FOI release

Communication Offences

Case reference FOI2026/02114

Received 10 October 2026

Published 4 November 2026

Request

Freedom of Information request - communications offences: arrests, interviews and outcomes, 2017-2025 Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please provide the following aggregate information for your force, for each calendar year 2017 to 2025 (or financial year, if that is how the data are held - please say which), separately for each of these offences: (i) Communications Act 2003 s127; (ii) Malicious Communications Act 1988 s1; (iii) Online Safety Act 2023 s179; (iv) Online Safety Act 2023 s181. 1. Number of arrests (arrest events) where the offence was a reason for arrest; and, if readily available, the number of unique individuals arrested. 2. Number of voluntary interviews (interviews under caution without arrest), if recorded. 3. Number of charges or summonses (Home Office outcome type 1), counted by the year the charge was made. 4. Number of crimes resulting in: cautions (outcome types 2-3), community resolutions (8), and no further action (outcome types 9-21 combined is acceptable). 5. Whether any of the above counts are affected by changes in your IT/recording systems (e.g. a records-system migration) or recording procedures during 2017-2025, and if so, when. Definitions: please count arrest events, not crimes; please do not convert arrests into charges or vice versa. If an event involved more than one of the listed offences, please count it under each (and tell me if this applies). If any offence is not separately identifiable in your systems (for example s179/s181 recorded only under the Home Office 8R classification), please say so and provide the closest available breakdown.

Response

See attached

Documents

• 26-02114.xlsx (10.3 KB)

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