FOI 25533

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FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: HRC0025533

I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 13^th August 2026. Please find below the response to your request:

Information Requested: Time periods requested:
• 1 January–31 December 2020
• 1 January–31 December 2021
• 1 January–31 December 2022
• 1 January–31 December 2023
• 1 January–31 December 2024
• 1 January–31 December 2025
• 1 January–30 June 2026
Dealing with complaints about racism.
As part of this FOI request, I need some context.
Forces often record racism complaints under different categories. Some use “hate
crime”. Some use “racially aggravated incident”. Some use “discrimination complaint”.
Some use “conduct matter”.
Please explain how your force identifies and records racism complaints in your
systems, including any keywords, categories or flags used.
Now to the substantive part of my request. When considering it, please provide the total
number of recorded crimes and non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs) which feature a
‘racial’ hate marker or flag.
1. Complaint volumesFor each of the above calendar years, please provide:
• The total number of complaints to your force alleging racism by
members of the public about the public.
2. Complainant demographics
For each complaint recorded in each year, please provide the following fields
(anonymised):
2a. Ethnicity of the complainant (as recorded) e.g., White, Black, Asian or
whichever ethnic groups you record your data.
2b. Age of the complainant (at time of complaint). I’m happy if you put these into
groups to avoid problems with GDPR e.g., < 10; 10-17; 18-30; 31-50; 51-70; 71-90; >
90.
2c. Gender of the complainant (as recorded).
3. Suspect demographics
For each complaint recorded in each year, please provide:
3a. Ethnicity of the suspect (as recorded – see Q2).
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Gmail - FOI July 1st
12/08/2026, 20:07
3b. Age of the suspect (at time of incident or complaint – see Q2).
3c. Gender of the suspect (as recorded).
4. Outcomes
For each complaint recorded in each year, please provide:
4a. Outcome of the complaint, including (but not limited to):
• Arrest• Charge
• Community resolution
• No Further Action (NFA)
• Withdrawn
• Any other outcome category used by your force
5. Data format
Please make sure that you provide the data in the same format for each separate
year.
• 1 January–31 December 2020
• 1 January–31 December 2021
• 1 January–31 December 2022
• 1 January–31 December 2023
• 1 January–31 December 2024
• 1 January–31 December 2025
• 1 January–30 June 2026
5a. Please provide the data in an excel spreadsheet.
5b. If it is easier for you, simply give me the raw data so I can create my own pivot
tables or filter the data.
6. Please provide any documents you have which have policies officers must
follow when dealing with racial incidents.

Reply

Your request for information has been considered in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“the Act”), and I am not obliged to provide the information requested.

S.12(1) of the Act states that a public authority is not obliged to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the “appropriate limit”. For police forces in England and Wales, the "appropriate limit" is £450 or 18 hours of work as set by the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.

The information you have requested is not available in a readily retrievable format. We are currently unable to identify hate markers from the custody system so unable to provide the arrest data. Hate markers are a secondary element recorded as free text. The primary offence could be something like Assault. There are over 8000 records. In order to ascertain whether the information you have requested is held would take in excess of 18 hours as each record would have to be checked individually.

In accordance with s.17(5) of the Act, this acts as a Refusal Notice.

However, In accordance with Section 16 of the Act I have a duty to provide advice and assistance in relation to your request and can provide some of the information as this was retrieved during our initial research. This should not be taken as a precedent that additional information would be supplied outside of the time/fees legislation for any subsequent requests

All crimes marked as aggrevated by Racially Hatred by outcome of investigation	Calender Year						1 Jan - 30 Jun 2026	Grand Total
	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	1 Jan - 30 Jun 2026	Grand Total
Type 1 - Charged/Summonsed/Postal Requisition	95	113	112	105	119	156	34	734
Type 1A - Charged/Summons - alternate offence. Offender has been charged under the alternate offence rule.	23	27	27	17	24	22	6	146
Type 2 - Caution Youth	3	5			5	2		15
Type 2A - Caution Youth - alternate offence. Offender is a juvenile and has been given a youth caution under the alternate offences rule.		1	1					2
Type 3 - Caution Adult	11	18	13	6	3	5	2	58
Type 3A - Caution Adult - alternate offence. Offender has been given a simple caution under the alternate offences rule.	5	3	2	1				11
Adult Caution - conditional					1	1		2
Type 5 - Offender has died					1	1		2
Type 8 - Community resolution (Crime)	9	6	4	14	23	22	11	89
Type 9 - Prosecution Not In the Public Interest (CPS)		2	3	1	1	1		8
Type 10 - Formal Action Against Offender is not in the Public Interest (Police)	1	1	1			1		4
Type 11 - Prosecution Prevented-Named Suspect Identified But Is Below The Age Of Criminal Responsibility	5	23	11	10	7	15	4	75
Type 12 - Prosecution Prevented-Named Suspect Identified But Is Too Ill (Physical Or Mental Health) To Prosecute, or confirmed died either before crime reported or before enough evidence to charge	7	11	3	11	9	12	8	61
Type 13 - Prosecution Prevented-Named Suspect Identified But Victim Or Key Witness Is Dead Or Too Ill To Give Evidence	1		1	2	1	1		6
Type 14 - Evidential Difficulties Victim Based- Suspect Not Identified: Crime Confirmed But The Victim Either Declines Or Unable To Support Further Police Investigation To Identify The Offender	120	175	162	117	95	170	61	900
Type 15 - Named Suspect Identified: Victim Supports Police Action But Evidential Difficulties Prevent Further Action	202	263	348	275	282	271	79	1720
Type 16 - Named Suspect Identified: Evidential Difficulties Prevent Further Action: Victim Does Not Support (Or Has Withdrawn Support From) Police Action	377	521	434	335	368	395	178	2608
Type 17 - Prosecution Time Limit Expired: Suspect Identified But Prosecution Time Limit Has Expired	4	9	4	10	7	8		42
Type 18 - Investigation Complete; No Suspect Identified. Crime Investigated As Far As Reasonably Possible-Case Closed Pending Further Investigative Opportunities Becoming Available	158	236	244	254	245	273	111	1521
Type 20 - Further action resulting from the crime report will be undertaken by another body or agency subject to the victim (or person acting on their behalf) being made aware of the act to be taken	18	16	10	2	7	11	11	75
Type 21 - Further investigation resulting from crime report which could provide evidence sufficient to support formal action against the suspect is not in the public interest - police decision.	3		2		2			7
Type 22 - Diversionary, educational or intervention activity, resulting from the crime report, has been undertaken and it is not in the public interest to take any further action.	6	25	21	12	11	18	2	95
Ongoing Investigation	1	1		1		13	90	106
Grand Total	1049	1456	1403	1173	1211	1398	597	8287


Number of Non Crime Hate incidents	Calender Year						1 Jan - 30 Jun 2026	Grand Total
Number of Non Crime Hate incidents	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	1 Jan - 30 Jun 2026	Grand Total
NON-CRIME	183	197	154	104	73	67	45	823


Officer Defined ethnicty of victims linked to crimes marked as aggrevated by Racially Hatred	Calender Year						1 Jan - 30 Jun 2026	Grand Total
	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	1 Jan - 30 Jun 2026	Grand Total
Arabic Or North African	14	38	21	29	26	38	18	184
Asian	169	259	270	234	242	301	142	1617
Black	122	220	222	190	221	220	85	1280
Chinese, Japanese, Or Any Other South East Asian	12	10	15	16	17	16	10	96
Unknown	61	111	169	143	151	154	83	872
White - North European	298	479	464	363	343	392	143	2482
White - South European	18	34	46	23	14	25	12	172
Not Recorded	307	224	135	95	103	103	47	1014
Grand Total	1001	1375	1342	1093	1117	1249	540	7717


Gender & age range of victims linked to crimes marked as aggrevated by Racially Hatred	Calender Year						1 Jan - 30 Jun 2026	Grand Total
	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	1 Jan - 30 Jun 2026	Grand Total
Female	415	528	562	463	449	500	207	3124
9 & Under	4	16	12	12	10	12	2	68
10 to 17	41	79	105	76	62	69	38	470
18 to 30	123	140	134	104	118	104	46	769
31 to 50	195	218	246	213	202	247	93	1414
51 to 70	49	74	60	50	55	62	26	376
71 to 90	3	1	5	8	2	6	2	27
Male	566	837	770	622	640	710	308	4453
9 & Under	16	33	37	10	13	20	6	135
10 to 17	67	112	125	80	85	75	38	582
18 to 30	128	193	167	157	150	174	78	1047
31 to 50	287	373	331	288	301	326	153	2059
51 to 70	61	123	104	80	85	111	32	596
71 to 90	7	3	6	7	6	4	1	34
Not Recorded	20	10	10	8	28	39	25	140
9 & Under			1			2	1	4
10 to 17	3		2		6	6	1	18
18 to 30	3	3	4	1	7	13	6	37
31 to 50	9	3	2	5	12	16	14	61
51 to 70	5	4	1	2	3	1	3	19
71 to 90						1		1
Grand Total	1001	1375	1342	1093	1117	1249	540	7717


Officer Defined ethnicty of suspects linked to crimes marked as aggrevated by Racially Hatred	Calender Year						1 Jan - 30 Jun 2026	Grand Total
	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	1 Jan - 30 Jun 2026	Grand Total
Arabic Or North African			4	3	2	5	3	17
Asian	27	48	27	31	28	23	16	200
Black	31	22	37	27	42	37	7	203
Chinese, Japanese, Or Any Other South East Asian						1		1
Unknown	46	37	59	45	82	72	39	380
White - North European	593	863	805	686	725	814	320	4806
White - South European	9	6	8	7	14	10	1	55
Not Recorded	135	127	82	59	69	41	18	531
Grand Total	841	1103	1022	858	962	1003	404	6193


Gender & age range of suspects linked to crimes marked as aggrevated by Racially Hatred	Calender Year						1 Jan - 30 Jun 2026	Grand Total
	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	1 Jan - 30 Jun 2026	Grand Total
Female	274	329	297	276	315	291	109	1891
9 & Under	5	14	2	7		5		33
10 to 17	48	76	62	51	55	61	31	384
18 to 30	82	73	67	58	73	62	27	442
31 to 50	87	93	125	105	121	120	39	690
51 to 70	41	64	36	48	57	40	11	297
71 to 90	11	9	5	7	9	3	1	45
Male	563	770	719	572	643	701	291	4259
9 & Under	15	20	27	9	13	19	4	107
10 to 17	115	171	183	134	182	153	69	1007
18 to 30	137	167	146	102	122	145	68	887
31 to 50	192	268	267	228	217	248	101	1521
51 to 70	86	126	84	86	89	112	43	626
71 to 90	18	18	12	13	20	24	6	111
Not Recorded	4	4	6	10	4	11	4	43
9 & Under						1		1
10 to 17		1	3	6	1	2		13
18 to 30	1	1		1	2	1	1	7
31 to 50	2	1	2	2	1	6	3	17
51 to 70	1	1	1	1		1		5
Grand Total	841	1103	1022	858	962	1003	404	6193

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FOI 25533