FOI 0072-2026/27- Parcel theft

Request:

Please provide data relating to theft of delivered parcels (for example, parcels stolen from doorsteps, communal hallways, shared post areas, or immediately outside residential premises), recorded by your force between 1 January 2022 and 31 December 2026 inclusive.

Recorded offences

Q1. Please provide the total number of recorded crimes per calendar year (2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026 to date) where:

    - the Home Office crime code used was 49/10 - Theft (not classified elsewhere) (or any successor or equivalent code), and

    - the recorded circumstances indicate that the stolen property was a delivered parcel or package.

Outcomes

Q2. For the offences described above, please provide, broken down by calendar year, the number of cases that resulted in:

    - a) an arrest, and

    - b) a charge.

If outcomes are recorded using outcome codes rather than arrest/charge fields, please provide the figures corresponding to:

- crimes resulting in at least one arrest, and

- crimes resulting in a charge or summons (or equivalent disposal).

Identification method

I recognise that there is no specific Home Office offence code for parcel theft. For the purposes of this request, parcel theft offences may be identified using:

- any local flags, markers, or MO categories used by your force, and/or

- keyword searches within free-text fields (for example "parcel", "package", "delivered", "left at doorstep", "communal area", or similar).

Please use whichever method or combination of methods your force normally relies on when responding to internal analysis or FOI requests of this nature.

Context and limitations

If it is not possible to provide a complete response, please:

- indicate which parts of the request cannot be answered,

- explain why the information is not held or not retrievable, and

- provide any partial data that can be disclosed within cost and time limits.

Please also confirm:

Q3. the crime recording system used during the period covered, and

Q4.  whether any changes to recording or outcomes practice between 2022 and 2026 may affect comparability over time.

Response: 

Extent and Result of Searches to Locate Information

To locate the information relevant to your request searches were conducted within North Yorkshire Police.

I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by North Yorkshire Police. 

Decision

I have today decided to disclose the following information to you.

The below results are a based on a free test search the accuracy and reliability of these searches cannot be guaranteed as only the MO / summary field of the report is searched. If the terms are mentioned elsewhere (i.e. within the call log, crime report, statements etc) these will not be returned in the results. Additionally, if the term is misspelt within the MO / summary field, this will not be returned. To provide accurate results would require manually interrogating each crime within the specified timeframe to establish its relevance to your request, which would in turn trigger an excess cost response.

Q1. A search has been carried out of all crimes recorded between 01 January 2022 and 28 April 2026 recorded under the stats code '49/10'. To narrow down parcel theft a free text search has been conducted in the MO Remarks for any of the following: "parcel", "package", "delivered", "left at doorstep", "communal area". Broken down by calendar year.

Q2. Of those above please see the table below those with a charged/summonsed crime outcome, broken down by calendar year.

Of those crimes above, please see the table below showing where at least one arrest is linked to the occurrence, broken down by calendar year.

*Please note that a person may be arrested for any offence

Q3. Niche

Q4.  We can confirm there have been no changes to recording or outcome practices between 2022-2026

Please note that systems used for recording information are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data.  It should be noted therefore that this force’s response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other responses you may receive.