How did C+D get hold of this data?

Between October 2021 and January 2022, C+D sent out requests for data under the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act to all police authorities in the UK – 43 in England and Wales, as well as Police Scotland and Police Service Northern Ireland.

44 police forces responded to C+D’s requests for 2019 and 2020 data, while 34 of these were able to share it. 43 police forces responded to requests for data for 2021, with 32 of the authorities granting C+D the data.

What information did C+D request?

C+D asked each police authority a series of questions: the total number of crimes committed in pharmacies in 2019, 2020 and 2021; the total number of assaults or violent crimes; and a breakdown of the number of different types of crime that had occurred during those years.

The final question asked for additional details of the crimes – including the date, time, any weapons used, injuries and products or items targeted, and whether there had been any suspects arrested or cautioned in relation to the crime.

How representative are the figures for each region?

Police forces conducted searches of their crime management system, using location codes of crimes to decide whether it was relevant to C+D’s request.

Location codes differ depending on the force, with most using “chemist” or “pharmacy” when entering data for the sector. The Cumbria Constabulary, for example, completed searches for any crimes where the premises name contained ‘chemist’ or ‘pharma’, as they were unable to tell from the crime notes if the location is registered as a pharmacy.

The results were then filtered to remove any incidents that were recorded at a pharmacy location but in fact happened nearby on the street and were separate from the pharmacy or happened at other locations within a hospital but recorded as the pharmacy.

Suffolk and Norfolk Constabularies also told C+D that an incident location search “may not bring back all crimes occurring in a pharmacy or chemist if the name is not recorded in the premises name field or has not been labelled as a chemist in the premises type field”.

This indicates that more crimes may have been committed in pharmacies between 2019 and 2021.

Can the data be compared between different police forces?

In their responses, police authorities stressed that their data should not be directly compared with information provided by other forces, as “the systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data”.

How were “violent crimes” classified?

C+D identified violent incidents as those classified as “violence against a person” or “assault” – with or without injury; public order offences; arson and criminal damage.

For the purposes of this investigation, C+D did not include “sexual offences” as a violent crime, unless the police force specified that the incident involved assault.