Crimes against the Person
(asked on 8th September 2025) - View Source
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) allegations of non-fatal strangulation have been made that were not proceeded against and (b) cases for that offence were dropped due to evidence deficiencies since 29 April 2021.
The Home Office collects information on the number of investigative outcomes for offences recorded by the police in England and Wales.
From 1st of June 2022, the subcodes ‘008/78 Racially or religiously aggravated non-fatal strangulation or suffocation’ and ‘008/77 non-fatal strangulation or suffocation’ were introduced.
The below table shows the number of these offences and their investigative outcomes.
Table – number of non-fatal strangulation offences2 recorded by the police in England and Wales1 (excluding Humberside police), 1st June 2022 to year ending March 2025, by outcome
Charged/Summonsed | 14,016 |
Out-of-court (formal) | 1,191 |
Out-of-court (informal) | 723 |
Evidential difficulties (suspect identified; victim supports action) | 20,712 |
Evidential difficulties (victim does not support action) | 51,628 |
Prosecution prevented or not in the public interest | 1,258 |
Investigation complete - no suspect identified | 2,912 |
Further action undertaken by another body/agency | 1,932 |
Further investigation resulting from the crime report that could provide evidence sufficient to support formal action being taken against the suspect is not in the public interest - police decision | 450 |
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 | 498 |
Not yet assigned outcome | 5,629 |
Grand Total | 100,949 |
Notes
- Excludes Humberside police who were unable to provide data to the Home Office Data Hub
- Consists of subcodes ‘008/78 Racially or religiously aggravated non-fatal strangulation or suffocation’ and ‘008/77 non-fatal strangulation or suffocation’
- Subcodes 008/78 and 008/77 were introduced from 1st June 2022
The Home Office does not hold information on the number of allegations of non-fatal strangulation.