A notifiable offence is any offence under
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...
where the
police
The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...
must inform the
Home Office
The Home Office (HO), also known (especially in official papers and when referred to in Parliament) as the Home Department, is the United Kingdom's interior ministry. It is responsible for public safety and policing, border security, immigr ...
, who use the report to compile crime statistics. The term Notifiable Offence is sometimes confused with
recordable offence.
Reporting notifiable offences
There are strict rules regarding the recording of crime which is outlined in the
National Crime Recording Standards and the Home Office Crime Counting Rules. An incident will be recorded as a crime (notifiable offence);
For offences against an identifiable victim if, on the balance of probability;
# The circumstances as reported amount to a crime defined by law (the police will determine this, based on their knowledge of the law and counting rules and,
# There is no credible evidence to the contrary.
For offences against the state (against society) the points to prove to evidence the offence must clearly be made out, before a crime is recorded. An offence is regarded as being "against the state" where there is no specific identifiable victim, an example being
dangerous driving
In United Kingdom law, dangerous driving is a statutory offence related to aggressive driving. It is also a term of art used in the definition of the offence of causing death by dangerous driving. It replaces the former offence of reckless driv ...
.
The following offences are generally categorised as notifiable offences;
*violence, damage, firearms, public order
*dishonesty, obscenity, drugs and sexual offences
*data protection
*the more serious road traffic offences
See also
*
Crime statistics in the United Kingdom
Crime statistics in the United Kingdom refers to the data collected in the United Kingdom, and that collected by the individual areas, England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, which operate separate judicial systems. It covers data relat ...
*
National Crime Recording Standards in England and Wales
*
Recordable offence
References
External links
The Home Office Counting Rules for Recorded Crime
Law enforcement
Law of the United Kingdom
Law enforcement in England and Wales
Crime statistics
Governance of policing in England
Governance of policing in Wales
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