Mr. Moss:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many crimes involving the use of a knife were recorded by each police division in England in each of the last 10 years. [306464]
Mr. Hanson:
The Home Office has collected data on knife and sharp instrument offences since April 2007 via a special additional data collection. Data are therefore only available for two years.
In 2007-08, the data collection covered the following offences: attempted murder, GBH and robbery. In 2008-09, the collection was expanded to include threats to kill, ABH, rape and sexual assaults. There were also changes in how both GBH with and without intent was recorded by forces following clarification of counting rules. Therefore, the figures between the two years are not comparable.
There is a further reason why the figures are not fully comparable. Some forces in 2007-08 included, for technical reasons, a number of 'unbroken' bottle offences, which is outside the defined scope of the collection. For 2008-09, the majority of forces within England could supply data excluding unbroken bottles, with four Home Office forces still unable to remove them from their returns.
The data for each police force in both England and Wales are published in 'Crime in England and Wales 2008-09' at the following link:
Data for 2007-08 are shown in Table 7.11 and data for 2008-09 are shown in Table 7.12.
These figures do not include homicide, as these are collected from the separate Homicide Index. The 1998-99 to 2007-08 homicide data for each police force in England are shown in Table A.
Homicide figures for 2008-09 are pre-announced to be published on 21 January 2010.
Table A: Offences currently recorded as homicide( 1) involving the use of a knife or sharp instrument, 1998-99 to 2007-08( 2)
Police force
1998-99
1999- 20 00
2000-01
2001-02
2002-03
2003-04
2004-05
2005-06
2006-07
2007-08
Cleveland
1
3
5
3
3
3
3
3
3
4
Durham
2
0
1
2
3
0
2
3
5
0
Northumbria
5
9
5
4
8
8
6
7
10
14
North East Region
8
12
11
9
14
11
11
13
18
18
Cheshire
3
0
0
3
2
5
3
7
4
2
5 Jan 2010 : Column 133W
5 Jan 2010 : Column 134W
Cumbria
1
5
3
1
2
1
1
0
0
3
Greater Manchester
14
10
14
23
19
17
15
11
13
15
Lancashire
2
1
15
4
10
12
11
1
4
13
Merseyside
11
6
14
3
12
10
14
10
10
9
North West Region
31
22
46
34
45
45
44
29
31
42
Humberside
2
2
2
3
5
8
3
1
7
6
North Yorkshire
0
1
0
0
0
1
3
2
0
0
South Yorkshire
3
4
4
6
7
2
7
6
3
8
West Yorkshire
12
7
8
11
13
7
13
11
12
13
Yorkshire and the Humber Region
17
14
14
20
25
18
26
20
22
27
Derbyshire
1
2
1
4
2
3
2
2
3
1
Leicestershire
1
0
4
2
4
9
3
3
5
3
Lincolnshire
1
2
0
1
2
2
0
0
3
3
Northamptonshire
2
1
3
3
5
1
0
6
6
4
Nottinghamshire
6
5
4
6
3
6
6
7
7
3
East Midlands Region
11
10
12
16
16
21
11
18
24
14
Staffordshire
4
2
0
1
0
3
3
2
5
3
Warwickshire
2
1
0
1
2
2
3
1
5
2
West Mercia
3
1
3
5
2
5
3
0
3
1
West Midlands
16
15
9
19
17
22
21
22
15
15
West Midlands Region
25
19
12
26
21
32
30
25
28
21
Bedfordshire
2
1
2
7
1
1
4
3
3
3
Cambridgeshire
1
4
0
1
2
5
2
2
2
4
Essex
5
9
2
10
7
5
0
6
9
3
Hertfordshire
1
5
4
3
4
4
5
3
6
3
Norfolk
5
2
4
1
0
3
1
1
3
3
Suffolk
0
0
3
2
0
2
2
3
2
2
East of England Region
14
21
15
24
14
20
14
18
25
18
London, City of
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
Metropolitan Police
52
68
69
68
68
61
62
57
70
78
London Region
52
68
69
68
68
61
62
57
71
78
Hampshire
3
5
5
7
10
3
7
4
7
7
Kent
3
8
4
10
6
4
4
7
6
5
Surrey
1
1
1
2
1
1
4
3
0
3
Sussex
4
5
5
6
9
3
9
4
3
3
Thames Valley
7
8
3
9
13
3
6
7
8
6
South East Region
18
27
18
34
39
14
30
25
24
24
Avon and Somerset
5
5
3
4
4
4
4
2
4
6
Devon and Cornwall
6
1
5
6
2
3
10
4
5
6
Dorset
1
1
3
3
6
0
0
2
2
Gloucestershire
1
3
0
3
3
2
2
0
2
0
Wiltshire
1
0
3
2
2
3
1
1
2
South West Region
13
11
11
16
14
17
19
7
14
16
England
189
204
208
247
256
239
247
212
257
258
(1) As at 5 January 2009; figures are subject to revision as cases are dealt with by the police and by the courts, or as further information becomes available. (2) Offences are shown according to the year in which police initially recorded the offence as homicide. This is not necessarily the year in which the incident took place or the year in which any court decision was made.
