[holding answer 10 December 2007]: The statistics provided in the previous answer related to all racially or religiously aggravated offences recorded by the police. The police data (i.e. offences recorded) are based on the number of crimes recorded in each financial year. Convictions data are based on the number of offender convictions and are published on a calendar year basis. Convictions figures are counts of offenders classified by their principal offence. For these reasons the two datasets are not directly comparable.
Information on the number of defendants found guilty at all courts for racially aggravated violence offences has been provided in the following table.
Police force area 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Avon and Somerset 45 69 80 98 107 Bedfordshire 12 24 20 32 42 Cambridgeshire 32 24 38 50 56 Cheshire 29 42 52 66 92 City of London 3 10 7 12 13 Cleveland 9 24 41 46 67 Cumbria 13 19 28 40 46 Derbyshire 40 48 58 75 79 Devon and Cornwall 27 65 60 66 92 Dorset 12 14 23 28 46 Durham 23 30 43 59 65 Essex 19 23 51 92 108 Gloucestershire 22 21 34 25 44 Greater Manchester 180 261 298 367 444 Hampshire 88 96 139 162 167 Hertfordshire 32 37 45 59 117 Humberside 30 58 53 64 56 Kent 10 16 7 15 12 Lancashire 106 143 168 198 295 Leicestershire 77 106 100 147 149 Lincolnshire 12 19 26 35 39 Merseyside 48 72 102 110 162 Metropolitan Police 440 503 642 764 880 Norfolk 19 32 43 47 54 North Yorkshire 16 16 30 36 52 Northamptonshire 3 5 4 10 4 Northumbria 86 106 112 129 135 Nottinghamshire 71 82 95 107 108 South Yorkshire 50 54 56 64 114 Staffordshire 57 62 68 56 77 Suffolk 20 24 40 39 58 Surrey 5 14 25 40 61 Sussex 35 57 58 73 121 Thames Valley 49 69 69 86 137 Warwickshire 27 16 20 38 91 West Mercia 52 75 81 94 126 West Midlands 229 257 319 309 371 West Yorkshire 97 109 149 174 176 Wiltshire 18 28 22 38 45 Dyfed-Powys 26 29 19 17 32 Gwent 31 25 29 30 53 North Wales 10 34 37 50 75 South Wales 62 79 121 113 98 Total 2,272 2,897 3,512 4,160 5,166 1 These data are provided on the principal offence basis. 2 Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the police forces and courts. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. Source: RDS—Court proceedings database—Office for Criminal Justice Reform—Ministry of Justice