The number of knife crimes, robberies and advance fee scams in England and Wales have increased over the past year, after falling during the pandemic.
A total of 12,786 knife offences were carried out in London over the year leading to March 2023, which is a 16 per cent rise from the year before, according to a report by the Office of National Statistics.
Recorded sexual offences in England and Wales have jumped by 20 per cent since 2019/20, while there has been a a ‘six-fold increase’ in advance fee fraud, where victims are tricked into paying upfront for services and goods that never materialise.
The ONS data follows a 20-year high for crime reported last year, for similar offences, which has now risen by around 400,000 since last year.
The total number of crimes recorded by police in England and Wales stood at 6.7 million in 2022/23, compared with 6.3 million in 2021/22.
The number of knife crimes, robberies and advance fee scams in England and Wales have increased over the past year, after falling during the pandemic
A total of 12,786 knife offences were carried out in London over the year leading to March 2023, which is a 16 per cent rise from the year before, according to a report by the Office of National Statistics
The total number of crimes recorded by police in England and Wales stood at 6.7 million in 2022/23, compared with 6.3 million in 2021/22
However the ONS said this is ‘unlikely to reflect a genuine increase in crime’ because the rise was largely influenced by increases in the offence categories, which are ‘most subject to changes in reporting and recording practices’.
Nick Stripe, from the ONS’ Centre for Crime and Justice, said: ‘Some crime types are returning to their pre-pandemic levels, while others may have been affected by changes in people’s behaviour during the pandemic and the subsequent lifting of social restrictions.
‘Overall crime continues to be well below levels seen before the pandemic. This is in large part due to sharp falls in theft and criminal damage.
‘Total fraud has returned to pre-pandemic levels with a 14 per cent decrease in bank and credit account fraud largely offset by a six-fold increase in advance fee fraud – where victims are tricked into paying upfront for services or goods that never materialise – from 60,000 to 391,000 offences.
‘For crimes which are well reported and recorded by the police, we can gain additional insight from police data.
Knife crime, robbery and firearms offences are all down on March 2020 levels, but have seen increases in the past year. Imitation guns are driving the rise in firearms offences.’
Police recorded 195,315 sexual offences in 2022/23, up slightly on 193,559 in 2021/22 but a jump from 163,358 in the pre-pandemic year of 2019/20.
Despite overall levels of fraud remaining similar to those seen prior to the pandemic, there have been changes in the prevalence of certain types of fraud reported.
Estimates from the crime survey suggest there were 391,000 advance fee fraud offences in England and Wales, more than six times the number recorded in the survey for the year to March 2020 (60,000).
Figures for overall crime published on Thursday from the ONS Crime Survey for England and Wales for the year ending March 2023 suggest people aged 16 and over experienced 8.7 million offences, down 15 per cent from 10.2 million in a survey for the year ending March 2020.
The report measures experiences of crime in the 12 months before interview, meaning the latest survey – which was conducted between April 2022 and March 2023 – reflects crimes that could have occurred as far back as April 2021.
Experiences of crimes, as measured by the ONS survey, have been on a broad downwards trend since the mid-1990s.
The rise reflects improvements in police recording practices and increased reporting by victims, which means the figures ‘do not provide a reliable measure of trends in these types of crime’, the ONS said.
The data will also have been influenced by ‘the impact of high-profile incidents, media coverage and campaigns on people’s willingness to report both recent and historical incidents to the police, as well as a potential increase in the number of victims’.
Similar factors are likely to have contributed to the rise in police-recorded rape offences, which stood at 68,949 in 2022/23, down slightly from 69,973 in 2021/22 but up 16 per cent from 59,191 in 2019/20.
