Friday 27th March 2009

Dear Mr Charlesworth,

FOI Reference No: FOI-20093/30266

I write in connection with your request for information dated 9th March 2009 and listed below. Your request for information has now been considered and the information asked for under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 is as follows:

Please could you confirm how many reported crimes there were (reported by the public and West Yorkshire Police), for each year 2001 to 2008 inclusive. I do not require a breakdown of types or months, just an annual figure for each year. Please also could you provide me with data on how many remain unsolved in each year.

Please see the attached excel spreadsheet in response to your question. Please note that Home Office Counting rules were altered in April 2007 so that a crime can only be termed `detected' if finalised with a `sanction' detection (definition as below) and not a `non -sanction' (definition as below) detection. In order to assist in making the information more comprehensive, we have included further data in relation to `total crime detections' and `sanction detections'.

Sanction detections

- Charge / Summons

- Caution / Reprimand / Warning

- Taken Into Consideration

- Penalty Notice for Disorder

- Warning for Cannabis Possession

Non-sanction detections

The following detection methods were counted for all offences up to March

2007, but are only counted for 'indictable only' offences from April 2007:

- Offender dies before proceedings

- Crown Prosecution Service decides not to prosecute

The following detection methods were counted for all offences up to March

2007, but are no longer counted from April 2007:

- Offender too ill / senile / mentally disturbed for proceedings

- Complainant or essential witness dead

- Complainant or essential witness refuses / unable to give evidence

- Crime committed by child under age of criminal responsibility

- No useful purpose served by proceeding

- Designated Decision Maker authorised detection on basis that time limit for prosecution has expired.

More information is available on the Home Office Counting Rules site:

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/countrules.html

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you would like to discuss the request further.

Police forces providing information do not use generic systems, nor are the procedures used for capturing the data the same. It should be noted that for these reasons this forces response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other response you may receive.

COMPLAINT RIGHTS

If you are not satisfied with how this request has been handled or with the information provided, please read the advice notice attached to this letter. If you do wish to take up your right of complaint, please remember to quote the reference number above in any future correspondence.

Yours sincerely

Claire Vickers-Pearson

Freedom of Information Project Officer

pp Steven Harding

Head of Information Management

The West Yorkshire Police in complying with their statutory duty under sections 1 and 11 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to release the enclosed information will not breach the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. However, the rights of the copyright owner of the enclosed information will continue to be protected by law.  Applications for the copyright owner's written permission to reproduce any part of the attached information should be addressed to The Force Solicitor, West Yorkshire Police Headquarters, PO Box 9, Laburnum Road, Wakefield WF1 3QP.