Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption The number of arrests by police has fallen by more than 75,000 in a year

Police arrested 75,000 fewer people in England and Wales than the previous year, despite a rise in recorded crime.

Across the 43 forces there was a 7% average drop in arrests. Sussex recorded the biggest fall in 2014-15 compared with the previous year, 26%.

Home Office figures show fewer people arrested almost everywhere, which the Police Federation warned may be down to cuts to force budgets.

The biggest drop was in Sussex, where crime rose by 8% over a similar period.

Across England and Wales, police forces made 949,526 arrests in total.

That is equivalent to 17 in every 1,000 people. The previous year the total figure for arrests was 1,024,969.

The government data shows 801,898 arrests were of males and 147,628 of females.

Rise in recorded crime

Total recorded crime in England and Wales increased by 5% in 2014-15 compared with the year before, 4.3 million offences in total.

However, the Office for National Statistics said a large part of the rise was believed to be "due to improved compliance with national recording standards by police forces in the last year".

Police force Fall in arrests 2014-15 Change in recorded crime Sussex 26% 8% rise Dyfed-Powys 24% 7% rise Kent 21% 3% fall Humberside 18% 0% Lancashire 16% 3% fall Hampshire 14% 18% rise Northumbria 13% 11% rise West Mercia 12% 12% rise Cambridgeshire 11% 4% rise South Wales 10% 6% rise

In Sussex there were 91,438 recorded crimes, excluding fraud, in the year to the end of June 2015, a rise of 8%, despite the force recording the biggest percentage fall in arrests (26%).

In other areas:

Dyfed-Powys, which saw the second largest percentage fall in arrests, recorded a 7% rise in recorded crime, 19,690 incidents in total.

Kent Police recorded 109,082 offences, a fall of 3%.

Humberside Police recorded 66,046 offences, about the same as the previous year despite the drop in arrests.

Lancashire had 92,276 crimes, a 3% fall while Hampshire had 121,250 recorded crimes, an 18% increase.

Northumbria saw 76,120 offences, an 11% increase while West Mercia saw a 12% rise, 64,718 crimes recorded.

Cambridgeshire Police recorded 46,755 offences, representing a 4% rise and South Wales saw a 6% rise with 89,831 crimes.

Violent crime arrests rise

A spokesman for Sussex Police said its 26% drop in overall arrests was down to changes in the way data was recorded, with the Home Office not requiring the same amount of information that the force previously would have supplied.

The Home Office said it was for individual forces to comment on their figures but the overall statistics were a "continuation of a longer-term downward trend".

Steve White, chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said: "It would be dangerous for anyone to look at the drop in arrest numbers and conclude there is less crime.

"Officers work very hard to ensure public protection from crime. However, the cuts the forces have faced in previous years have put a serious strain on resources, meaning there are fewer officers available to respond to incidents.

"It is hard to be specific about the exact reasons why arrest figures are lower, when crime is higher, but it would be fair to suggest that a lack of police resources and a change in the way crimes are recorded would have contributed to this change."

Violence against the person was the biggest cause of arrests, 336,558 in total and a rise of more than 4,000 on the year before.

Arrests also increased for sexual offences but fell for all other types of crime including robbery, burglary, forgery and drugs.

Fewer young people arrested

There was a decline in the number of young people arrested. Crimes involving 18 to 20-year-olds resulted in 100,914 arrests in 2014-15, compared with 119,001 the year before.

And for 10 to 17-year-olds the number fell from 109,473 to 94,960.

However, arrests of under-10s rose from 21 to 32. Under-10s cannot be held responsible or charged for a crime and the figures related to children whose age was discovered after they were arrested.