FOI ref: FOI-2023-1071
You asked
Please could you tell me:
- How much has it cost to assemble the "Crime in England & Wales - year ending 2022 (published 27 April 2023).
- Is it a deliberate or unwitting decision by the ONS to strip these statistics of their sex specificity?
- Why is the UK Ministry of Justice Offender Management Statistics - Quarterly generated by MOJ statisticians not being used in the assembly of the ONS Crime Reports?
- Why is the ONS depriving the female population of scientifically derived statistics with which to protect ourselves?
- When do you plan to fix the Crime in England & Wales - ending 2022, in order to ensure that the actual data that actually exists is framed into exemplar statistical statements that anyone can use.
We said
Thank you for your request. Please see the following answers to your questions.
1. The value of the contract to run the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) can be found on the Government contracts finder site. The contract was originally contracted for four years with deliverables required over the 6 financial year periods from 1 October 2017 to 30 September 2022. In July 2021 the ONS confirmed it would continue to operate the contract with Kantar for a further two years to 31 March 2024.
This previous Freedom of Information request may also be of use to you as it also includes the annual commercial costs for the survey from 2012/13 to 2020/21. The commercial costs for 2021/22 survey were £5,203,034 (covering the telephone-operated crime survey and the face-to-face survey from October 2021 – March 2022). Crime survey commercial costs for financial year 2022/23 are not yet available as they are currently being finalised before undergoing external audit checks as part of the Annual Report and Accounts process.
2. Our quarterly Crime in England and Wales publications, including the latest one released in April 2023, provide an overview of the latest statistics on crime by topic. The focus of the publications is on the latest trends, with further information, including the characteristics of the victim, being published in topic specific publications later in the year.
The latest data on sexual offences, including a breakdown by sex of the victim where available, are included in our publication Sexual offences in England and Wales overview: year ending March 2022 which was released on 23 March 2023.
3. Our crime publications and data at the ONS focus on crime as it is experienced by victims, or as it is recorded by police. We work closely with the Ministry of Justice on topics of mutual concern and have released a few collaborative publications including a Sexual offending: victimisation and the path through the criminal justice system. This article presents an overview of sexual offending in England and Wales, using a range of National Statistics and official statistics from across the crime and criminal justice system to show each agency’s response to sexual offences. The different data sources included in this article can’t be directly compared.
4. As a public organisation, it is important that our content is understandable and accessible to all users. At the ONS we have a set of standards, which state how written communication should be formatted. Articles are written using a clear, concise style with caveats to the data clearly noted and our tables are made in line with the UK Government Accessibility Regulations which is designed to make it simple for every user, including those with disabilities to find, use and understand content. More information can be found at Style.ONS.
5. ONS publications are produced in line with the “Code of Practice for Official Statistics” including where information needs updating due to a methodology change or a correction; these changes are clearly stated on the relevant webpages. You may be interested in our prototype Violence against women and girls dashboard which is being developed to bring together a breadth of evidence on VAWG, making it easier to access and more usable.
If you have any crime-related queries in the future, please email crimestatistics@ons.gov.uk and we will endeavour to help.