Arrests in Relation to Communications Offences

Request Number: FOI/16686

Category: Incident and Crime Statistics - Arrests

Subject: Arrests in Relation to Communications Offences

Request and Answer: 
Your request for information has now been considered. In respect of Section 1(1)(a) of the Act we can confirm that the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) does hold information to which your request relates. The decision has been taken to disclose the following.

Request
For each of the years 2024 and 2025 the number of arrests made by your force for each of the following offences:

a) Section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988
b) Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003
c) Section 179, Part 10, of the Online Safety Act 2023 (false communications)
d) Section 191, Part 10, of the Online Safety Act 2023 (threatening communications)

Answer
Please see below in response to your request.

Please note: Section 191, Part 10, of the Online Safety Act 2023 does not relate to any offences. The threatening communications offence is Section 181 of the Online Safety Act 2023, therefore this is what has been provided.

Number of arrests¹ for specified offences in Northern Ireland (1 January 2024 – 31 December 2025)
 

¹ Arrested and processed through police custody

There are 1,084 unique arrests and 987 unique individuals arrested, i.e. person may have been arrested for more than one offence in the same custody record or arrested more than once over the time period requested.