Burglary going unsolved every three minutes in England and Wales, shocking figures show

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Figures from the Home Office show that of the 223,194 burglaries recorded in 2025, just 13,936 (6%) resulted in a charge.

In more than 7 out of 10 cases (72%), police failed to identify a suspect.

The Metropolitan Police recorded the most break-ins (48,244) in 2025, but failed to identify a suspect in 4 out of 5 (79%) of cases - the highest rate of any force in England and Wales.

Overall, the percentage of cases resulting in a charge has dropped from 7.1% in 2020/21, and figures show a significant disparity in the success of forces across England and Wales.

City of London Police brought a charge in 19% of cases, but also had the lowest number of recorded incidents.

Lancashire, Cheshire, South Wales and Northumbria Police all brought a charge in over 10% of cases, while Warwickshire and Wiltshire police managed to do so in less than 3% of callouts.

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“We have a postcode lottery: in some areas, cases are being solved in the 20% area and in others [it’s] as low as 2%,” said the Liberal Democrats’ justice spokesperson, Jess Brown-Fuller.

“It's frankly appalling that the Government has failed to get a grip on this, many will be left worrying that if their property is burgled, the chances are the criminal responsible will never face justice,” she added.

“The PM needs to sort this issue out now with a serious crackdown on burglaries.”

In October 2022, the National Police Chiefs’ Council, which represents the 43 police forces across England and Wales, committed to attend all home burglaries.

However, it is not a statutory requirement, meaning that while forces aim to attend every residential break-in, they are not legally obliged to do so.

Though there is a dearth of official statistics on attendance rates, the Liberal Democrats, who shared the break-in data exclusively with LBC, contend that too often officers fail to attend.

Brown-Fuller says the party could bring forward a Burglary Response Guarantee - emergency legislation which would make attending every home burglary a legal requirement for forces.

“The reason this isn't getting better is that the government is not giving the focus to proper on-the-ground community policing that they need to make sure that when these burglaries happen, people can expect a police officer to show up at their door. But unfortunately, this is not the case,” she said.

To ensure that police have the time to attend every burglary, the Lib Dems argue that a dedicated agency should be established to handle online fraud cases, freeing up officers for “proper neighbourhood policing”.

“What we need to see across the board is taking out that burdensome work around online fraud and putting it in its own agency so that police forces can do what police forces do best, which is proper neighbourhood community policing.”

A spokesperson for the Home Office said: “Burglary is a horrible crime that can leave victims feeling unsafe in their own homes.

“Our major police reforms will allow local forces to focus on neighbourhood crimes like burglary.

“In the year to March 2026, residential burglary in England and Wales was down 7% on the previous 12 months.”