In UK Knife Crime Rises To High Record

 

The number of offences has increased by more than 20,000 in five years, with London now accounting for a third of them.

Knife crime in England and Wales increased last year to a new record high, figures released by the Office for National Statistics have shown.

The ONS said police recorded 45,627 offences in the year to December 2019.

That is 7% more than in 2018, and the highest since knife crime statistics were first collected in 2010-11.

The figures - which do not include Greater Manchester Police because of IT issues - showed a 13% rise in the West Midlands.

Downing Street acknowledged there was "more to be done to crack down on thugs carrying knives and ensuring they are properly punished".

And Diana Fawcett, chief executive of the charity Victim Support, stressed that while the UK's streets were currently "quieter" due to coronavirus, victims of historic knife crime were still coming to terms with their experience.

"Many victims will still be dealing with the emotional consequences of threats or attacks which took place long ago," she said.

Robbery offences were also up - for the fourth year running - with an annual increase of 12%, to 83,930 offences.

There were 670 cases of murder and manslaughter in 2019, excluding Greater Manchester Police, which is up 15 on the year before.

The total includes 39 people whose bodies were found in a lorry in Grays, Essex, in October.

The rise appears to have been driven by a recent acceleration in the number of knifepoint robberies - the number has doubled in four years - as well as a surge in stabbings: together, there were 40,000 offences last year.

The figures do not include the period immediately before and during the lockdown, but statistics released by the National Police Chiefs' Council last week showed that serious assaults had fallen by 27% and robberies by 37%; it's thought knife crime will have followed a similar pattern.