The latest Office of National Statistic (ONS) figures for police recorded crime have been released today and show decreases in firearms and drugs offences in South Yorkshire, but increases in other crime types, mostly in line with increases nationally.

The release today covers the period from April 2021 to March 2022 compared to the previous 12-month period.

Total recorded crime (excluding fraud) increased in South Yorkshire by 14 per cent, which is slightly lower than the increase of 15 per cent across Yorkshire and the Humber and 16 per cent in England and Wales.

The largest decrease was seen in the number of firearms offences which have reduced by 18 per cent compared to a reduction across Yorkshire and the Humber region of six percent and a slight rise in England and Wales of one per cent.

Drugs offences reduced by 8 per cent over the 12-month period.

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 (eleven per cent)

Other increases were lower than or in line with regional and national figures.

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.

As usual, there is a mixed bag of results for South Yorkshire.

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

“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%)

No change:

 Stalking and Harassment (0%)

The ONS report for England and Wales can be viewed here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/policeforceareadatatables