The variety of offences involving a knife or sharp instrument elevated by 7 per cent final 12 months, official figures present.
New Workplace for Nationwide Statistics knowledge stated there have been 49,489 of a majority of these offences recorded by police between January 2023 and December 2023.
This was up from 46,153 (7 per cent) in the identical interval in 2022 however 3 per cent decrease than pre-Covid pandemic ranges.
There have been 51, 206 such offences within the 12 months ending March 2022.
The ONS stated there was a “noticeable enhance” of 20 per cent within the variety of robberies involving a knife or sharp instrument.
West Midlands was the policing space with the very best quantity of a majority of these offences at 180 per 100,000 of inhabitants.
Metropolitan Police, which covers most of London, was second with 165 offences per 100,000 of the inhabitants.
Cleveland, the policing space overlaying Middlesbrough, Stockton, Hartlepool and Redcar was third with 143.
Dyfed-Powys, which covers Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire and Powys in southwest Wales, had the fewest quantity of offences at 32.
North Yorkshire had the second-fewest at 36 whereas Sussex was third with 40.
The ONS knowledge printed on Thursday additionally confirmed that shoplifting offences had soared to their highest degree in 20 years.
A complete of 430,104 offences have been recorded within the 12 months to December 2023, up 37 per cent from 315,040 within the earlier 12 months – the very best degree since data started in 2003.
Yvette Cooper, Labour’s shadow dwelling secretary, stated the most recent figures expose the “scale of Conservative failure on legislation and order” whereas “criminals are simply getting away with it”.
A spokesman for No 10 stated the surge in shoplifting was “clearly unacceptable” and was being pushed by “organised criminality”, however famous general crime charges have been down 20 per cent since 2019.
Graham Wynn, assistant director of regulatory affairs on the British Retail Consortium, stated “insufficient” police motion had given shoplifters “free rein” – with theft losses doubling final 12 months to £1.8 billion and an extra £1.2 billion spent on anti-crime measures.
“Not solely has the variety of thefts elevated, however thieves have gotten bolder, extra aggressive, and extra regularly armed with weapons,” he added.
“We name on the police and the newly elected Police and Crime Commissioners to get powerful on retail crime and guarantee tackling this situation is a excessive precedence in future native policing plans.”