Demographics
Justice, Safety and Public Systems
Evidence on representation, outcomes and public system contact across police, courts, prisons and youth justice.
Police contact
Courts and Sentencing
Use Home Office, CPS and Ministry of Justice source tables with year and geography.
DescriptionData on policing, stop and search, prison population, and criminal justice for Black British communities. Sourced from Home Office and Ministry of Justice statistics.
Stop and Searches per 1,000 Population by Ethnic Group — England & Wales 2022/23
Prison Population by Ethnic Group — England & Wales Q4 2023 (%)
Crime & Justice — UK Black Demographics | BlackBritish.org.uk
Home Office Police powers and procedures 2022/23
The 4.8× stop and search disparity has been documented in every year of Home Office data. The Lammy Review (2017) and subsequent reports have called for reform, but the gap has not narrowed significantly.
Under Section 60 (no-suspicion) powers, the disparity is even larger. Black people are disproportionately subject to these searches, which require no individual suspicion.
MoJ Offender management statistics Q4 2023
Lammy Review Final Report, 2017
labelStop & Search
labelPrison Population
labelHate Crime
labelYouth Justice
labelSources
labelSee our methodology
urlhttps://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-powers-and-procedures-england-and-wales
valueper 1,000
urlhttps://www.gov.uk/government/collections/offender-management-statistics-quarterly
nameHome Office hate crime statistics (annual)
urlhttps://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hate-crime-statistics
nameYouth Justice Board statistics
nameYouth Justice Board annual statistics
labelStop and search
labelLammy Review
nameLammy Review Final Report 2017
urlhttps://www.gov.uk/government/publications/lammy-review-final-report
recharts
Black
Asian
Mixed
White
All groups
description
canonical
robots
noindex, follow
Data Topic · Crime & Justice
Crime & Justice
Data on policing, stop and search, prison population, and interactions with the criminal justice system for Black British communities. Primary sources: Home Office and Ministry of Justice official statistics.
Stop and search figures are from Home Office Police powers and procedures 2022/23. Prison population figures are from MoJ Offender management statistics Q4 2023. Hate crime and youth justice data are under verification.
4.8×
Black people more likely to be stopped and searched
Home Office 2022/23
29
Stop and searches per 1,000 Black people
13%
Black share of prison population
MoJ Q4 2023
3.5%
Black share of England & Wales population
Census 2021
text-center sm:text-left
stop-search
Black people are stopped and searched at 4.8 times the rate of white people in England and Wales. In 2022/23, there were 29 stop and searches per 1,000 Black people — compared to 6 per 1,000 white people. This disparity has persisted across all years of Home Office data.
Black people more likely to be stopped and searched than white people
vs 6 per 1,000 white people · Home Office 2022/23
label=
sub=
stroke=
insideLeft
1px solid hsl(var(–border))
rate
Persistent disparity
No-suspicion searches
prison
Black people make up 13% of the prison population in England and Wales — nearly four times their 3.5% share of the general population. This over-representation has been documented in every Ministry of Justice quarterly statistics release.
vs 3.5% share of England & Wales population · MoJ Q4 2023
3.7×
Over-representation in prison vs population share
MoJ Q4 2023 vs Census 2021
73%
White share of prison population
100%
3 3
group
target=
rel=
title=
intro=