Those offences also include, as well as ‘hurty words’, threats to kill, bomb hoaxes and harassment matters.

The legislation covers all types of communications including phone calls and letters, and because the authors haven’t bothered to drill down into the stats it is impossible to pick out the ‘hurty word’ offences from (for example) someone threatening to rape and murder an MP on X, or engaging in a campaign of harassment against their ex-partner.