There were approximately 1.94 million violence against the person crime offences recorded by the police in England and Wales in 2024/25, compared with almost 2.01 million offences in the previous reporting year. The number of recorded violent crime offences in England and Wales has increased considerably in the last decade, with only around 600,000 violent crimes recorded in 2013/14. Other types of crime climbing After falling to relatively low levels in the mid-2010s, overall crime in England and Wales has been increasing at a substantial rate. From 62 crimes per 1,000 people in 2013/14, the crime rate shot up to a peak of 93.5 by 2022/23. The sharp uptick in the number of sexual offences recorded by the police accounts for part of this rise, with the number of sexual offences increasing from just over 64,000 in 2013/14 to almost 195,000 in 2022/23. While overall theft crime has gradually fallen in a similar time period, there has been a recent spike in shoplifting offences, with almost 444,000 incidents recorded in 2023/24, compared with 342,200 in 2022/23. Prisons under pressure The increase in violent and sexual crime offences, which typically result in longer sentences for offenders, has added to the problem of overcrowding at prisons in England and Wales. With prisons dangerously close to capacity in 2024, the government even released thousands of prisoners early that September. Prisons in England and Wales are also increasingly violent, for both staff and inmates, with assaults on staff reaching a high of over 2,700 incidents in the third quarter of 2024. Incidences of self-harm have also increased rapidly, from around 5,700 in early 2014 to almost 20,000 ten years later.

Police recorded crime figures by Police Force Area and Community Safety Partnership areas (which equate in the majority of instances, to local authorities).

In 2024/25, there were 26,617 crimes against public justice recorded by the police in Scotland, the highest figure for this type of crime since 2011/12, when there were 26,635 crimes of this type recorded.

There were approximately 530,640 shoplifting offences recorded by the police in England and Wales in 2024/25, the highest in this provided time period. Although the annual number of shoplifting offences remained quite stable before the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a slight trend of rising offences that reached a pre-pandemic peak of around 382,660 in 2017/18. The 2020/21 and 2021/20 reporting years are not directly comparable to the other reporting years due to COVID-19 lockdowns that occurred at that time. Areas with the highest shoplifting rate In 2024/25, the shoplifting rate for England and Wales as a whole was 8.7 shoplifting offences per 1,000 population. Looking at individual police force areas, the area covered by Cleveland Police Force in North East England had the highest shoplifting rate of 14.2, followed by Nottinghamshire Police Force, in the East Midlands, at 13. By contrast, the Dyfed-Powys Police Force Area, in Wales had the lowest shoplifting rate of just 3.9 offences per 1,000 population. Although Cleveland also had the highest overall crime rate in England and Wales, and Dyfed-Powys had one of the lowest, Nottinghamshire's crime rate was slightly below the overall average, despite having such a high shoplifting rate. Comparisons with other theft offences Shoplifting is one of the major sub-categories of theft in the jurisdiction of England and Wales. Although shoplifting offences have increased significantly recently, the number of theft offences overall has generally been falling. In 2002/03 for example, there were approximately 3.41 million incidences of theft, compared with just 1.78 million in 2024/25. This trend has been driven by declines in other types of crime, such as burglary and motor vehicle theft which have both fallen considerably when compared to the early 2000s. The sharp increase of fraud offences also reflects how the nature of property crime has evolved in recent years.

Black people were over twice as likely to be arrested as white people – there were 20.4 arrests for every 1,000 black people, and 9.4 for every 1,000 white people.

Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) and Home Office police recorded crime data, by quarterly time periods.

Trends in Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) crime (accredited official statistics) and Home Office police recorded crime (official statistics) for England and Wales, by offence type. Also includes more detailed data on crime such as violence, fraud and anti-social behaviour.

This is the tenth report in an annual series combining crimes recorded by the police and interviews from the British Crime Survey (BCS) for the financial year 2010/11. Each source has different strengths and weaknesses but together they provide a more comprehensive picture of crime than could be obtained from either series alone. Additional explanatory notes are available in the User Guide to Home Office Crime Statistics.

Longer term datasets contain https://data.gov.uk/dataset/0e26ee1b-26b7-406e-a3b1-f3481b324977/local-police-recorded-crime-data" class="govuk-link">police recorded crime for police force areas and local authorities

https://data.gov.uk/dataset/ea7a5bd4-4c26-4ea3-b1ff-c5c0dfe9fcfd/crime-in-england-and-wales-2010-11" class="govuk-link">Crimes detected in England & Wales 2010/11 reports on the levels and trends in detections and detection rates in England and Wales.

The last annual crime statistics https://data.gov.uk/dataset/df7e3554-2a62-497a-bbd6-2c3982dba5a5/crime-in-england-and-wales-2009-10" class="govuk-link">Crime in England and Wales 2009/10 was published in July 2010.

See the https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/crimeinenglandandwalesannualsupplementarytables" class="govuk-link">Crime Survey supplementary tables on the nature of: burglary, vehicle-related theft, bicycle theft, household theft, personal and other theft and vandalism.

Recorded crime figures for CSP areas. Number of offences for the last two years, percentage change, and rates per 1,000 population for the latest year.

In 2024/25, there were approximately 78,800 robbery offences reported by the police in England and Wales, compared with 81,000 in the previous year. During the provided time period, the reporting year with the highest number of robberies was 2002/03, when there were around 110,270. From 2002/03 onwards, robberies in England and Wales generally declined and reached a low of just 50,150 offences in 2014/15. Robberies increased from this year onwards, however, with 2019/20 seeing the highest number of offences since 2006/07. What types of crime are increasing? Unfortunately, the rise in robbery offences seen recently has not occurred in isolation. Overall crime in England and Wales also fell for several years before 2014/15 before suddenly climbing upwards and reaching a peak of over 6.74 million offences in 2022/23. Violent crime and sexual offences have both increased substantially, and while overall theft has declined, shoplifting offences have surged since the pandemic, with over 530,600 offences in 2024/25. This crime spike has led to a focus on the police and if they have enough manpower and resources to reverse this trend. The number of police officers was cut by around 20,000 between 2010 and 2016, while spending was reduced in a similar period, though expenditure has since increased and officer numbers are comparable to 2010 levels. Robbery and the UK justice system Robbery is considered one of the most serious criminal offences, defined as both a violent and property crime. The offence carries one of the longest average prisons sentences in England and Wales, at 45.2 months, or almost four years. Serious crimes such as this would typically be tried in Crown Courts, yet as of 2025, there is a significant backlog of cases awaiting trial. This has led to an increasingly delayed justice system, with the average time an offence reached a conclusion in crown courts reaching 407 days in 2022. At the back end of the justice system, prisons are struggling with capacity issues and have been operating with very little spare capacity for several years.

Data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) showing breakdowns of victimisation over time and by various demographic characteristics.

In 2024/25, there were approximately 1.78 million theft offences recorded by police forces in England and Wales, compared with just under 3.41 million in 2002/23. Unlike overall crime, the number of police recorded theft offences has not seen a substantial increase, with the number of thefts in the 2020s similar to that a decade earlier, with a small uptick in the late 2010s. This is however due to the decline of certain types of theft, with some types of theft increasing substantially since the pandemic. Shoplifting offences peak in 2025 In 2024/25, there were around 530,640 shoplifting offences reported by the police in England and Wales, a peak for this type of crime and a noticeable increase on the previous year. Areas of the country with the highest shoplifting rates include Cleveland, Nottinghamshire, and Sussex. Aside from shoplifting, theft from the person offences also reached a peak in the 2024/25 reporting year, at over 151,000 offences, compared with just 78,000 ten years previous. This type of theft is usually accomplished via pickpocketing or snatching and doesn't involve the implicit use or threat of force that a robbery offence would. Shifting crime patterns Since the early 2000s, there has been a significant fall in the number of burglaries in England and Wales. It's possible this is due to the falling value of certain types of goods, such as TVs, that would typically be targeted in a burglary, with home security technology also improving during this time. The rise of fraud offences and the proliferation of the online scam industry also suggest that would-be criminals have moved online, adoping increasingly sophisticated tactics to steal from people rather than via more conventional theft methods.

Firearms, knife- and sharp-instrument offences, offences involving a corrosive substance, hospital admissions for assault with sharp objects, fraud, offences flagged as domestic abuse-related, corruption, anti-social behaviour, perceptions, and non-notifiable incidents.

There were 15,253 fraud crimes recorded by the police in Scotland in 2024/25, a slight fall on the previous year, but a significant increase compared with previous reporting years, such as in 2019/20 when there were 11,939 of these offences.

Official UK police crime data by postcode, including crime types, locations, and outcomes