Only 5.5 per cent of crimes result in suspect being taken to court, figures show

According to Home Office figures, just 5.5 per cent of crimes in England and Wales resulted in a charge or summons in the year to September 2022.

This meant suspects faced prosecution on 302,534 occasions in that period.

It comes as the number of sexual offences recorded by police in England and Wales hit a record high.

The figure for prosecutions has generally declined over the years and is now less than half the percentage in September 2015 (14 per cent).

It was six per cent for the same period in 2021, according to figures, which exclude data from Greater Manchester Police because of problems the force had recording crime at that time.

The most common reason for a case being closed continued to be because no suspect was identified, the data showed. This happened in more than two million cases (36.4 per cent).

In more than a quarter of cases (25.5 per cent, or more than 1.4 million), the victim did not support further action.

The lowest charging rate continues to be for rape, with 1.6 per cent of 70,633 offences recorded by police in that period leading to prosecution.

More than 40 per cent of these were closed because the victim did not support further police action, the figures suggest.

The Home Office previously said it was the responsibility of chief constables and police and crime commissioners to make sure criminal cases were investigated properly.

The likelihood of a crime resulting in a charge could vary for a number of reasons, including the complexity or severity of an offence or the difficulty in identifying a suspect.

Changes in charge rates are likely to be the result of more crimes being recorded by police and forces taking on more complex cases which could take longer to resolve, the department added.