FOI reference: FOI-2026-3678
You asked
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I would like to request the following information in relation to these two articles:
"Hertfordshire ranked best in the country on two key measures of public confidence in policing", published on 27 July 2026 on the Hertfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner's website.
"Cambridgeshire Police ranked 'most trusted' force in England amid rising homicide rates" published on 22 July 2026 by Cambridgeshire Live.
The article states that Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire were ranked highest in England and Wales on measures of public confidence in policing, based on findings from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW).
I would like to know:
How many Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire residents completed the survey from which these results were derived.
The sample size used for the Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire results for:
- The percentage of residents who believe their local police do an excellent or good job; and
- The percentage of residents who believe the police are dealing with the crime and anti-social behaviour issues that matter in their local area.
- The percentage of residents who believe that police in this area can be trusted.
How participants were recruited or selected to take part in the survey, including whether recruitment was undertaken through random household selection, email invitations, social media advertising, telephone contact, face-to-face interviews, or any other method.
If held, any information relating to the margin of error, confidence intervals, weighting methodology, or statistical reliability of the Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire results.
If your office does not hold this information directly, please advise which organisation holds the information and whether it was obtained from the Office for National Statistics or another body.
We said
Thank you for your question relating to public confidence in the police in Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire.
We publish Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimates on public perceptions of the police in our user requested data table Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimates of personal and household crime, anti-social behaviour, and public perceptions, by police force area. These data are not published in our regular statistical outputs as police force area estimates from the CSEW are based on small sample sizes and are less robust than national estimates and therefore should be treated with caution. This explanation of caution is given in the description of the data tables.
The unweighted base (the number of survey respondents interviewed for a particular survey question) for the estimates requested can be found in Tables 1, 2a and 2b. For example, in Table 2a, the unweighted base for the question asking whether the police are doing a good or excellent job in their local area was 591 for Hertfordshire and 519 for Cambridgeshire.
The 95% confidence interval upper and lower bounds are presented alongside the CSEW estimates in the tables.
The CSEW is a face-to-face victimisation survey. People aged 16 years and over resident in households in England and Wales are asked about their experiences of a range of crimes in the 12 months prior to the interview. Respondents to the survey are also asked about their attitudes towards different crime-related issues, such as the police and the criminal justice system, and perceptions of crime and anti-social behaviour.
The core CSEW sample is designed to be representative of the population of households in England and Wales and people living in those households and uses the small users' Postcode Address File (PAF), which is widely accepted as the best general population sampling frame in England and Wales. The 2025 to 2026 sample was designed to yield interviews with a nationally representative sample of 31,000 households in England and Wales.
Further information on the survey methodology, sampling design, confidence intervals, weighting and quality measures can be found in the User Guide to Crime Statistics for England and Wales and the Crime Survey for England and Wales quality and methodology information (QMI).
If you have any further questions, please contact us at CrimeStatistics@ons.gov.uk and we will endeavour to help.