The arrests data held by the Ministry of Justice only provide information on persons arrested for recorded crime (notifiable offences) by age group, gender, ethnicity and main offence group. Aggregated data, collected centrally from the 43 police force areas in England and Wales, do not record the circumstances of the offence leading to an arrest.
The annual publication ‘Arrests for Recorded Crime (Notifiable Offences) and the Operation of Certain Police Powers under PACE, England and Wales’ can be found on the Home Office website at:
www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs05/hasb2105.pdf.