Police powers and procedures: Stop and search, arrests and mental health detentions, England and Wales, year ending 31 March 2025

Product Description

Prior to September 2024, the Police powers and procedures statistical bulletin was published as 2 reports. Given the volume and variety of topics covered, a decision has been made to split the release into 3 separate statistical bulletins, with an additional bulletin on police protests powers (totaling 4 bulletins).

This release is the first of the now 4 annual publications on police powers and contains statistics on the use of the powers of stop and search, arrest and detentions under the Mental Health Act by the police in England and Wales, up to the year ending 31 March 2025.

Stop and search statistics contain information from the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales, and the British Transport Police (BTP), including data on the:

• change in the use of stop and search in the years ending March 2024 and March 2025
• number of stop and searches carried out under a range of legislative powers, including; section 1 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) and associated legislation, section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, section 47A (previously section 44) of the Terrorism Act 2000, section 11 of the Public Order Act 2023 and section 342E of the Sentencing Act 2020
• reason for conducting a search
• outcomes following stop and search
• weapons found from stop and search, including new analysis on type of weapon found (that is, bladed article, firearm, other offensive weapon)
• ethnicity, sex and age of persons searched
• analysis of where stop and searches take place within Police Force Areas (also referred to as ‘hotspot analysis’)
• whether force was used in a stop and search
• analysis on the amount of clothing removed from persons searched
• analysis on whether an outcome was linked by ethnic group
• new analysis on stop and searches involving a full strip search, including their location, whether a supervisor was consulted and whether an appropriate adult was present for children being fully strip searched

Arrest statistics contain information from the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales on a financial-year basis, including data on the:

• number of arrests for notifiable offences
• reason for which persons were arrested
• ethnicity, sex and age group of those arrested

Detentions under the Mental Health Act 1983 statistics contain information from the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales, and British Transport Police, on a financial year basis, including data on the:

• number of detentions under sections 135 and 136 of the Mental Health Act 1983
• age-group, sex and ethnicity of persons detained
• type of place of safety used to detain individuals, and the reason for using a police station (where applicable)
• method of transportation used to transport an individual to a place of safety, and the reason for using a police vehicle (where applicable)