John Wilkins to Ed Humpherson: Request to remove Accredited Official Statistics status from Roads Policing Statistics

Dear Ed,

Request to remove Accredited Official Statistics status from Roads Policing Statistics

I am writing to request the cancellation of Accredited Official Statistics status for the “Police Powers and Procedures: Roads Policing” statistical series. I propose that the release should instead be designated as Official Statistics in Development.

Historically, statistics on roads policing were published as a relatively small component of the wider “Police Powers and Procedures, England and Wales” publication, which covered a range of policing topics including arrests, stop and search, and other powers under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE). The wider publication was last fully assessed and designated as National Statistics (now Accredited Official Statistics) in 2016, with subsequent compliance reviews in 2020 and 2024 focused on the arrests and stop and search elements of the series.

Since the original designation, both the presentation of the statistics and our department’s understanding of the underlying data have changed. Most significantly, while Roads Policing statistics remain part of the wider “Police Powers and Procedures” series, they are now published as a standalone release, with its own users, sources and quality considerations. Closer work with data providers has highlighted limitations in completeness and consistency, including concerns about PentiP extracts as forces adopt alternative processes for motoring offences, variation in local systems and recording practices, and reduced comparability over time for some measures, particularly roadside breath tests.

In light of this updated understanding, I do not consider it appropriate for the standalone release to retain Accredited Official Statistics status. Official Statistics in Development would more transparently reflect the series current strengths and limitations while improvement work continues. This request applies only to Roads Policing and does not change my assessment of the wider “Police Powers and Procedures, England and Wales” series.

While Home Office statisticians have not identified a clear step change in data quality that would justify selecting a specific point at which concerns arose, a combination of factors, including our improved understanding of the data and the quality issues identified through more recent analysis, has led me to conclude that it is appropriate to remove the Accredited Official Statistics designation from the point at which the series began to be published as a standalone output, the year ending March 2023 release (published in December 2024).

I propose that Home Office statisticians aim to make this change in status clear to users in future publications, explaining that the accreditation has been withdrawn while further work is undertaken to address the identified issues and strengthen assurance of the data. Limitations and caveats relating to the collection are already transparently reported where relevant.

The Home Office will continue to work with police forces, system suppliers, the Department for Transport and the National Police Chiefs’ Council to improve data quality and assurance. Once sufficient progress has been made, we will consider inviting OSR to assess the statistics for reaccreditation.

I would be grateful if OSR could consider this request and advise on any further steps needed to cancel the Accredited Official Statistics status of this release.

Yours sincerely,

John Wilkins

Chief Statistician, Home Office