Civometry

ONS · police force area: ENGLAND AND WALES

Offences involving a knife or sharp instrument: ENGLAND AND WALES

4 periods to Year ending March 2026

207,606offences

Offences involving a knife or sharp instrument for ENGLAND AND WALES totalled 207,606 offences in the 4 periods to Year ending March 2026, up 3.0% (6,008) on the 4 periods before.

  1. ONS dataset
  2. Table P6
  3. ENGLAND AND WALES [note 9]
  4. column “Apr 2025 to Mar 2026”
  5. 48774 per period
  6. published 23 July 2026

Year ending March 2011 to Year ending March 2026

Offences involving a knife or sharp instrument by police force area: Year ending March 2011 to Year ending March 2026CoalitionCoalitionConservativeConservativeConservativeConservativeConservativeLabourLabour020k40k201520202025Before: Force recording practice before the National Data Quality Improvement Service. After: Recording under the National Data Quality Improvement Service, adopted by most forces from April 2019.methodology changeYear ending March 2011: 36,068 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2012: 33,740 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2013: 28,902 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2014: 28,337 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2015: 29,161 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2016: 32,724 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2017: 39,468 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2018: 47,467 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2019: 52,511 offences · published 23 July 2026Year 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 revisedLatestDashed line: change in coverage or methodShaded bands: governments (see labels)Hover or use arrow keys to read a value

What this measures

The number of selected serious offences recorded by each police force in England and Wales that involved a knife or sharp instrument, for every year ending March since 2011, with the England and Wales total (which includes British Transport Police).

Possession of a knife without it being used, the share of offences involving a knife (the percentage columns are not read), regional aggregates, or offences before the force joined the collection.

Source

Dataset
Police force area data tables
Release
Year ending March 2026, published 23 July 2026 · sha256 27d7884ef0e07dad…
All values
Offences involving a knife or sharp instrument by police force area