Reported incidents of rape or attempted rape from 2019 to 2023

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.24.037865

I note you seek access to the following information:

1. For either each of the last five complete calendar or business years please provide the numbers of reported incidents of rape or attempted rape you classified as N100.
2. For either each of the last five complete calendar or business years please provide the number of rape and attempted rape crimes cancelled by the service (force) crime registrar.

Clarification -
My understanding is that rape and attempted rape crimes can be cancelled for the following reasons:

Transfer to another force (to investigate) Additional Verifiable Information (AVI) (held to determine that no notifiable crime occurred) Duplicate crime already recorded Recorded in error (by mistake).

Please break down the answer to Q2 to show the number of (i) rapes and (ii) attempted rapes in each cancelled category that you use.

Decision

I have today decided to disclose the located information to you in full.

Please find below information pursuant to your request above.

Please ensure that the data provided in the attached spreadsheet is read in conjunction with the notes page of the spreadsheet to ensure correct interpretation of the data.

Further information:

The Home Office decides and lists what is a notifiable offence and when and how they must be recorded. The data must be recorded in accordance with the Home Office Crime Recording Rules (formerly referred to as the Home Office Counting Rules or HOCR). These rules aim to bring more consistency to the process of creating and maintaining crime records at force level, however following a change in April 2015, there is a requirement to create a report as soon as an incident of rape is logged. Every report opened or closed as a rape will require a crime report. Unless already recorded as a crime, every report of a rape, suspected or possible rape must be taken at face value and recorded, irrespective of the source of the report. This includes reports made by third parties, through partnership working or from other agencies.