Photo: Jonathan Thacker · CC BY-SA 2.0Prescot records drugs at 4.5 times the rate of a typical town its size
The overall Safety Grade is C− (#18 of 25 in Merseyside), which means more crime per resident than 82% of UK towns, judged on crimes police recorded inside its built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026. Violent crime was up 9% in a year. On top of that, it has more violent crime than 85% of UK towns, and more burglary, vehicle crime and damage than 69%. Recorded violent and sexual offences ran at 40.6 per 1,000 residents a year, and burglary, vehicle crime and damage at 12.4.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Prescot
Violent crime rose over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 9% more violent crime per resident in Prescot than in the year before; across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people violent crime held steady. Burglary, vehicle crime and criminal damage fell 11% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
About the middle for a town its size
Of 184 UK towns of 27,000 to 53,000 people, Prescot has the 108th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Bury St Edmunds, Swadlincote and Redhill, higher than Braintree, Evesham and Frome. Towns its size ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
What sits behind Prescot’s C−
A firm grade. Built on 6,228 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Prescot against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Prescot runs highest on drugs (8.6 per 1,000 against 1.9), shoplifting (11.3 per 1,000 against 6.1) and public order (9.8 per 1,000 against 5.4). Other theft and burglary sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 1,614 | 41.1 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 485 | 12.4 | 12.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 443 | 11.3 | 6.1 |
| Public order | not graded | 384 | 9.8 | 5.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 339 | 8.6 | 1.9 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 305 | 7.8 | 6.2 |
| Other theft | not graded | 134 | 3.4 | 4.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 92 | 2.3 | 1.8 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 89 | 2.3 | 2.8 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 59 | 1.5 | 2.4 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 46 | 1.2 | 0.7 |
| Robbery | Violent | 18 | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 11 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 4 | 0.1 | 0.3 |
“Violent” is police.uk’s violence and sexual offences (which includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury), robbery and possession of weapons. Anti-social behaviour isn’t a crime category; shoplifting and other theft happen mostly in shops and town centres rather than to residents, so neither counts in the grade.
September 2025 to August 2026, per 1,000 residents. The tick on each bar is the typical (median) town among UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people.
Crime in Prescot per 1,000 residents
A crime isn’t a victim: one person can report several, and crimes in a town centre often involve visitors rather than residents.
And about 12 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 15 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
How crime in Prescot has moved
“Towns its size” pools all UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people that police.uk covers each month (Greater Manchester has no data).
Rolling six-month rate, per 1,000 residents a year (longer windows for smaller places, where a few crimes swing a month). In the 12 months to August 2026 against the 12 before: violent +9% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles -11% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft +23% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour +9% (towns its size -4%).
How Prescot’s neighbourhoods rank in England
25% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 21% in the highest-crime 20%. The crime domain scores the risk of violence, burglary, theft and criminal damage where people live, so it can read differently from the town-wide rate, which counts crimes where they happened.
Prescot’s residents by the crime decile of their neighbourhood (LSOA, about 1,500 people) in the English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (crime domain), where 1 is the highest-crime 10% of England’s neighbourhoods and 10 the lowest.
Lowest recorded crime in Eccleston, Rainhill and Whiston and Cronton; highest in Prescot North
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eccleston | 2,371 | 7.5 | 3.2 | |
| Rainhill | 11,430 | 21.6 | 7.7 | |
| Whiston and Cronton | 7,525 | 38.4 | 13.2 | |
| Prescot South | 10,124 | 51.7 | 12.7 | |
| Prescot North | 7,777 | 64 | 19.9 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 1,033 | 50% violent |
| Shopping areas | 455 | 69% shoplifting & theft |
| Supermarkets | 244 | 61% shoplifting & theft |
| Petrol stations | 224 | 57% shoplifting & theft |
| Bus and coach stations | 91 | 38% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Prescot North records 1.9× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Prescot. police.uk places each crime at an anonymous map point; some are named for the kind of place (a supermarket, a car park), and each row adds up every place of that kind in Prescot. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Prescot’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Of 184 towns its size, Prescot is 108th from the least graded crime
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heswall Merseyside | 29,082 | 14.3 | 5.5 | 3.8 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 58 | Crosby Merseyside | 50,218 | 31.2 | 11.4 | 8.9 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 105 | Braintree Essex | 43,179 | 39.8 | 12.4 | 15.8 | C− |
| 106 | Evesham Worcestershire | 28,256 | 37.2 | 15.3 | 17.4 | C− |
| 107 | Frome Somerset | 27,904 | 39.8 | 12.8 | 19.3 | C− |
| 108 | Prescot Merseyside | 39,227 | 40.6 | 12.4 | 13.1 | C− |
| 109 | Washington Tyne and Wear | 51,318 | 32.7 | 20.4 | 18 | C− |
| 110 | Spalding Lincolnshire | 30,552 | 39.7 | 13.4 | 15 | C− |
| 111 | Ballymena Mid and East Antrim | 31,205 | 37.9 | 15.2 | 15 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 123 | Kirkby Merseyside | 45,559 | 43 | 15 | 10.3 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 184 | Great Yarmouth Norfolk | 28,979 | 105 | 32.9 | 33.7 | D− |
Safety letters rank against every UK town of 1,000 or more; the order here is context only.
Graded crime per 1,000 residents a year, September 2023 to August 2026, counting from the least: towns ranked near Prescot, and others in Merseyside.
Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 68% of Prescot’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 11% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (68% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 13% of violent and 6% of household crimes reached court.
The latest outcome police.uk shows for each crime recorded in the first of the three years (September 2023 to August 2024), so most cases have closed. 2,049 crimes.
No one died in a collision on Prescot’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 194 collisions with injuries inside Prescot in five years. 56 people were killed or seriously injured: 22 on foot and 14 on a bicycle.
That is about what is typical for UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people: at their median rate (0.9 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Prescot’s size would see about 2 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Prescot’s own rate (0.0) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Prescot had 28.4 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, above the median for UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people (23.8). 39% of them were on foot, against 30% across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people.
Casualties are counted where the collision happened, not where people lived: a main road through town adds through-traffic, and residents’ own risk on roads elsewhere isn’t here. Seriously injured uses the Department for Transport’s adjusted figures, which even out the police forces’ different ways of recording injuries. There’s no national rate here: more than half of road deaths in England and Wales (58%) happen outside every town’s built-up area. Source: DfT road casualty statistics (STATS19), 2021–2025.
Collisions police recorded inside Prescot’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Prescot
Prescot records more graded crime per resident than 4 of its 7 neighbours. Cronton, 2.2 miles away, records 12.4 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Prescot’s 40.6.
Per 1,000 residents a year, the same three years. Tap a town for its safety page.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Where crimes happen, not where victims live. police.uk places each crime at a point near where it happened. Town centres with shops, stations, a hospital and nightlife record more crime per resident, and residents of nearby villages who come in to shop or go out are part of that count.
- Bigger towns record more per resident. Across UK towns, recorded crime per resident rises steeply with size, more than in the U.S., so a city’s grade sits low against the whole UK. The “towns its size” figures show where Prescot sits among towns like it; they are context and don’t change the grade.
- Points are approximate. police.uk moves each point to the nearest of a set of anonymous map points, so crimes near the edge of the built-up area can fall either side of it.
Questions about safety in Prescot
Is Prescot safe?
Police recorded 40.6 violent and sexual offences and 12.4 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Prescot’s built-up area). That earns a C− for safety: less crime per resident than 18% of UK towns. Among 184 UK towns of 27,000 to 53,000 people, Prescot is 108th from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Prescot?
By council ward, Eccleston, Rainhill and Whiston and Cronton record the least violent and household crime per resident: 7.5, 21.6 and 38.4 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 64 in Prescot North.
Is crime going up in Prescot?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime rose 9%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 11%, shoplifting and theft rose 23% and anti-social behaviour rose 9%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Prescot?
Violence & sexual offences: 1,614 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (443) and public order (384), with 485 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Prescot compare with Liverpool?
Liverpool records 54 violent and sexual offences and 20.2 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Prescot’s 40.6 and 12.4, over the same three years.
Sources: data.police.uk street-level crime, 36 months to August 2026, points inside the built-up-area boundary · ONS Census 2021, output areas summed to the ONS 2022 built-up area · MHCLG English Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain by LSOA (residents from ONS Census 2021) · Department for Transport road casualty statistics (STATS19), collisions 2021–2025, points inside the built-up-area boundary · TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranked against UK towns only. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.