FOI 444266
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 444266
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 24th November 2025. Please find below the response to your request:
please provide the following recorded crime statistics held in your force's databases for the period 1 January 2010 - 31 December 2024 (or latest available):
1. Crimes recorded at Christian places of worship
Please provide the number of recorded crimes where the premises type / location category is recorded or coded as:
Church
Chapel
Christian place of worship
Churchyard / graveyard associated with a church
Please provide totals broken down by calendar year.
If your force uses alternative terms or codes for churches, please use your own premises-type code and specify the term used.
2. Total crimes recorded (all premises types)
For the same period, please provide the total number of crimes recorded at all premises types, by calendar year.
(This allows for proportional comparison.)
3. Recording practice clarification
If your force does not record premises type in a searchable field, please confirm:
whether premises type is stored in any structured field,
whether it is searchable,
the earliest date from which it becomes searchable (if applicable).
Reply
West Mercia Police have conducted searches and can provide the information requested.
1. Crimes recorded at Christian places of worship
Please provide the number of recorded crimes where the premises type / location category is recorded or coded as:
Church
Chapel
Christian place of worship
Churchyard / graveyard associated with a church
Please provide totals broken down by calendar year.
If your force uses alternative terms or codes for churches, please use your own premises-type code and specify the term used.
- Number of offences with a Premises Type category recorded as 'Church/Place of Worship'
|
Calendar Year |
Number of offences |
|
2019 |
113 |
|
2020 |
46 |
|
2021 |
57 |
|
2022 |
87 |
|
2023 |
47 |
|
2024 |
42 |
|
Grand Total |
392 |
Caveat: Searches returned 392 unique offences where the Location Premises Type field had been entered as ‘Church/Place of Worship’. The terms ‘chapel’, ‘churchyard’ or ‘graveyard’ are not listed choices in this field. It should be noted, the use of the category ‘Church/Place of worship’ in Location premises Type field is not exclusive to the Christian faith. This category is used for all places of worship regardless of faith.
Unfortunately, as Location Premises Type is not a mandatory field, it is not always used and, as such, cannot be relied upon to return accurate results. Therefore, a separate search was run to include, the following keywords: Location Premises Name (matches pattern): church, chapel, churchyard, church yard, graveyard, graveyard (and all case variations thereof).
This brought back a further 1,239 offences in addition to the 392 original offences (1,631 offences in total). However, these results also include those premises with church or chapel in the name but not necessarily related to a Christian place of worship (ie. church halls, church/chapel in residential/business building names, and Church of England affiliated schools). We are unable to check that these are relevant to the request without a manual review which would exceed the fees limit.
2. Total crimes recorded (all premises types)
For the same period, please provide the total number of crimes recorded at all premises types, by calendar year.
(This allows for proportional comparison.)
- Number of offences with a Premises Type category recorded
|
Recorded Premises Type |
Calendar Year |
Grand Total |
|||||
|
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
||
|
Premises type recorded |
21105 |
15293 |
14713 |
16537 |
15321 |
13583 |
96552 |
|
Premises type not recorded |
67171 |
60981 |
66299 |
78358 |
73839 |
67185 |
413833 |
|
Grand Total |
88,276 |
76,274 |
81,012 |
94,895 |
89,160 |
80,768 |
510,385 |
3. Recording practice clarification
If your force does not record premises type in a searchable field, please confirm:
whether premises type is stored in any structured field,
whether it is searchable,
the earliest date from which it becomes searchable (if applicable).
Our crime recording system does include a premises type field (Location Premises Type), providing a list of categories to choose from for data entry, and as such, a field with categories to search on. However, because this is not a mandatory field, it is not always used and cannot be relied upon to provide accurate results. Given these constraints, the location/premises names can be used to search on (using a keyword search) but this will bring back false positives which would require manual review.