This graph shows the annual number of police-reported racially motivated hate crimes that have occurred in England and Wales from ********** to 2020. After a decrease during the years 2010 and 2013, annual increases were featured in the following years, resulting in a peak reaching over ** thousand recorded cases of racist hate crime 2018/19.
In the 2023/24 reporting year there were 140,561 hate crime incidents reported by the police in England and Wales compared with 147,645 in the previous year.
The areas of focus include: Victimisation, Police Activity, Defendants and Court Outcomes, Offender Management, Offender Characteristics, Offence Analysis, and Practitioners.
This is the latest biennial compendium of Statistics on Ethnicity and the Criminal Justice System and follows on from its sister publication Statistics on Women and the Criminal Justice System, 2019.
The PPS publishes annual statistics on Cases Involving Hate Crime. The statistics are set out in two parts:
In Part One, Tables 1 – 6 present key statistics in relation to cases involving hate crime submitted to the PPS by the PSNI.
In Part Two, Tables 7 - 10 present key statistics in relation to cases considered by a prosecutor to have involved hate crime which was ‘aggravated by hostility’.
The statistics include caseloads, prosecutorial decisions and the outcomes of prosecutions at court.
Each statistical release provides figures for the latest financial year and includes comparisons for the previous financial year.
There were 20,944 incidences of racist hate crime reported by the London Metropolitan Police in the 2023/24 reporting year, by far the most of any police force area in England and Wales. In the same time period, there were 7,466 racist incidents reported in the West Midlands.
For the latest data tables see ‘Police recorded crime and outcomes open data tables’.
These historic data tables contain figures up to September 2024 for:
There are counting rules for recorded crime to help to ensure that crimes are recorded consistently and accurately.
These tables are designed to have many uses. The Home Office would like to hear from any users who have developed applications for these data tables and any suggestions for future releases. Please contact the Crime Analysis team at crimeandpolicestats@homeoffice.gov.uk.
In 2023/24 there were 98,799 racist hate crime incidents recorded by the police service in England and Wales, compared with 103,625 in the previous reporting year.
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Police recorded crime figures by Police Force Area and Community Safety Partnership areas (which equate in the majority of instances, to local authorities).
Open Government Licence 3.0http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/
License information was derived automatically
7.7% of White women reported being the victim of domestic abuse in the year to March 2020, compared with 3.6% of White men.
Data on the number of police recorded racially or religiously aggravated harassment incidents in England and Wales from 2008/09 to 2019/20 shows that in the most recent period there was a rise in incidents, with the number reaching 4810.
The crime rate in the United Kingdom was highest in England and Wales in 2024/25, at **** crimes per 1,000 people, compared with Scotland, which had **** crimes per 1,000 population, and Northern Ireland, at **** crimes per 1,000 people in 2023/24. During this time period, the crime rate of England and Wales has usually been the highest in the UK, while Scotland's crime rate has declined the most, falling from **** crimes per 1,000 people in 2002/03, to just **** by 2021/22. Overall crime on the rise In 2024/25, there were approximately **** million crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales. Although this was a slight decline on the previous two years, it was still far higher than during the mid-2010s. While crime declined quite significantly between 2002/03 and 2013/14, this trend went into reverse in subsequent years. While there are no easy explanations for the recent uptick in crime, it is possible that reduced government spending on the police service was at least partly to blame. In 2009/10, for example, government spending on the police stood at around **** billion pounds, with this cut to *****billion in 2013/14. One of the most visible consequences of these cuts was a sharp reduction in the number of police officers in the UK. Between 2010 and 2017, the number of officers fell by 20,000, although the number of officers returned to pre-austerity levels by the 2020s. A creaking justice system During the period of austerity, the Ministry of Justice as a whole saw its budget sharply decline, from *** billion pounds in 2009/10 to just **** billion by 2015/16. Although there has been a reversal of the cuts to budgets and personnel in the justice system, the COVID-19 pandemic hit the depleted service hard in 2020. A backlog of cases grew rapidly, putting a strain on the ability of the justice system to process cases quickly. In 2022, for example, it took on average *** days for a crown court case to go from offence to conclusion, compared with *** days in 2018. There is also the issue of overcrowding in prisons, with the number of prisoners in England and Wales dangerously close to operational capacity in recent years.
2. Knife and offensive weapon offences overview
5. Sentencing under the Sentencing Act 2020
7. Future publications and contact details for any queries or feedback
This publication presents key statistics describing the trends in the number of offenders receiving cautions and convictions for
possession of an article with a blade or point
possession of an offensive weapon, or
threatening with either type of weapon
in England and Wales. Please note that cases still awaiting final decisions are no longer accounted for using estimation methodology. These are generally cases in the latest periods and are now counted as ‘other’ disposals until final decisions are made unless separately specified.
As well as this bulletin, the following products are published as part of this release:
ODS format tables containing data on knife or offensive weapon offences up to December 2022
An interactive table tool to look at previous offences involving possession of a blade, point or offensive weapon. The tool provides further breakdowns by gender, police identified ethnicity and prosecuting police force area. The data used in the tool is also included as a separate csv file.
An interactive https://moj-analytical-services.github.io/knife_possession_sankey/index.html" class="govuk-link">Sankey diagram looking at outcomes for offenders sentenced for these offences by whether or not they have a previous conviction or caution for possession of a blade, point or offensive weapon; which includes breakdowns by gender, age group and offence type.
This publication covers the period from 2012 to 2022. In the last three years of this period the work of the courts has been impacted by the restrictions imposed in response to the COVID pandemic, which led to court closures and subsequent backlogs, as well as any effects of the industrial action by criminal barristers taking place between April 2022 and October 2022. This should be borne in mind when making comparisons.
Point | Change | Commentary |
---|---|---|
The number of knife and offensive weapon offences dealt with by the Criminal Justice System (CJS) has decreased since 2021 but is still higher than at the very start of the pandemic. | Decrease | In 2022 19,292 knife and offensive weapon offences were dealt with by the CJS. This is a decrease of 2% from 2021, and a decrease of 14% from 2019 before the pandemic; but is 4% higher than 2020 when the work of the courts was impacted by the restrictions imposed. |
The proportion of offenders receiving an immediate custodial sentence for a knife and offensive weapon offence fell from 38% in 2019 to 30% 2022. | Decrease | This had been broadly stable at around 37%-38% between 2017 and 2019 before falling over subsequent years to 30% in 2022. In this period there was a corresponding increase in the proportion of offenders receiving a suspended sentence from 20% in 2019 to 25% in 2022. |
For 70% of offenders this was their first knife or offensive weapon possession offence. | Decrease | The proportion of offenders for whom this is their first knife or offensive weapon possession offence has decreased over the last decade, from 75% in 2012 to 70% in 2022 but has been broadly stable between 71% and 70% since 2019. |
The average custodial sentence received by offenders convicted for repeat possession offences under Section 315 of the Sentencing Act 2020 was 7.7 months in 2022. | Increase | This had decreased from 7.8 months in 2019 to 7.4 months in both 2020 and 2021 but increased again in 2022. |
<a href="#contents" class="go
2. Knife and offensive weapon offences overview
5. Sentencing for repeat convictions of possession of a knife or offensive weapon
7. Future publications and contact details for any queries or feedback
This publication presents key statistics describing the trends in the number of offenders receiving cautions and convictions for
possession of an article with a blade or point
possession of an offensive weapon, or
threatening with either type of weapon
in England and Wales. Please note that cases still awaiting final decisions are no longer accounted for using estimation methodology. These are generally cases in the latest periods and are now counted as ‘other’ disposals until final decisions are made unless separately specified.
As well as this bulletin, the following products are published as part of this release:
ODS format tables containing data on knife or offensive weapon offences up to the end of September 2022
An interactive table tool to look at previous offences involving possession of a blade, point or offensive weapon. The tool provides further breakdowns by gender, police identified ethnicity and prosecuting police force area. The data used in the tool is also included as a separate csv file.
An interactive https://moj-analytical-services.github.io/knife_possession_sankey/index.html" class="govuk-link">Sankey diagram looking at outcomes for offenders sentenced for these offences by whether or not they have a previous conviction or caution for possession of a blade, point or offensive weapon; which includes breakdowns by gender, age group and offence type.
This publication covers the period from year ending September 2012 to year ending September 2022. In the last three years of this period the work of the courts has been impacted by the restrictions imposed in response to the COVID pandemic, such as court closures and subsequent backlogs, and also industrial action by criminal barristers taking place between April 2022 and September 2022. This should be borne in mind when making comparisons.
Point | Change | Commentary |
---|---|---|
The number of knife and offensive weapon offences dealt with by the Criminal Justice System (CJS) has decreased since year ending September 2021 but is still higher than at the very start of the pandemic. | Decrease | In year ending September 2022 19,378 knife and offensive weapon offences were formally dealt with by the CJS. This is a decrease of 5% since year ending September 2021, but is 6% higher than in year ending September 2020 which includes the lockdown at the very start of the pandemic. |
The proportion of offenders receiving an immediate custodial sentence for a knife and offensive weapon offence remained stable at 30% between year ending September 2021 and year ending September 2022. | No Change | This had been broadly stable at around 36%-39% between year ending September 2017 and year ending September 2020 but dropped to 30% in year ending September 2021 and remained stable over the following year. In this period there was a corresponding increase in the proportion of offenders receiving a suspended sentence. |
For 70% of offenders this was their first knife or offensive weapon offence. | Decrease | The proportion of offenders for whom this is their first knife or offensive weapon offence has been decreasing over the last decade, from 76% in year ending September 2012 to 70% in year ending September 2022 but has been roughly stable since year ending September 2017. |
The average custodial sentence received by offenders sentenced for convictions under Section 315 of the Sentencing Act 2020 wa |
In 2020/21 there were over *** thousand race or religiously motivated assaults recorded by the police in England and Wales, compared with *** thousand in the previous year, which was also the peak for this type of crime in the provided time period.
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License information was derived automatically
Between 2012 and 2020, the number of self-inflicted deaths among white prisoners in public prisons in England and Wales went up from 49 to 57.
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.
In 2019/20, the ** to ** age group had the most homicides in England and Wales, at ***, compared with *** for those aged 25 to 34, and *** for those aged 35 to 44. Among the ** to ** age group, there were ** white victims, ** black victims, ** Asian victims, and a further ** from other ethnic groups.
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.
There were approximately 7,381 housebreaking offences recorded in Scotland in 2024/25,compared with 9,033 in the previous reporting year.
This graph shows the annual number of police-reported racially motivated hate crimes that have occurred in England and Wales from ********** to 2020. After a decrease during the years 2010 and 2013, annual increases were featured in the following years, resulting in a peak reaching over ** thousand recorded cases of racist hate crime 2018/19.