This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The murder and manslaughter rate in England and Wales has risen to the highest in a decade, official figures show.

There were 719 homicides – murder and manslaughter – in the year to June, a 14% increase from 630 in the previous year excluding exceptional incidents in 2017 such as the terrorist attacks in London and Manchester, the Office for National Statistics said. It was the highest number since 775 homicides were recorded in the year to March 2008.

There were 39,332 offences involving a knife or sharp instrument, up 12% on the previous year, according to police-recorded data. The figure excludes data from Greater Manchester police after a review identified undercounting of crimes involving a knife or sharp instrument due to a technical issue.

There were also jumps in the numbers of recorded robberies (up 22%), sexual offences (up 18%), vehicle-related theft (up 7%) and burglaries (2%).

Total police-recorded crime rose by 9% as forces in England and Wales registered a total of 5.6m offences in the year to June, the ONS said.

But the crime survey of England and Wales – a face-to-face survey of people’s experiences of crime, which differs from police-recorded data – showed no change at 10.7m offences during the period.

Joe Traynor, of the ONS centre for crime and justice, said: “Over recent decades we’ve seen continued falls in overall levels of crime but in the last year the trend has been more stable. The latest figures show no change in the total level of crime but variation by crime types.

“We saw rises in some types of theft and in some lower-volume but higher-harm types of violence, balanced by a fall in the high-volume offence of computer misuse. There was no change in other high-volume offences such as overall violence, criminal damage and fraud.

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“To put today’s crime survey figures into context, only two out of 10 adults experienced crime in the latest year.”

The crime survey showed a 6% rise in offences when excluding fraud and computer misuse, to 6.2m in the period. New victimisation questions on fraud and computer misuse were introduced into the survey in October 2015 and the ONS said they were excluded when looking at changes in crime over the longer term.

John Apter, the chair of the Police Federation, which represents tens of thousands of rank and file officers, said: “It didn’t take a crystal ball to predict these shocking increases because they only reflect what we have been telling government for years – we need more boots on the ground.

“We can’t let the government get away with launching a serious violence strategy which fails to make one single mention of the falling numbers of police officers keeping the public safe. We have lost nearly 22,000 officers since 2010, and there are now only 122,404 across the whole of England and Wales tasked with trying to stem the rising tide of violent crime. It’s not enough.”

The shadow home secretary, Diane Abbott, said: “These figures are truly shocking and must put an end to Tory austerity and police cuts.

“You can’t keep the public safe on the cheap. The Tories … have now cut over 21,000 police officers since 2010, leaving forces across the country understaffed and overstretched.”

The policing minister, Nick Hurd, said: “Although the chance of being a victim remains low, we are taking decisive action in a number of areas.

“To combat serious violence our strategy addresses the root causes of crime with a focus on early intervention and we have announced a new £200m youth endowment fund to support young people at risk of involvement in crime.

“We are consulting on a public health approach to serious violence and giving police extra powers to tackle knife crime through our offensive weapons bill.”