6 August 2026 - 3:20pm
Knife-related homicides have fallen to a 35-year low, according to new Home Office figures.
A Government press release this week stated that “knife-enabled homicides have fallen 26% while knife crime overall has dropped by 11%” since Labour came to power in 2024. It also highlighted that over 14,500 bladed weapons, “including ninja swords, zombie-style knives, machetes, swords and kitchen knives” have been removed from circulation as a result of the Government’s “surrender bins” initiative for safely disposing of knives. These bins are managed by the charity Word 4 Weapons and are located in London, Greater Manchester and the West Midlands.
In addition, 783 knives and weapons were handed in at a mobile surrender van operated by violence-prevention organisation FazAmnesty, which has worked in support of the Home Office scheme. The Government release claimed that “blades like those surrendered have been used in violent crimes and caused devastation to communities across the country.”
Policing and Crime Minister Sarah Jones responded to the new data by saying: “Every dangerous weapon that has been surrendered so far is a weapon off our streets and a community made that little bit safer.” She added that ministers “will not stop until we meet our commitment of halving knife crime in a decade”.
Earlier in his premiership in September 2024, Keir Starmer vowed to halve knife crime over the course of the following decade, labelling it a “national crisis”. Earlier this year, while Starmer was still in office, Labour launched the National Knife Crime Centre, with the aim of stopping the “grey market” of weapons sold online. Other plans included AI mapping to identify areas and schools that are most vulnerable to knife crime, as well as adult chaperones for children attending at-risk schools.
According to Home Office figures from last autumn, almost 60,000 knives were removed from circulation in the UK thanks to a combination of surrender bins and police operations. In the year ending September 2025, the UK’s criminal justice system dealt with over 20,000 knife and offensive weapon crimes, marking a 1.5% increase on the previous year and a 21.5% increase since the start of the decade. The 2025 figures were the highest recorded since 2019. Of these offences, a little under a third (30.8%) resulted in a custodial sentence.
Last year, data obtained via freedom of information requests revealed a fall in the number of under-18s arrested for knife crime, a drop that was consequently linked to a relaxation in stop-and-search procedures. Jodie Taylor, whose teenage son Daejaun Campbell was stabbed to death with a machete in September 2024, last year accused Starmer and London Mayor Sadiq Khan of failing to tackle the capital’s “knife crime epidemic”.
Starmer’s successor Andy Burnham, while serving as mayor of Greater Manchester, pledged to bring down knife crime in the region through “more active neighbourhood policing”. Statistics published earlier this year found that Greater Manchester’s homicide rate had fallen by 32%, reaching its lowest level since 1990, while recorded knife crime by police dropped by 15%. Burnham said at the time: “Reductions in knife crime and homicides don’t happen by chance — they come from early intervention, our strong partnership with the police and our work with communities to tackle the root causes of violence.”
