December 12, 2025 | Operational Policing, Investigations and Events , Police Correspondence and Reports
Request Number: FOI/16292
Category: Incident and Crime Statistics - Crime Statistics
Subject: Annual Report of the Chief Constable of the RUC - 1985-2000
Request and Answer:
Your request for information has now been considered and we are not obliged to supply the information you have requested.
Question
I would like to request electronic copies of the Annual Report of the Chief Constable of the RUC for the period 1985-2000. These should be publicly disclosed documents.
Clarification Sought
Can you be please be more specific about what annual reports you are referring to?
Clarification Received
I am referring to the RUC Chief Constable's Annual reports, produced every year in the 1980s and 1990s. I would like to request the release of those from 1985 to 2000. These would include annual crime statistics and information on size and any reorganisation of the force. I was previously granted access to these reports for 1980-1985 by the FOI team in 2017-18.
Answer
Section 17(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires the Police Service of Northern Ireland, when refusing to provide such information (because the information is exempt) to provide the applicant with a notice which:
(a) states the fact,
(b) specifies the exemption in question and
(c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.
The following exemption has been applied:
Section 21 - Information Reasonably Accessible by Other Means
Advice & Assistance
The information you request may be located at the link below. Prior to 2002/2003, PSNI recorded crime statistics were published in the Annual Report of the Chief Constable. Scanned images of the relevant crime tables from these reports, dating from 1968 until 2001/2002 and stored as PDF files, are available on the Police Recorded Crime Statistics Archive webpage: https://www.psni.police.uk/about-us/our-publications-and-reports/official-statistics/police-recorded-crime-statistics/police
Hard copies of the Chief Constable’s Annual Reports may be held by Stormont.