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ONS · Crime in England and Wales: Appendix tables

Offences involving a knife or sharp instrument

Year ending March 2026 Final

48,774offences

Offences involving a knife or sharp instrument were 48,774 offences in the year ending March 2026, down 8.1% (4,322) from 53,096 in the year ending March 2025.

▼ 8.1% · −4,322 against Year ending March 2025 (year on year)

  1. ONS count
  2. Year ending March 2026
  3. published 23 July 2026
  4. Table B5a
  5. row “Total selected offences including homicide”
  6. column “Apr 2025 to Mar 2026”
  7. cell value 48774

Year ending March 2020 to Year ending March 2026

Offences involving a knife or sharp instrument: Year ending March 2020 to Year ending March 2026ConservativeConservativeLabourLabour020k40k2020202120222023202420252026Year ending March 2020: 55,170 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2021: 44,728 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2022: 49,189 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2023: 51,741 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2024: 53,995 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2025: 53,096 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2026: 48,774 offences · published 23 July 2026
Published valueProvisional or revisedLatestShaded bands: governments (see labels)Hover or use arrow keys to read a value

Breakdowns

What this measures

The number of selected serious offences recorded by the police in England and Wales in a 12-month period that involved a knife or sharp instrument: homicide, attempted murder, threats to kill, assault with injury, robbery, rape and sexual assault.

What this doesn’t measure

Possession of a knife without it being used, offences not reported to the police, or knife offences outside the selected categories.

Important caveat

This counts selected violent and sexual offences that the police recorded as involving a knife or sharp instrument. It depends on police recording and is affected by recording practice. Greater Manchester Police has been included since the year ending March 2020; homicide figures are as recorded at the time of publication and are subject to revision.

When the way this was measured changed

A series can move because the thing being measured changed, or because the way of measuring it changed. Each change below is marked on the chart, and says what the figures meant on either side of it.

April 2019 · coverage change

Before
Excludes Greater Manchester Police, which did not supply comparable data.
After
Includes Greater Manchester Police, from the year ending March 2020.

Greater Manchester Police included from the year ending March 2020; earlier years in this table are not comparable and are published separately.

Revision history

No period of this series has been revised since it was first ingested here. Revisions are recorded automatically when a later release publishes a different figure for the same period.

Source

Publisher
ONS
Publication
Crime in England and Wales: Appendix tables
Release
Year ending March 2026, published 23 July 2026
Source file
appendixtablesyemar2026.xlsx
File SHA-256
9e4a930ec090b4b4a7dfda22f6f5f3b418cfa6a034f977ae99977562f8502ac9
Retrieved
4 September 2026
Sheet
Worksheet B5
Table
Table B5a
Row
Total selected offences including homicide
Column
Apr 2025 to Mar 2026
Cell value
48774
Geography
England and Wales
Unit
offences
API
/api/metrics/knife_offences · /series · /vintages

Related metrics

Government periods

Change during each government, from the level inherited to the last complete period before it left office. Describes the period; does not attribute cause.

Labour 2024–53,995Year ending March 202448,774Year ending March 2026↓ 9.7%

Full comparison with chart

Release
Year ending March 2026 · publication page
Last updated
23 July 2026
Next scheduled release
22 October 2026 (official date)