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Home Office · Crime outcomes in England and Wales

Charge rate

Year ending March 2026 Final

8.5%

Charge rate was 8.5% in the year ending March 2026, up 1.2 percentage points from 7.3% in the year ending March 2025.

▲ +1.2 percentage points against Year ending March 2025 (year on year)

  1. Home Office percentage
  2. Year ending March 2026
  3. published 23 July 2026
  4. Table 1.1
  5. row “Charged/Summonsed”
  6. column “Proportion of offences recorded in period: Year toMarch 2026 (as first published in July 2026) [note 9][note 10]”
  7. cell value 0.08548152673062204

Year ending March 2024 to Year ending March 2026

Charge rate: Year ending March 2024 to Year ending March 2026ConservativeLabourLabour0%2.5%5%7.5%202420252026Year ending March 2024: 6.4% percent · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2025: 7.3% percent · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2026: 8.5% percent · published 23 July 2026
Published valueProvisional or revisedLatestShaded bands: governments (see labels)Hover or use arrow keys to read a value

Breakdowns

What this measures

The percentage of offences recorded by the police in England and Wales in the year to March that had resulted in a charge or summons when the year's outcomes were first published.

People often confuse this with

Arrest ≠ ConvictionAn arrest is a police power used on suspicion. A conviction is a court finding of guilt. Most arrests do not lead to a charge, and arrests are counted by the Home Office while convictions are counted by the Ministry of Justice on a different basis and timescale.

What this doesn’t measure

Convictions, outcomes assigned after first publication, outcomes for offences recorded in earlier years, or cautions and other out-of-court disposals.

Important caveat

The charge rate is the proportion of offences recorded by the police in the year to March that had been assigned a charge or summons outcome at the time the year's figures were first published. Many offences recorded late in the year had not yet been assigned any outcome, and outcomes assigned later are not added back to these figures. Police recorded crime data are not designated as accredited official statistics, and the rate is affected by recording practice as well as by what the police and prosecutors do.

Revision history

No period of this series has been revised since it was first ingested here. Revisions are recorded automatically when a later release publishes a different figure for the same period.

Source

Publisher
Home Office
Publication
Crime outcomes in England and Wales
Release
Year ending March 2026, published 23 July 2026
Source file
outcomes-mar26-tables.ods
File SHA-256
ddbe454ad864e5fb44b342ca1c1cb5a1f28e5a9125409e06f0754bff54568ca3
Retrieved
2 September 2026
Sheet
Table_1_1
Table
Table 1.1
Row
Charged/Summonsed
Column
Proportion of offences recorded in period: Year toMarch 2026 (as first published in July 2026) [note 9][note 10]
Cell value
0.08548152673062204 (× 100 = 8.5% percent)
Geography
England and Wales
Unit
percent
API
/api/metrics/charge_rate · /series · /vintages

Government periods

Change during each government, from the level inherited to the last complete period before it left office. Describes the period; does not attribute cause.

Labour 2024–6.4%Year ending March 20248.5%Year ending March 2026↑ 32.7%

Full comparison with chart

Release
Year ending March 2026 · publication page
Last updated
23 July 2026
Next release expected
July 2027 (estimated from the usual cadence)