Reported crime increases by 13%

Official figures published on October 19 show crime in England & Wales increasing for the third year in a row by almost 600,000 offences in the year to June when the total crime figure stood at 5.2m offences.

This is the first time that the total has exceeded 5 million in over a decade. There were big rises in violence against the person and theft. Knife crime increased by 26% and murder rose by 8%. Illegal driving seriously injured or killed 711 people.

Violence against the person increased by 20% to 1.2 million offences and sex crimes increased by the same percentage to 129,000.