PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
(8 September 2025)

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) allegations of non-fatal strangulation have been made that were not proceeded against and (b) cases for that offence were dropped due to evidence deficiencies since 29 April 2021.

Asked by:
Llinos Medi (Plaid Cymru)

The Home Office collects information on the number of investigative outcomes for offences recorded by the police in England and Wales.

From 1^st of June 2022, the subcodes ‘008/78 Racially or religiously aggravated non-fatal strangulation or suffocation’ and ‘008/77 non-fatal strangulation or suffocation’ were introduced.

The below table shows the number of these offences and their investigative outcomes.

Table – number of non-fatal strangulation offences² recorded by the police in England and Wales¹ (excluding Humberside police), 1^st June 2022 to year ending March 2025, by outcome

Charged/Summonsed	14,016
Out-of-court (formal)	1,191
Out-of-court (informal)	723
Evidential difficulties (suspect identified; victim supports action)	20,712
Evidential difficulties (victim does not support action)	51,628
Prosecution prevented or not in the public interest	1,258
Investigation complete - no suspect identified	2,912
Further action undertaken by another body/agency	1,932
Further investigation resulting from the crime report that could provide evidence sufficient to support formal action being taken against the suspect is not in the public interest - police decision	450
Diversionary, educational or intervention activity, resulting from the crime report, has been undertaken and it is not in the public interest to take any further action	498
Not yet assigned outcome	5,629
Grand Total	100,949

Notes

1. Excludes Humberside police who were unable to provide data to the Home Office Data Hub
2. Consists of subcodes ‘008/78 Racially or religiously aggravated non-fatal strangulation or suffocation’ and ‘008/77 non-fatal strangulation or suffocation’
3. Subcodes 008/78 and 008/77 were introduced from 1^st June 2022

The Home Office does not hold information on the number of allegations of non-fatal strangulation.

Answered by:
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