KNIFE-RELATED crime in London made up almost a third of all such offences recorded in England and Wales in 2024, with the Metropolitan Police logging 16,789 incidents, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Thursday.
This amounts to one offence every 30 minutes in the capital and represents 31 per cent of the 54,587 knife-enabled crimes reported across England and Wales last year. The total number marks a two per cent rise from 53,413 offences in 2023.
The ONS noted that the majority of these incidents occurred in major urban centres, with West Midlands Police accounting for nine per cent and Greater Manchester Police six per cent of the national total.
Knife-enabled crimes include cases where a blade or sharp instrument was used to injure or threaten, including where the weapon was not actually seen. The Met's 2024 figure is 14 per cent higher than the pre-pandemic total of 14,680 in March 2020.
There were 28,150 recorded offences involving possession of a bladed article in England and Wales in 2024, representing a one per cent increase from 27,892 the year before, and up from 23,264 in 2019/20.
Knife-enabled homicides dropped to 216 — a 16 per cent decrease from 258 in 2023.
Shoplifting offences also reached a record high, with 516,971 incidents recorded in 2024 — a 20 per cent rise from 429,873 in 2023 — the highest since current police recording practices began in 2003.
The ONS said shoplifting cases have been increasing sharply since the Covid-19 pandemic.
