FOI 753/25
REQUEST
I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. I would like to request the following information:
The number of individuals who have been arrested by officers from your force on suspicion of breaking Section 179 (005/28) and/or Section 181 (138/52) of The Online Safety Act since it received Royal Assent on 26 October 2023 up to the present date.
If you could kindly list the number of arrests for each year that would be greatly appreciated.
RESPONSE
We have consulted with our analysts who have conducted a search for all arrests recorded under the following Home Office (HO) offence codes between 26th October 2023 and 3rd June 2025 (the date of your request) retrieved from our crime and incident recording system (Niche RMS).
HO codes:
005/28: Send communication threatening death or serious harm
138/52: Send false communication with intent to cause harm
Please see the below table that provides the number arrested broken down by year:
|
Arrest Reason HO Code |
2024 |
2025 |
Total |
|
005/28 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
|
138/52 |
|
2 |
2 |
|
Total |
2 |
3 |
5 |