Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what data her Department holds on the percentage of possession of weapon investigations which were closed once a charge had been made due to the victim not supporting police actions in each year since 2010.

Protecting victims and improving their experience and the support they receive is a key priority for the Government.

The public rightly expect the police to protect them and ensure those that break the law face justice, and we expect crimes reported to the police to be investigated appropriately.

According to the Crime Survey for England and Wales, the most reliable estimate of crime trends in the UK, since 2010:

• Theft offences is down 47%.
• Robbery is down 70%.
• Theft from a person is down 60%.

The Home Office collects and publishes information on the number of police recorded offences, and their investigative outcomes (including charges and other outcomes). The next publication is due on Thursday 20th July 2023.

Information on the proportion of crimes closed with different outcomes are broken down by offence group are published as part of the ‘Crime outcomes in England and Wales’:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/crime-outcomes-in-england-and-wales-statistics

A new outcomes framework was developed in 2014 and data prior to this is not comparable.