With the Government's target of 20,000 extra police officers being achieved, figures from the Office for National Statistics have revealed that crime in England and Wales has fallen to its lowest level on record.
- Incidents of violent crime have dropped by 28% in the year to June 2023.
- A separate Crime Survey for England and Wales suggests theft has dropped by 20%
- The number of recorded homicides fell to 602, a drop of 10% from the previous year.
- Incidents of anti-social behaviour (ASB) are down 15% on pre-pandemic levels.
- Police-recorded incidents of burglary were down 29% on the number recorded in the year to March 2020.
Billy Gazard of the ONS said:
Our latest data shows crime continues to fall and is down 10% compared with 12 months ago.
This decline in crimes against people and households has been driven by falls in criminal damage and fraud offences.
The new police headcount of 149,572 officers in England and Wales is higher than the previous record of 146,030 in 2010.
Meanwhile, Wirral Council has announced that the Borough has seen a drop in the rate of young people entering the justice system by almost 27% in 2022 compared to the previous year. The fall is attributed in part to a number of preventative projects run by the Wirral Youth Justice Service, a statutory partnership between the council, Merseyside Police, Probation Service and health partners.
This week, drug gangs across the UK were targeted in a national police operation last week, leading to 250 county lines being taken down and 1,613 arrests.
40kg of Class A drugs worth over £1.2 million was seized, along with 33 firearms, 377 bladed weapons, and over £1.2 million in cash, as forces made large gains against these gangs and the products that finance their exploitative criminality.
Last week’s enforcement successes come as new Home Office statistics show that since April 2022, 1,700 lines have been taken down though the government’s County Lines Programme, alongside 3,300 arrests and 4,100 vulnerable people referred to support services, highlighting the success law enforcement, government and support services are having in bringing down this heinous criminality.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman said:
Vile thugs running county lines drug gangs blight our communities and groom the most vulnerable in society for their personal gain.
Our police officers are working every day to break up these criminal networks pushing illegal drugs on our streets, and since April 2022 they have shut down over 1,700 county lines through the County Lines Programme.
My message is clear. We will not tolerate illegal drugs of any kind, and we must rid our communities of these criminals.
