Crime in Halton: statistics, rates and trends

Violence and sexual offences (5,434), public order (1,339) and anti-social behaviour (1,277) made up 67% of all recorded crime. Its crime rate ranks 126th of the 302 districts covered by this site (1 = highest), in the upper half.

The year to August 2026 had the least recorded crime in Halton of any year here (12,012 crimes). Between the years to August 2018 and 2026 it fell 27%, while across England and Wales it fell 4%.

Month by month

Compared with England and Wales, Halton recorded notably more drugs (62% above the national rate), public order (53% above the national rate) and possession of weapons (27% above the national rate), and notably less theft from the person (91% below) and robbery (58% below). On the year before, possession of weapons rose from 116 to 162, while theft from the person fell from 50 to 21 and robbery fell from 100 to 75.

What each category covers: crime categories.

11,141 crimes, excluding fraud, were recorded by the police in Halton in the year ending March 2026, according to the Home Office's police recorded crime statistics. That is 84.7 per 1,000 residents, close to the England and Wales rate of 83.2. The total was down 10% on the year ending March 2025 (12,444), against a fall of 2% across England and Wales. Among the 272 districts of England and Wales with a figure for that year, Halton had the 97th highest rate (the street-level ranking above is among the 302 districts with street-level pages on this site, over the 12 months to August 2026).

Offences recorded in Halton, the year ending March 2026

The largest category was stalking and harassment, with 2,115 offences (19% of the total). Relative to England and Wales, rates were highest for possession of drugs (1.7 times the national rate), stalking and harassment (1.6 times the national rate) and public order offences (1.5 times the national rate). Rates were lowest relative to the national rate for theft from the person (0.26 times), shoplifting (0.47 times) and robbery of personal property (0.53 times).

The largest rises on the year were in trafficking of drugs (+85%) and arson (+14%). The largest falls were in robbery of personal property (−32%) and residential burglary (−26%). Robbery of business property and shoplifting are not compared with the year ending March 2025: from April 2025 the Home Office Counting Rules were clarified so that a theft from a shop in which violence is used or threatened against staff or anyone else is recorded as robbery of business property rather than shoplifting (ONS).

Recorded crime in Halton since the year ending March 2019

The chart shows police recorded crime per 1,000 residents in each year ending March from 2019 to 2026. Halton's rate was above the England and Wales rate in every one of those 8 years. The series starts in the year ending March 2019 because the share of crimes in the Cheshire Police area not assigned to a district moved from 7.2% in the year ending March 2018 to 0.3% in the year ending March 2019, which changes district totals without any change in crime.

Changes in how forces record crime move these figures as well as changes in crime (methodology).

Districts in the Cheshire Police area, the year ending March 2026

Of the 4 districts in the Cheshire Police area with a figure for the year ending March 2026, Halton had the highest rate.

Source: Home Office police recorded crime and outcomes open data tables (released 23 July 2026), gov.uk, Open Government Licence v3.0. Financial years, excluding fraud; how they differ from the street-level figures: methodology.

3 of the 8 nearest districts have a higher crime rate than Halton; the highest is Liverpool district (136.2 per 1,000) and the lowest West Lancashire (61.8).

Of the 23 areas within Halton, Appleton had the highest crime rate (179.3 per 1,000) and Beechwood & Heath the lowest (27.0), 7 times apart.

The 10 locations below account for 15% of the crime recorded in Halton over the 12 months to August 2026; the most were recorded at “Parking Area” (441).

Of the 10,735 crimes in Halton with a recorded outcome, 24% ended with the investigation complete and no suspect identified, against 35% across England and Wales; 8.9% were awaiting a court outcome (England and Wales: 5.2%). The 1,277 anti-social behaviour reports have no outcome and are left out.

Halton has an estimated population of 131,543 (ONS, mid-2024). Compared with England and Wales it has more social housing (24%, against 17%), less private renting (14%, against 20%) and fewer students (5.6%, against 7.9%). On the England IoD 2025, the small areas (LSOAs) that make up Halton average decile 4.3 (1 = most deprived), more deprived than average.

Police-recorded crime from data.police.uk (September 2017 to August 2026), ONS population estimates and Census 2021. Definitions and limitations: methodology.