The Government holds detailed statistics showing the nationalities of people convicted of serious crimes in Britain.
The Centre for Migration Control used the Freedom of Information Act to request those figures. When the Ministry of Justice refused, the organisation challenged the decision—and won.
The Information Commissioner ordered the Government to disclose the data.
Rather than accept that ruling, Labour’s Ministry of Justice has launched a legal appeal to prevent publication.
That deserves to be called what it is: a government statistics cover-up.
The Data the Public Has Been Denied
In June 2025, the Centre for Migration Control requested conviction data covering 2018 to 2024, broken down by nationality and detailed offence.
The request included serious categories such as violence, sexual offences, drugs, weapons, theft, robbery and arson.
It would amount to one of the most detailed releases of conviction data by nationality ever published in Britain.
The Ministry of Justice refused.
The Centre for Migration Control complained to the Information Commissioner’s Office, which enforces freedom of information law.
On 22 June 2026, the Information Commissioner ruled that the Ministry must disclose the information.
The Government’s Excuses Were Rejected
The Ministry of Justice relied mainly on two arguments.
First, it claimed that publishing the figures could risk identifying individuals from small statistical groups.
The Information Commissioner rejected that argument.
Official statisticians already have well-established ways of handling small numbers, including suppressing or combining cells where there is a genuine confidentiality risk.
The Ministry also argued that producing the data would cost too much.
That argument was rejected as well.
The Information Commissioner found that the department had not shown that the Freedom of Information cost exemption applied.
The Ministry could have accepted the independent ruling and published the evidence.
Instead, on 17 July 2026, it appealed to the First-tier Tribunal in an attempt to keep the figures hidden.
Why These Statistics Matter
Britain is already having a heated debate about immigration and crime.
But that debate is taking place without a consistent national publication showing convictions by nationality.
Instead, the public sees isolated figures released by individual police forces, campaign groups or newspapers using different definitions and covering different periods.
That is a poor basis for serious analysis.
A proper national publication would allow the public to examine:
How many foreign nationals are convicted each year
Which offences those convictions relate to
How patterns differ between nationalities
Whether convictions are increasing or falling
Whether claims made by politicians and campaigners are supported by the evidence
The figures might confirm some public concerns.
They might disprove others.
Either way, the answer is publication, not secrecy.
The Data Needs Context
Conviction totals alone would not tell us everything.
Countries with larger populations in Britain would normally be expected to record more convictions than countries represented by only a few thousand people.
Age and sex also matter because criminal offending is heavily concentrated among younger men across populations.
Any responsible publication should therefore include clear definitions, appropriate confidentiality controls, information on missing nationality and, where reliable figures exist, population estimates that allow meaningful rates to be calculated.
But these are arguments for publishing the data properly.
They are not arguments for withholding it.
Secrecy simply creates the conditions in which selective claims and misinformation thrive.
These Statistics Should Be Published Routinely
As a former government statistician, I find the Ministry of Justice’s position particularly difficult to defend.
Official statistics exist to serve the public good. They should inform democratic debate, support accountability and allow the public to judge whether government policies are working.
There is clearly substantial public, political and media interest in the relationship between nationality and criminal offending.
These figures should not need to be dragged out of government through repeated Freedom of Information requests.
The Ministry of Justice should establish a regular official statistical publication covering convictions by nationality, supported by:
Consistent definitions
Appropriate confidentiality protections
Breakdowns by age and sex where possible
Population denominators where robust estimates are available
Comparable figures over time
Clear information on data quality and limitations
That would be far better than releasing isolated spreadsheets only after legal pressure.
It would allow journalists, researchers and the public to analyse the evidence consistently. It would also expose exaggerated or misleading claims from every side of the debate.
The proper statistical response is not simply to comply with this one request.
It is to publish the information routinely, transparently and with the context required for responsible interpretation.
Where reliable data exists and there is a clear public need, the presumption should be publication.
Publish the Data
Nobody outside the Ministry of Justice yet knows exactly what the unpublished figures will show.
They may reveal serious disparities between nationalities.
They may show that some claims about migrant crime are overstated.
Either possibility strengthens the case for publication.
If the figures are unremarkable, releasing them would help challenge misinformation.
If they reveal genuine public-safety problems, ministers need to confront them.
Neither outcome justifies secrecy.
These statistics were collected by public institutions using public money.
They do not belong to ministers.
The Ministry of Justice should abandon its appeal, release the requested information and commit to publishing properly contextualised conviction data by nationality on a regular basis.
The Centre for Migration Control requested the data. The Ministry refused. The Information Commissioner ordered its release. Labour responded by going to court.
Whatever the figures eventually reveal, the Government’s effort to keep them hidden is already revealing enough.
✍️ Jamie Jenkins
Stats Jamie | Stats, Facts & Opinions
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If the statistics showed no link between Nationality and crime the government would have published without delay.
I’m not surprised by this, I sent a FOI request to my local council to ask how much social housing has been given to “asylum seekers’, the answer I got was “ this is a government scheme for which we have no control over” or words to that effect.
So in short, my local council don’t know who they have living in social housing.