Crime and Policing Minister statement on Quarterly Crime Statistics YE June 2025

Crime and Policing Minister, Sarah Jones, said: 

“This government is making real progress in protecting vulnerable young people, homicide rates have hit their lowest levels since the 1970s and knife crime is down after just one year in office.

“But we know that any life lost is one too many and we are not complacent as we seek to half knife crime over the next decade.

“We also know that the levels of shop theft and street crime that this government has inherited are utterly unacceptable. That is why we are putting 3,000 new neighbourhood officers on the beat to fight crime, catch criminals and protect communities as part of our Plan for Change.”

Background:

• The homicide rates per population has been calculated using data from ONS Crime in England in Wales quarterly release (Appendix Table A5), historical crime data and ONS population estimates. This reference is in regards to all victims of homicide.

• Crime in England and Wales: Appendix tables - Office for National Statistics
• Historical crime data - GOV.UK
• Estimates of the population for the UK, England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland - Office for…

• This summer we launched a nationwide summer blitz on town centre crime, which saw over 600 town centres participate, and nationwide thousands of shoppers and businesses saw an increased police presence, alongside stronger prevention and enforcement action Summer blitz on town centre crime - GOV.UK 
• The Home Secretary recently declared a Winter of Action: police forces across England and Wales will again partner with local businesses, authorities and police and crime commissioners to target shop theft and anti-social behaviour during a peak retail season, as part of the government's Plan for Change to make our streets safer.

• By March 2026, 3,000 more neighbourhood officers and PCSOs will be on the beat — part of our Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee to deliver 13,000 extra officers by the end of this Parliament. New measures to put neighbourhood bobbies back on beat - GOV.UK 

• These officers will have stronger powers under our landmark Crime and Policing Bill, including a new offence for assaulting retail workers and ending the £200 theft loophole. Crime and Policing Bill: overarching factsheet - GOV.UK 

Progress under this government:  

• Neighbourhood policing
• • We have seen increases in the overall charge volumes for shoplifting by 25% which shows that police are taking this crime seriously and increasing enforcement activity which is promising. This shows that with more officers patrolling town centres – which is a fundamental part of the government's Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee - and responding to these incidents we can have a real impact. Ultimately, we want charge rates to continue rising while this crime to falls.   
  • Shop theft charge rate rose from 17.7% to 19.1%, which is still too low and an increase that we want to see continue.
  • Vehicle related offences down 12%.
  • Burglary down 10%
  • Robbery of personal property fell by 12%
• Violent crime
• • Overall police recorded violence showed 2% fall, with homicide at the lowest level since 2014 declining 6% year on year.
  • Knife-enabled offences (excludes possession offences), recorded a 5% decrease compared with the previous year and knife-enabled robbery also fell by 8% compared to the previous year.
  • The work of the Knife-Enabled Robbery Taskforce has galvanised targeted police action on KER in the 7 police force areas with the majority (c.70%) of offences. 
  • Homicides have fallen 6% on the previous year
  • There was an 18% decrease in knife-enabled homicides and 6% decrease in knife-enabled assaults.
  • The latest provisional admissions data for NHS hospitals in England and Wales showed a 10% decrease in the number of admissions for assault by a sharp object in YE June 2025 (to 3,460 admissions). This was 27% below YE March 2020 (4,769 admissions). 
  • Knife possession offences are driven by police activity/operations