Homicide offences (FOI ref: 2307A/25)

Request

1. The number of homicide offences recorded by West Midlands Police (or within the Birmingham municipal area) during the calendar years 2024 and, if available, up to the most recent date in 2025.

2. For each offence counted above, the ethnicity of the victim and the ethnicity of the main suspect (if known) at time of recording, broken down into the following ethnic categories (or closest equivalent used by the force): White, Black (African/Caribbean/Other Black), Asian (including sub-categories if available), Mixed/Multiple, Other/Unknown.

3. Specifically, from the data above, the number and percentage of homicides where both the victim and the suspect were recorded as Black.

Response

Question 1

Table. Count of Home Office Sub Class ‘Homicide’ Offences - Birmingham Local Policing Area:

*2025 = Partial year to 30 September

Questions 2 and 3

We are unable to provide the ethnicity of the victim and main suspect(s) for each individual offence. Although information relating to deceased persons (such as victims) is not personal data under the Data Protection Act 2018 or the UK GDPR, releasing ethnicity details at case level would, in practice, risk identifying living individuals, including suspects or relatives, through association with specific homicide cases that may already be known publicly. As such information would constitute or reveal the personal data of those living individuals, and its disclosure would contravene the data protection principles set out in Article 5(1)(a) of the UK GDPR (lawfulness, fairness, and transparency).

Accordingly, this information is exempt under Section 40(2) (Personal information) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Details of this exemption can be found at the following link: 

Freedom of information | College of Policing - s40