New figures show decrease in firearms and drugs offences in South Yorkshire, but burglary knife crimes, and sexual offences rise

Danielle Andrews
By Danielle Andrews
Published 25th Jul 2022, 11:39 BST
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New figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) show that the number of firearms and drugs offences have fallen in South Yorkshire, but residential burglary and robbery offences increased.

Firearm offences decreased by 18 per cent in South Yorkshire in April 2021 to March 2022, compared to the previous 12-month period.

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This compares to a six percent reduction across Yorkshire and the Humber, and an England and Wales reduction of one per cent.

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Firearm offences decreased by 18 per cent in South Yorkshire in April 2021 to March 2022, compared to the previous 12-month period.Firearm offences decreased by 18 per cent in South Yorkshire in April 2021 to March 2022, compared to the previous 12-month period.
Firearm offences decreased by 18 per cent in South Yorkshire in April 2021 to March 2022, compared to the previous 12-month period.

Drugs offences also reduced by eight per cent over the 12-month period.

However, the number of robberies, knife crimes, and sexual offences rose by 21, 19, and 18 per cent respectively.

South Yorkshire was an outlier in residential burglary offences with a rise of seven per cent compared to a decrease of six per cent across Yorkshire and the Humber and two per cent in England and Wales.

Robbery also rose by 21 per cent, which was higher than Yorkshire and the Humber (14 per cent) and England and Wales (11 per cent)

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Dr Alan Billings, South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner said: “We must always treat these statistics with some caution. They can vary considerably from year to year.

“The more important figures are those for trends over a longer period of time. In addition, these comparisons include the time when crime was still being impacted by coronavirus.

“Crime fell during this time and then began to rise towards pre-coronavirus figures.”

He added: “While overall crime levels rose by 16% in the England and Wales, in South Yorkshire this was less at 14%.

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“However, I am particularly pleased to see that firearms offences fell considerably by 18% when across the country they rose by 1%.

“Residential burglary rose as did knife crime and these are areas where I have asked South Yorkshire Police to redouble their efforts.

Below are the crime types according to whether they increased or decreased in the 12 months to March 2022 compared to March 2021.

Decrease:

Firearm Offences (-18%) Drug offences (-8%)

Increase:

Robbery (21%) Knife crime (19%) Sexual offences (18%) Violence against the person (17%) Theft (15%) Total recorded crime (excl. fraud) (14%) Criminal damage and arson (12%) public order offences (10%) Residential burglary (7%) Possession of weapons (4%) Crimes against society (3%)