Four in five burglaries still going unattended by police in some areas

22 Apr 2024

EMBARGO: 22.30 Monday 22nd April

Four in five domestic burglaries went unattended by police in some areas last year, despite a promise to attend all of them, an investigation by the Liberal Democrats has revealed.

The party said it showed the Conservative government was making yet more “empty promises” on crime and letting burglars and other criminals off the hook.

The figures were revealed through a series of Freedom of Information requests by the Liberal Democrats to all police forces in England, with 24 forces providing full responses.They show that 25,938 domestic burglaries went unattended by police across England and Wales in 2023 - accounting for 20% of all cases recorded.

This is despite a claim from the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) last June that all domestic burglaries were being attended by police. Former Conservative Home Secretary Suella Braverman welcomed the claim at the time, saying she was delighted that police had “fulfilled their commitment to attend all domestic burglaries.”

Bedfordshire had the worst record, with a shocking four in five (77%) domestic burglaries still going unattended by a police officer in 2023. A total of 1,205 Bedfordshire burglaries went unattended by police in this time period, compared to just 368 incidents in which an officer attended the scene.

Avon & Somerset saw two in three (67%) domestic burglaries going unattended in 2023, followed by Surrey with 63% going unattended. Even at Wiltshire Police, the best performing force, 6% of domestic burglaries last year still went unattended by a police officer.

The latest Home Office statistics show that three in four burglaries went unsolved in the year ending September 2023, or 213,814 burglaries over that period.

The Liberal Democrats are calling for a legal Burglary Response Guarantee under which all domestic burglaries would be attended by the police and properly investigated. This would be accompanied by a return to proper community policing, where officers are visible, trusted and focused on tackling neighbourhood crime like burglaries.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Alistair Carmichael MP said:

“This is yet another empty promise from Conservative ministers, with local communities left paying the price as hundreds of burglaries a day go unsolved.

“Burglaries are an appalling and intrusive crime that can leave people feeling unsafe in their own homes. The ongoing failure to investigate and attend every burglary is letting criminals off the hook while victims are abandoned and let down.

“The Liberal Democrats would bring in a legal guarantee to ensure burglary victims are visited by a police officer and their cases properly investigated. It is the very least that the public expects and deserves.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

This data was uncovered by a FOI to all 39 police forces in England. Their responses, which can be accessed here, provided the following data:

How many incidents of domestic burglary have been reported to your force in the past three calendar years: 2021, 2022 and 2023
A breakdown of how many of these reports led to a police officer visiting the scene of the incident, also broken down by calendar year.

Data on burglary outcomes, broken down by police force, is available here. Source: Home Office, Crime Outcomes in England and Wales, year to September 2023.

Then-Home Secretary Suella Braverman confirmed that police chiefs were “fulfill[ing]” their pledge to attend every home burglary in June 2023. More details can be found here.

The Liberal Democrats are calling for a new statutory guarantee that all domestic burglaries must be attended by the police and properly investigated.

To implement this guarantee, we are calling on the Government to:

Return to proper community policing, where officers have the time and resources they need to focus on preventing and solving crime;
Urgently draw up a strategy to tackle the shortage of detectives; and
Set up a new national Online Crime Agency, to better protect people from online crime while freeing up local forces’ time to tackle burglars.