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Crime falls to lowest level on record, ONS says

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Police investigate reports but some forces have been criticised for not recording them as crimes

Crime in England and Wales has fallen to its lowest level on record, data from the Office for National Statistics shows.

Incidents of violent crime have dropped by 28% in the year to June 2023.

The decline has been driven by a fall in criminal damage and fraud offences recorded by the police, ONS said.

A separate Crime Survey for England and Wales, which polls members of the public, suggests theft has dropped by 20% below pre-pandemic levels.

According to ONS, the number of recorded homicides fell to 602, a drop of 10% when compared to the 667 recorded the previous year.

However, shoplifting offences recorded by the police have risen by 25%.

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) told the BBC that the levels of theft now cost retailers almost £1bn a year, while Dame Sharon White, the boss of John Lewis, said shoplifting had become an "epidemic" in the past year.

The Crime Survey, which interviews members of the public about their experiences, and is regarded as the best indicator of crime trends, suggests incidents of anti-social behaviour (ASB) are down 15% on pre-pandemic levels.

However perceptions of ASB are at roughly the same level, with around a quarter of people saying it was problem in their area.

Police-recorded incidents of burglary were down 29% on the number recorded in the year to March 2020.

In August, Home Secretary Suella Braverman said police must investigate every theft and pursue "every reasonable line of inquiry", after data showed just 4.4% of all theft offences resulted in someone being charged.

Other key findings from the ONS showed:

  • Offences involving weapons had slightly risen compared to the previous year.
  • Crimes involving firearms, excluding those recorded in Devon and Cornwall, rose by 13%, to a similar level seen before the pandemic.
  • The biggest rise in offences was for imitation firearms, which went up 26% to 2,566 from 2,031 offences.
  • In the year to June 2023, 2.10 million offences were recorded in total in the year to June, compared with 2.12 million in the previous 12 months.

Knife possession offences jumped across England and Wales, rising to 28,211 in the year to June, while crime associated with knives recorded by police rose 3% in the last year. This remains 7% below the pre-pandemic level.

The ONS data showed the Met Police, West Midlands Police and Greater Manchester force recorded the highest levels of knife crime in the UK.

"This could suggest that improvements to recording practices are beginning to have less impact on trends in these offences," the ONS said.

Billy Gazard of the ONS said: "Our latest data shows crime continues to fall and is down 10% compared with 12 months ago.

"This decline in crimes against people and households has been driven by falls in criminal damage and fraud offences.

"While falls in criminal damage and fraud reported to Action Fraud (the public-facing reporting body) were also reflected in police-recorded crime, police figures also showed increases in crimes against businesses, such as shoplifting."