Britain’s biggest leap in crime for a decade

One offence every six seconds ++ Gun and knife crime up by 20% ++ Rape rises by a third ++ But we have 21,000 fewer police than in 2010

SOARING violence, burglaries and sex attacks have driven police to record the largest annual increase in crime for more than a decade.

Forces in England and Wales logged a total of 5.3million crimes in the year to the end of September, a 14 per cent increase on the previous 12 months.

They recorded surging numbers of offences including robbery, vehicle theft, knife and gun crime as well as rape and stalking. The increase, which meant a crime took place every six seconds, was the largest since the introduction of a strict recording regime in 2002.

It came as it emerged there are now 121,929 police officers in England and Wales, 21,805 fewer than 2010.

Police chiefs admitted the startling crime statistics reflect a ‘genuine’ trend that ends more than a decade of falling crime. But the Office for National Statistics, which issued the figures, urged caution noting that a separate measure it publishes, the Crime Survey for England and Wales, showed a 10 per cent drop in offences over the same 12-month period.

The survey asks adults about their experiences of crime, including offences they may not have reported to the police.

Experts said the stark contrast may be because although some of the most seri- ous crimes have increased, they remain relatively rare. The drop seen in the crime survey was also magnified by a significant fall in fraud and cyber crime offences, down 15 per cent year-on-year.

The recorded crime figures painted a shocking picture of offences of almost every kind increasing.

They will lead critics to suggest criminals are taking advantage of controversial decisions by police leaders to abandon some types of investigations.

Chief constables also admit they are struggling to cope with the demands of increasingly complex crime against a backdrop of the terrorist threat and falling budgets.

According to the ONS, violence soared 20 per cent to almost 1.3million offences with increases in gun crime (up 20 per cent) and knife crime (up 21 per cent) at a seven-year high.

Robbery and rape rose by nearly a third (both 29 per cent) as the 138,045 overall number of sexual offences rose by 23 per cent. Domestic burglaries increased by 32 per cent, with 261,915 offences in the year to September 2017. Vehicle offences soared 18 per cent, but recorded drug offences fell by 6 per cent, with offences of drug possession down 7 per cent to 108,356. The numbers will fuel concerns that police chiefs are decriminalising some drug possession offences.

The vast majority of gun and knife crimes took place in London and other major cities, which also suffered surging crimes linked to moped gangs. Policing minister Nick Hurd said the ONS survey was ‘clear that overall traditional crime is continuing to fall, and is now down by almost 40 per cent since 2010’. But he admitted ‘some of the increase in police-recorded violent offences is genuine’ and said the Government is acting urgently to counter it with tough new laws.

‘Officers are under increasing pressure’