Arrests - Malicious Communications Act 1988 2010 to 2020

Keywords

Financial, Years, Arrested, Reason, Alleged, Offences, Section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988, Home, Office, Code 8/72.

Publication Number

PUB 1255

FOI Reference Number

16051

Request Title

Arrests - Malicious Communications Act 1988

Date Range

2010 to 2020

Information Requested

Please can you disclose how many people were arrested for alleged offences under Section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988 in the years 2010 to 2020 in the area under your administration, providing separate figures for each year?

The Home Office code 8/72 appears to be linked to this offence, which might assist your search.

Disclosure with Exemptions

Full Disclosure

Information Correct as at

09 September 2021

Date of Disclosure

23 September 2021

Related Documents/Links

N/A

FOI 16051 Response

Having completed enquiries within Essex Police in respect of Section 1(1)(a), Essex Police does hold information relating to your request, Essex Police can confirm in respect of Section 1(1)(b) the following data:

Caveats:

The data is correct as at 09 September 2021.

2016 is the earliest date we have for a Malicious Communications Arrest Offence.  This would have been when the reason for arrest was added to the system.  Prior to that it may have been grouped in a more generic arrest category, however, we have not been able to identify any.

Data:  Where Malicious Communications is the main arrest reason.

Please can you disclose how many people were arrested for alleged offences under Section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988 in the years 2010 to 2020 in the area under your administration, providing separate figures for each year?

The total number of Malicious Communications Arrests from 2016 to 2020 is detailed below:

Financial Year	Malicious Communications
2016-17	135
2017-18	112
2018-19	167
2019-20	165
2020-21	166
Grand Total	745

Every effort is made to ensure that the data provided by Essex Police is accurate and complete.  However, Essex Police systems are designed primarily for the management of individual cases and not for the purposes of providing data to answer specific FOI enquiries.  Please note although data can be extracted from a number of sources via database queries, the results may be subject to inaccuracies.  Care should be taken to understand our return when considering the interpretation or further use of the data.