Police Powers and Procedures: Arrests, Stops, and Motoring Offences

Police powers and procedures statistics from the UK Home Office cover arrests for notifiable offences, stops and searches under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE), breath tests, and police action on motoring offences. The data is presented on both financial year and calendar year bases, depending on the specific power. This dataset, designated as National Statistics, provides a unified view of police operational activities over time.

Use Cases

• Analyzing trends in stop-and-search rates based on financial year data
• Evaluating the impact of motoring laws by studying breath test and fixed penalty notice statistics on a calendar year basis
• Tracking annual changes in arrest volumes for notifiable offences
• Comparing the application of different police powers, such as PACE searches versus vehicle defect notices

Strengths

• Designated as National Statistics by the UK Home Office, indicating official status and quality assurance
• Provides multi-year time-series data for longitudinal analysis
• Cross-platform presence on uk_data suggests established importance and official dissemination

Limitations

• Column names and specific data structure are not provided in the available metadata
• Exact row counts and dataset size are unknown, limiting assessment of scale
• The 'last updated' date of 2026-07-08 appears to be a future date, indicating a potential metadata error

Provenance

Source

Home Office (UK government department)

Collection Method

Administrative data collection from police forces in England and Wales, likely compiled for official statistics.

Freshness

Last updated metadata indicates 2026-07-08, but this is a future date and likely erroneous.

Geography

United Kingdom (likely England and Wales, as per Home Office remit)