.

We look forward to continuing to work with you and your team as you implement these improvements.

Yours sincerely,

Ed Humpherson