Offence of squatting

Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request ref: 01/FOI/25/008381/Z

Version Date: 09/07/2025

The Performance & Analysis Department has provided the following information.

We do not hold information relating to squatting in commercial properties.

Data Source                                    

Crimes recorded on crime information system - Niche                                    

Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 - Offence of squatting in a residential building         

Data Processing:                                      

Qliksense Crimes & Outcomes Report                                       

Include No Crimes: Yes                                         

Notifiable Crimes Only: No                                    

No Dates selected                                      

Filtered on Offence Description: Knowingly as a trespasser live/intend to live in a residential building                                               

Exported Data                                             

Excel filtered on relevant Crimed dates: 01/01/2022-31/12/2024                               

Qliksense Offence Management Report                                     

Offence Data Sheet                                    

No Dates selected                                      

Filtered on Offence Title: Knowingly as a trespasser live/intend to live in a residential building                                      

Exported Data                                             

Excel filtered on relevant Crimed dates: 01/01/2022-31/12/2024       

Caveats/Limitations                                                                                                          

No crimes/Cancelled Crimes included                                                                            

With the introduction of Niche (15 November 2022), the vast majority of Non Notifiable offences are not recorded by way of a Crime Stats class.                              

Such offences may be listed as additional offences on occurrences that contain a notifiable crime stats class (where the crime will be recorded as something else, applying the Principal Crime rule).                                                                                               

Such offences may also be listed on non-crime Occurrences.                                   

The Offence Management report is currently the best source to identify these offences. However, the Qliksense Offence Management report was designed to only contain data from 15 November 2022 onwards.                                                                                             

For 2024:
 
1.     How many instances of squatting reported to your police force..
a.     In residential properties/ land
b.     In commercial properties/ land
 
For 2023:
 
1.     How many instances of squatting reported to your police force..
a.     In residential properties/ land
b.     In commercial properties/ land
 
For 2022:
 
1.     How many instances of squatting reported to your police force..
a.     In residential properties/ land
b.     In commercial properties/ land

The number of offences of Knowingly as a trespasser live/intend to live in a residential building, reported to Devon and Cornwall police between 01/01/2022 -31/12/2024 by Calendar Year