Vehicle theft

Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request ref: 01/FIN/25/003585/P
Version Date: 02/09/2025

The Performance Analysis (PA) Department have provided the following information.
The data is from the Niche Crime Universe using the HO Stats Code 048/01 and the dates 01/01/2020 – 07/08/2025.
Data Limitations
In order to be able to provide some data instead of an over fees response, PA have created two queries from the initial query detailed above. In one, they have linked all occurrences to the occurrence address by filtering the ‘Occ. Add. Link Classification’ field to ‘Occurrence Address’. However, this was still bringing up over 200 duplicates (after removing blanks) based on the postcodes, where multiple postcodes appear in the occurrence. Therefore, with regards to the questions about location type and postcode, the data provided below does contain duplicates.
The only way to be able to provide more specific data would be to review all 5,060 occurrences in question 1 (which is accurate) to ascertain which vehicles were stolen and recovered, and where the location and postcode of the crime was, this review would take longer than the appropriate limit under the FOI Act of 18 hours.

Q1. The number of recorded vehicle thefts (theft or unauthorised taking of a motor vehicle – Home Office offence code 48), broken down by calendar year (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025 to date).

Q2. The number of those vehicles that were subsequently recovered, broken down by year if available.

Q3. The five most commonly stolen vehicle makes and models across the full period (2020–2025 to date).

Please note, PA have pulled through Vehicle Make and Vehicle Model linked to occurrences, where the ‘Property Link Classification’ field contains the terms ‘stolen’ or ‘recovered’. It is important to note that, like many property reports, these fields are not routinely filled out and not always accurate, so we have provided data by using filters in a manner that still achieves some results.
Q4. If available, the three most common location types where vehicle thefts occurred (e.g. on-street, driveway, car park).

Q5. If held, the top three postcode districts in your force area with the highest number of vehicle thefts across the period (2020–2025 to date), including total theft numbers for each.

If this request exceeds the cost limit, please prioritise questions 1, 3 and 5, and let me know how it could be refined.