Up to 47% of sexual offence charges in London last year were foreign nationals

In 2024 between 40% and 47% of those charged for sexual offences were foreign nationals - despite them accounting for just a quarter of the capital's population.

Jul 28, 2025

A freedom of information request, submitted by the Centre for Migration Control, to the Metropolitan Police Service has revealed the scale of the problem facing London’s women and girls as a result of mass migration.

Foreign nationals account for roughly 1/4 of the city’s population, with many more foreign born individuals having obtained British citizenship.

The FOI request read as follows:

“I wish to make a freedom of information request and would be grateful if you could supply the following information, broken down by nationality (note - in any instance where an certain nationality has fewer than 5 results, please use FOI best practice and simply provide the appropriate response of "<5") for the years 2018 - 2024

- the total number of arrests by your force (and broken down by nationality) that led to an individual being proceeded against for each detailed offence within the following offence groups: "violence against the person" and "sexual offences".”

Between 2018 and 2024, there were 7,798 arrests by the Met which led to further action being taken against the individual.

Of these, 4,631 were British nationals - including foreign born individuals who had obtained British citizenship. A further, 358 were of an unknown nationality, and 2,809 were identified as foreign nationals.

In 2024, there were 1,601 arrests which led to further action being taken. 597 of these were of foreign nationals, 149 were “unknown”, and 855 were British nationals. If we remove unknown nationalities from the equation, then 41% of all charges for sexual offence were foreign nationals. However, if we assume that a significant proportion of those whose nationality could not be identified we foreign nationals, then up to 47% of charges last year were laid against foreign nationals.

Between 2018 and 2024, the charge rate for British nationals, per 10,000 of the population, was 6.5. The data reveals wide discrepancies between different nationalities and their likelihood to be charged for a sexual offence.

The top 10 nationalities reveal clear similarities, and is something which policymakers should be giving due consideration to when deciding on how to manage Britain’s borders.