𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

The Government has triggered fury after admitting that it does not keep crucial information about either the immigration status of homicide victims or suspects. Former police officer Rory Geoghegan posted a response from the Home Office to an FOI request on X, which read: “The Home Office Homicide Index holds detailed data on homicides recorded by the police in England and Wales, including information on convicted suspects’ date of birth.

“Data on homicide convictions have been collected on a consistent basis since from April 1995.” Officials added: “The Home Office does not hold information regarding the immigration status of homicide victims or suspects.” Mr Geoghegan repeated the last line, adding: “Let that sink in.”

Robert Bates, research director at the Centre for Migration Control, told The Express: “This information is essential for understanding the risks posed by certain migration routes and for necessary changes to be made that will keep the British public safe.

“We know that foreign nationals are overrepresented in certain types of crime, but do not know whether they are here legally, illegally, or are in the asylum system. Were the data collected, it would highlight where Home Office priorities should be directed.

“But by refusing to collect this information officials are burying their heads and avoiding important conversations about how to make our country more secure.

“Not only is the quality of governance being greatly impeded as a result, but the public are being kept in the dark about the real impacts that mass migration is having on Britain.”

It is true that Afghan nationals, for example, offend in the UK at a higher rate than Britons, The Guardian reported.

But it added that there is insufficient data to adequately compare whether foreign nationals as a whole are overrepresented, and figures suggest that non-citizens are less likely to be in prison than UK citizens.

In December, the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, said the ethnicity of all offenders should be recorded and published by police.

But police chiefs warned that forces are “never going to get to 100% completion rate.”

Gareth Edwards, head of the Vulnerability Knowledge and Practice Programme, said: “Sometimes we won’t know who the suspects are. Sometimes victims may not engage, there might be third-party reports.

“There are different reasons why we won’t always have that data available. But I think the ambition for us to improve our quality in that area is what we share collectively.”

LBC reported that Richard Fewkes, director of the Child Sexual Exploitation Taskforce, said: “Police shouldn’t guess, because by guessing, that is one of the things that actually contributes to institutional racism.

“So we either drop those principles and do something else, or we stick with them and accept you’re never, ever going to get 100 per cent of a suspect or indeed a victim’s self-defined ethnicity.”