According to the Office for National Statistics, police received 152,416 reports of crimes against people last year, the highest rate since data began to be compiled in 2003. Shoplifting incidents also exceeded 500,000 for the first time, according to the figures. Homicides were at their lowest level in a decade and overall crime was below pre-Covid levels and 75% lower than in the mid-90s, according to the national statistics. The number of knife crimes last year was 54,787, up 2% on the previous year, according to the figures.

Gun crime fell by 20%. Police recorded a total of 6.64 million crimes in England and Wales, down one per cent on 2023. Policing Minister Diana Johnson has said the government will not tolerate crimes that harm communities, adding that an extra 3,000 police officers will be deployed this year to maintain law and order. In the year ending in March, 2.6 per cent of people aged 16 to 59 experienced sexual assault or attempted sexual assault, up from 1.5 per cent a decade ago, while domestic abuse incidents have fallen by 6.5 per cent compared to a decade ago.