From Sky News today:

New Home Office figures reveal the number of knife murders across the UK has dropped by 27% in two years.

Overall knife crime has been cut by 10% and more than 1,900 knives were removed from the streets in the same time span.

Meanwhile, in the 2025 to 2026 period, 2,833 county lines were closed and 7,381 people were arrested – with the Home Office saying this is the “best year on record” for its county lines programme.

https://news.sky.com/story/knife-murders-in-uk-drop-by-a-quarter-as-county-lines-crackdown-has-best-year-on-record-13562142

It suggests a deeply embedded sense that ‘England and Wales‘ is just the same as ‘across the UK.‘

It is good news for England & Wales, the lowest since 2015 but the overall homicide level there, at 522 in 2025, is significantly higher than the level in Scotland of 45, the lowest since records began in 1976. Based on population, England and Wales had around 30 more murders than they would have had if they had been governed these last two decades by a centre-left government like the SNP, protecting public services.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/homicide-scotland-2024-25/pages/main-findings/ https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/homicideinenglandandwales/yearendingmarch2025