Armed robberies are helping to fuel an increase in knife crime across England and Wales, the latest figures show.
The number of knife crime offences hit a post-Covid high in 2024, with 54,587 incidents recorded by police forces. That figure was 2 per cent higher than 2023, but slightly lower than 55,170 in the pre-Covid year ending March 2020.
A key factor in the rise was the increase in police-recorded robberies involving a knife or sharp instrument, which rose 5 per cent to 23,304 in 2024. Offences include the knifepoint thefts of mobile phones and armed robberies in shops.
The figures come ahead of National Knife Crime Awareness Week, which begins on Monday, when police forces, councils and campaign groups come together to share stories on the impact of knife crime and celebrate the achievements in tackling it.
Last year, home secretary Yvette Cooper set a target to halve the number of knife offences in a decade. In March, she announced new measures to make retailers report suspicious sales to police, and pledged to increase the jail sentence for selling weapons to children.
But the latest crime figures show the enormity of the task faced, with almost a third of all robberies now involving a knife.
Earlier this year, a man and a woman were jailed for a combined total of more than six years after pleading guilty to robbery at a shop in Lowestoft. Misha Goddard, 30, and Connor Furlow, 29, brandished a knife from a waistband before fleeing with a till.
In Stoke-on-Trent, Dylan Hurd, 19, and Callum Talbot, 23, pulled a knife on a motorist while riding a moped and stole his car. The pair pleaded guilty to robbery. Talbot was jailed for six years and Hurd for four.
Aside from robberies, the Office for National Statistics data showed that the number of threats to kill offences involving knives also rose slightly, up 3 per cent to 5,979. However, knife-related murders fell by 16 per cent to 216 in 2024.
The number of knife possession offences rose 1 per cent to 28,150, which is also higher than the pre-pandemic figure of 23,264 in 2019/20.
Last year saw a number of high-profile knife attacks in schools.
A 14-year-old was last month sentenced to 15 years in detention after stabbing two teachers and a pupil at Ammanford School in Carmarthenshire last April. Two months earlier, a 15-year-old stabbed a student to death at a school in Sheffield.
The attacks prompted Anne Longfield, chair of the independent Commission on Young Lives, to call the situation faced by schools a “national emergency”.
Knife crime offences in your police force area
The Metropolitan Police, the country’s largest force, recorded the highest number of knife crime offences last year, 16,789, an increase of 16 per cent from 2023.
That was followed by West Midlands Police with 4,664 incidents, down 12 per cent from the year before, and Greater Manchester with 3,452, up 6 per cent.
In a report issued last month, the Met commissioner Sir Mark Rowley warned that hopes of halving knife crime in London “will be impossible without significant funding”.
He said the force’s workforce plan showed it is set to lose 1,500 officers by the end of this financial year.
Knife Crime Awareness week
The campaign, running from Monday to Sunday, is in its third year and is run by Axon and The Ben Kinsella Trust. The trust was set up by the EastEnders star Brooke Kinsella, after her brother was stabbed to death while celebrating finishing his GCSEs 16 years ago.
This year, a reception will be held in Parliament, sponsored by MP Margaret Mullane, a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee. The event will allow victim organisations to showcase their work and campaign for further changes.
Elsewhere, schools and groups across the country will host events. In Bristol, more than 100 school shirts with messages from children on knife crime will be displayed at a city-based exhibition.
Dr Jade Levell, senior lecturer in social and public policy at the University of Bristol, who led the project, said: “The response has been overwhelmingly positive, with participants really embracing the opportunity to express themselves freely and creatively, really letting rip with their emotions.”
Patrick Green, chief executive of the Ben Kinsella Trust, added: “Knife Crime Awareness Week is an opportunity for everyone to understand the devastating impact that knife crime can have on individuals and communities, and more importantly, to take action to stop it.”
