Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord True on 14 March (HL6441), whether they will provide the equivalent data for the 20 years up to April 2022.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

A response to the noble Lord’s Parliamentary Question of 10 May is below and attached.

Professor Sir Ian Diamond | National Statistician

The Rt Hon. the Lord Field of Birkenhead CH DL

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW

18 May 2022

Dear Lord Field,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking for the number of offences, by age, currently recorded as homicide by sharp instrument for the previous 20 years up to April 2022 (HL58).

The Office for National Statistics publishes homicide figures where the method of killing was by a knife or sharp instrument sourced from the Home Office Homicide Index, which is a database separate from the main police recorded crime dataset. It contains detailed record-level information about each homicide recorded by the police in England and Wales. It is continually updated with revised information from the police and courts and, as such, is a richer source of data than the main police recorded crime dataset.

Table 1 presents the number of offences currently recorded as homicide by a sharp instrument, by age, for the year ending March 2011 to the year ending March 2021. This data was published alongside Homicide in England and Wales, year ending March 2021 [1]. We do not hold up-to-date data on the number of offences currently recorded as homicide by a sharp instrument, by age, for year ending March 2003 to year ending March 2010 as requested [2].

Data for year ending March 2022 will not be published until February 2023.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond

1 https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/homicideinenglandand
wales/yearendingmarch2021
2 This data may be available if you contact the Home Office directly.

3 As of 10 December 2021; figures are subject to revision as cases are dealt with by the police and by the courts, or as further information becomes available.

4 The age categories that have been used in this table are supplied by the Home Office.

5 Home Office statisticians and police forces have undertaken a review of homicide data for year ending March 2019 and year ending March 2020 to update suspect data and cancelled crimes. Totals shown in this table will not match previously published figures.