What we can't tell you · Fragmented

What is the ethnicity of victims and suspects in knife and sharp-instrument offences?

Fragmented The data exists but is held by many authorities separately, with no national compilation; coverage has to be tracked authority by authority.

Why

Ethnicity exists only in separate slices of the knife-crime picture. The ONS homicide appendix tables give sharp-instrument homicides by ethnic group of victim (Table 12) and convicted suspects by ethnic appearance (Table 33). The Ministry of Justice knife and offensive weapon sentencing statistics give officer-identified ethnicity for possession and threat offences by prosecuting force area, not for knife-enabled violence. ONS FOI-2025-3244 states ONS does not hold knife offences or hospital admissions by ethnicity. The ONS offences involving weapons tables carry no ethnicity.

What is known

What is not known

Ethnicity of victims or suspects for non-fatal knife-enabled offences at any geography
Self-defined ethnicity in the sentencing statistics (officer-identified only)
Hospital admissions for assault by sharp object by ethnicity (patient ethnicity is held in Hospital Episode Statistics but no table was found)

Who holds the data

Home Office (Homicide Index, recorded crime)
Ministry of Justice (courts)
NHS England (Hospital Episode Statistics)
Police forces in England and Wales

Would a Freedom of Information request help?

Possibly. NHS England holds patient ethnicity for sharp-object admissions and forces hold victim ethnicity in crime records; a request may produce suppressed counts. ONS has confirmed it holds nothing further.

Privacy and disclosure restrictions

Homicide ethnicity categories changed to Census groupings from 1 April 2021. Small counts are suppressed in health and court data.

Official sources checked

Last reviewed 2026-09-02. Availability changes; if a publication now answers this question, challenge the classification below.