Homicide: Knives
(asked on 10th October 2024) - View Source
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what percentage of knife-related homicides between 2000 and 2024 were by machete.
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.
The Lord Roberts of Llandudno
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
16 October 2024
Dear Lord Roberts,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what percentage of knife-related homicides between 2000 and 2024 were by machete (HL1510).
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes figures on crime in England and Wales based on two main data sources: police recorded crime data, and the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW). As a victimisation survey, the CSEW cannot ask respondents about their experience of homicide. Homicide data is supplied to us by the Home Office as part of police recorded crime.
We publish breakdowns of the type of weapon used in homicide by a sharp instrument in table 9 of our Homicide in England and Wales appendix tables1. These breakdowns were introduced to the Homicide Index in April 2022. The latest period for which data are currently available is the year ending March 2023. These data have been presented in Table 1 below.
Of the homicides where a knife or sharp instrument was used, 5.7% of them were carried out using a machete in the year ending March 2023. See table 9 for a full breakdown. Data for the year ending March 2024 is provisionally scheduled for release in February 2025.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Sir Ian Diamond
1https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/appendixtableshomIcideinenglandandwales
Table 1: Number and percentage of offences currently recorded as homicide by a sharp instrument[1],[2].
Type of sharp instrument | Apr 2022 to Mar 2023 | Percentage |
Axe | 2 | 0.8 |
Combat / Rambo / Military style knife | 5 | 2.0 |
Flick knife | 6 | 2.5 |
Hunting knife | 4 | 1.6 |
Kitchen knife | 101 | 41.4 |
Lock knife | 7 | 2.9 |
Machete | 14 | 5.7 |
Sword | 3 | 1.2 |
Zombie knife | 7 | 2.9 |
Other knife[3] | 37 | 15.2 |
Other sharp instrument | 6 | 2.5 |
Sharp instrument involved but type not known/not recovered | 52 | 21.3 |
Total | 244 | 100 |
Source: Homicide Index from the Home Office
[1]As of 12 December 2023; figures are subject to revision as cases are dealt with by the police and by the courts, or as further information becomes available.
[2]Type of sharp instrument was introduced in the Homicide Index on 1 April 2022.
[3]Other knife includes those which do not fit into the other published headings.