Data Sources & Methodology
Full provenance for every dataset behind BlueLineHub — official source, licence, and last-refreshed date.
BlueLineHub's data-driven pages are built from 24 datasets — roughly 10,192 records — drawn entirely from official, openly-licensed sources. We summarise and link; we never present a figure without a traceable source. This page is the single provenance table for all of them.
How we work: each dataset is refreshed from its originating body (ONS, Home Office, College of Policing, HMICFRS, IOPC, CPS, PFEW/SPF/PFNI, data.police.uk) under the Open Government Licence or the source's own terms. LLM-assisted summarisation is used only to condense long official documents; facts and figures come from the source, and every page links back to it. See our editorial and source policies.
| Dataset | Source & licence | Records | Refreshed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home Office police workforce | Home Office police workforce statistics (E&W)Open Government Licence v3.0 | 44 | 2026-11-07 |
| data.police.uk force metadata | data.police.uk REST APIOpen Government Licence v3.0 | 12 | 2026-11-06 |
| Home Office use of force | Home Office police use of force statistics (E&W)Open Government Licence v3.0 | 44 | 2026-11-06 |
| Police Federation news | Police Federation (PFEW) RSS feed + article pages, Scottish Police Federation (SPF) WordPress RSS feed, Police Federation NI (PFNI) media-centre listing + article pages. Plain HTTP, no Firecrawl, no LLM.Each federation's own content. Summary text is the publisher's own standfirst from its feed or article page, linked to the original; we never mirror full articles. | 78 | 2026-11-06 |
| Police & Crime Plans | Police & Crime Commissioners (and equivalent governance bodies) — statutory Police & Crime PlansSummaries of public statutory documents; each links to the source plan. | 38 | 2026-08-09 |
| College of Policing APP — full depth | College of Policing — Authorised Professional Practice (full topic bodies)Crown copyright, Open Government Licence v3.0 — reproduced with attribution | 294 | 2026-07-19 |
| CPS prosecution guidance | Crown Prosecution Service — prosecution guidance (cps.gov.uk)Crown copyright, Open Government Licence v3.0. Original digests; each links to the source guidance. | 250 | 2026-07-19 |
| Federation news archive | PFEW (polfed.org), SPF (spf.org.uk), PFNI (policefed-ni.org.uk) — news archivesOriginal summaries with links to the source articles. Not affiliated with any federation. | 168 | 2026-07-19 |
| HMICFRS inspection reports archive | HMICFRS — inspection reports archive (PEEL, thematic, force-specific)Crown copyright, Open Government Licence v3.0. Summaries; each links to the source. | 2,704 | 2026-07-19 |
| Crime Reduction Toolkit (What Works) | College of Policing — Crime Reduction Toolkit (What Works Centre for Crime Reduction)Crown copyright / College of Policing. Original summaries; each links to the source entry. | 72 | 2026-07-15 |
| IOPC investigation reports | IOPC — published investigation summaries and recommendationsCrown copyright, Open Government Licence v3.0. Summaries; each links to the source. | 497 | 2026-07-14 |
| Neighbourhood policing teams | data.police.uk API — neighbourhood teams, priorities and eventsOpen Government Licence v3.0; contains public sector information licensed under OGL | 4,903 | 2026-07-14 |
| Recorded crime by force (ONS) | ONS — Police Force Area data tables (police recorded crime)Crown copyright, Open Government Licence v3.0 | 44 | 2026-07-14 |
| Sentencing guidelines — full matrices | Sentencing Council definitive guidelines — full category matrices and step tablesCrown copyright, Open Government Licence v3.0 | 178 | 2026-07-13 |
| Force recruitment status | Force careers pages, scraped via FirecrawlEach force's own content; we summarise + link, never mirror. | 47 | 2026-07-06 |
| Force profiles (long) | Per-force narrative bio, extracted from each force's official About page via self-hosted Firecrawl.Each force's own content; we summarise + link, never reproduce verbatim. | 43 | 2026-07-05 |
| Glossary — expanded terms | Glossary per-term expansion via College of Policing APP + gov.uk primary sources, scraped via self-hosted Firecrawl.Each source's own content; we summarise + link, never reproduce verbatim. | 51 | 2026-07-05 |
| Force leadership & PCCs | PCC / PFCC / mayoral commissioner websitesEach commissioner's own published content. We summarise + link, never mirror. | 47 | 2026-07-01 |
| Sentencing Council guidelines | Sentencing Council — Definitive guidelinesOpen Government Licence v3.0 — Crown copyright | 187 | 2026-06-28 |
| College of Policing APP topics | College of Policing Authorised Professional Practice (APP)Open Government Licence v3.0 — Crown copyright | 379 | 2026-06-27 |
| Accountability items (IOPC + HMICFRS) | IOPC + HMICFRS thematic, scraped via FirecrawlOpen Government Licence v3.0 | 60 | 2026-06-20 |
| How to join, per force | Force careers pages, scraped via FirecrawlEach force's own content; we summarise + link, never mirror. | 47 | 2026-06-20 |
| Police pay scales (PRB) | Police Remuneration Review Body annual report (E&W)Open Government Licence v3.0 | — | 2026-06-20 |
| HMICFRS PEEL 2025 ratings | HMICFRS PEEL assessmentsOpen Government Licence v3.0 | 5 | — |
Most datasets are Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. BlueLineHub is independent and not affiliated with any UK policing body.