Three in four burglaries go unsolved in 2023

9 May 2024

EMBARGO: 22:30 Monday 6th May

New analysis of Home Office statistics by the Liberal Democrats has shown that a staggering 215,933 burglaries went unsolved across England and Wales in 2023 - an average of 592 a day.

This accounts for 3 in 4 - or 76% - of all burglary cases. Meanwhile, just 6% of burglaries actually resulted in a suspect being charged.

South Yorkshire was the worst performing police force, where 84% of burglaries went unsolved, totalling 9,492 cases. Surrey followed closely behind, with 82% of burglaries going unsolved.

The overall number of unsolved burglary cases has also risen by 4% in 2023, compared to figures from the previous year.

The Liberal Democrats have slammed the Conservative Government for these figures, arguing that years of ineffective resourcing has left local police forces overstretched and unable to focus on frontline crime like burglaries. This includes taking over 4,500 Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) off the streets since 2015.

The party is calling for a new “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.

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

“It is disgraceful that the vast majority of burglaries are still going unsolved.

“Everyone deserves to feel safe in their own homes, but the Conservatives have once again failed to get a handle on the basics of solving crime.

“The British people are crying out for change. The Home Secretary must implement our Burglary Response Guarantee, so that every burglary is responded to and properly investigated.”

ENDS

Notes to Editor:

Full data, broken down by police force, is available here. Source: Home Office, Police recorded crime outcomes open data tables.

Data on PCSO workforces is available at: Home Office, ‘Police workforce, England and Wales, 30 September 2023: data tables’, Table 3.

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

To implement this guarantee, Liberal Democrats 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.