Knife Crime

Request Number: FOI/14335

Category: Incident and Crime Statistics - Knife Crime

Subject: Knife Crime

Request and Answer:

Refinement to FOI/13932

Please proceed with 1a, 2a and 3a as suggested. I note the caveat around Q3a, which is acceptable to me.

Clarification received from you the Requester:
Don't worry about question 3

Request 1 A
Number of violent crimes recorded in schools in each calendar year (separately) from 2014 to 2024.

Answer

Number of offences under the offence groupings of violence against the person, possession of weapons, robbery and violent disorder, where the Modus Operandi (MO) location is ‘Education – school or college’.

Please note that the ‘Education – school/college’ location subtype indicates that an offence occurred at or within the vicinity of school premises. Therefore the offence may have occurred outside of school premises. Additionally, the offences may have occurred on school premises outside of school hours and those involved in the offence may not have any connection to the school.

This information is based on data extracted from a live system and may be subject to change. It is dependent on the information having been input into the system in such a way as to identify those records that are relevant.

Request 2 A

Number of knife crimes recorded in schools in each calendar year (separately) from 2014 to 2024.
 

Answer

The first table below is based on records identified for inclusion in published figures on selected offences involving knives or sharp instruments. These records have been linked to MO location to identify those where the location is ‘Education – school or college’. To tie in with the definition provided for Q1a, records have been included where the offence group is violence against the person or robbery; possession of weapons and violent disorder do not fall within the selected knife/sharp instrument offences.
     
The school location indicates that an offence occurred at or within the vicinity of school premises. Therefore the offence may have occurred outside of school premises. Additionally, the offences may have occurred on school premises outside of school hours and those involved in the offence may not have any connection to the school. 
     
A sharp instrument is any object that pierces the skin (or in the case of a threat, is capable of piercing the skin). 
Please Note: This is management information based on data extracted from a live system and may be subject to change. It is dependent on the information having been input into the system in such a way as to identify those records that are relevant.

Possession of weapon offences – under the Home Office Counting rules these offences are only recorded if the weapon is not used in the commission of another offence, such as an assault. What has been provided in the table below as a refinement are the number of offences of possessing article with blade or point on school premises, taking into account that this number will only those recorded where the blade or point was not used in the commission of another offence.