Trust in policing depends on crime recording – and some forces are falling short

This astonishing figure means every one of us will likely either have been personally affected or know of someone who has sought help from the police as a victim of crime.

At the police inspectorate, the central question our crime data integrity audits seek to answer is, “To what extent can police-recorded crime information be trusted?” Accurate crime recording matters because the police need reliable crime data.

It directly affects the police's ability to protect communities and support victims when they may need it the most. When crimes are recorded quickly and correctly, forces can allocate resources, identify crime patterns, and ensure victims receive appropriate support.

In 2014, when we started our crime data integrity inspection programme, some police forces believed that failing to record a crime didn’t affect the good service they gave to victims. To them, not recording a crime was simply an administrative failure.

But, in too many cases, we have found that the force’s failure to record the crime led to missed opportunities to give the victim appropriate safeguarding and support. When forces didn’t record a crime, it was also less likely that a proper investigation took place.

Over the past decade, we have seen encouraging progress through our inspections, particularly the increase in forces’ awareness and understanding of how to prioritise and accurately record crimes. It is positive to see the way police have taken action to implement our recommendations, and supported by changes to national crime recording rules, forces have significantly improved their performance.

Overall crime recording accuracy has risen from 80.5 per cent in 2014 to 94.8 per cent in 2025 – a substantial improvement that reflects the dedicated efforts of forces across England and Wales.

However, whilst we welcome these improvements, there is still more work to be done. For example, a troubling inconsistency in recording standards remains across different forces. While some have set and achieved high standards, others haven’t made as much progress as we would have liked.

We also found that too many crimes continue to go unrecorded, with an estimated 285,000 last year. It may be the case that forces are not taking sufficient care in checking whether a crime should be recorded, or their own checks aren’t identifying areas where crimes are being missed. While it may be obvious that unrecorded crime is a problem, over-recording crime also matters, as it inflates and distorts police-recorded crime information.

Worryingly, we found that violent crimes remain the least well-recorded crime type. In particular, forces need to improve their recording of less serious assaults and conduct crimes, such as harassment, stalking, and controlling or coercive behaviour. Conduct crimes disproportionately affect women and girls, and account for over a third of unrecorded violent crime.

Even where progress has been made, challenges remain. Although sexual offence recording has improved, we found that forces weren’t always recording unconfirmed reports of rape, also known as N100s, correctly from the outset. Given the very serious nature of rape, forces need to take more care and apply more scrutiny to make sure N100s are being recorded accurately and consistently.

Timing is crucial, too. Forces must record crimes at the earliest opportunity, as delays can mean lost evidence and missed investigative opportunities. However, we often found this was not the case, with an average of 78.1 per cent of all crimes being recorded and classified within 24 hours. Victims expect the police to record crimes without unreasonable delay. This must happen, so lines of enquiry can be followed and victims can quickly access the support they need.

For the public to have trust and confidence in policing, they need to know that when they report a crime, the police will record it accurately and in a timely way. Forces have made a marked improvement in how they record crime, but it’s vital that progress continues and standards are maintained.

Today’s report includes new recommendations that apply to all police forces in England and Wales, focusing on the accuracy, timeliness, and scrutiny of forces’ crime recording. They must be acted upon.

As the inspectorate, we will continue to monitor the performance of forces in this key area of policing. The public deserves nothing less than consistently high standards of crime recording across all forces, and we remain committed to ensuring they receive the service they rightfully expect.

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Roy Wilsher OBE QFSM is HM Inspector of Constabulary and HM Inspector of Fire & Rescue Services.

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