Number of robbery offences in England and Wales 2002-2024
In 2023/24 there were approximately 81,019 robbery offences reported by the police in England and Wales, compared with 75,012 in the previous year. During the provided time period, the reporting year with the highest number of robberies was 2002/03, when there were 110,271. From 2002/03 onwards, robberies in England and Wales generally declined, and reached a low of just 50,154 offences in 2014/15. Robberies increased from this year onwards, however, with 2019/20 seeing the highest number of offences since 2006/07.
What types of crime are increasing?
Unfortunately, the rise in robbery offences seen recently has not occurred in isolation. Overall crime in England and Wales also fell for several years prior to 2014/15 before suddenly climbing upwards and reaching over 6.74 million offences in 2022/23. Violent crime and sexual offences have both increased substantially, and while overall theft has declined, shoplifting offences reached a peak of almost 444,000 in 2023/24. This crime spike has led to a focus on the police, and if they have enough manpower and resources to reverse this trend. After the number of UK police officers was cut by around 20,000 between 2010 and 2016, the number of officers in 2023 was the most since 2010. At the same time, spending on police services was cut noticeably for the period between 2013/14 and 2016/17, with these cuts also being reversed from 2017/18 onwards.
Robbery and UK justice system
Robbery is considered one of the most serious criminal offences in defined as both a violent crime and a property crime. The offence carries one of the longest average prisons sentences in England and Wales, at 47.7 months, or almost four years. Serious crimes such as this would typically be tried in Crown Courts, yet as of the first quarter of 2023, there is a significant backlog of cases awaiting trial. This has led to an increasingly delayed justice system, with the average time an offence reached a conclusion in crown courts reaching 676 days in 2023, or almost two years. At the back end of the justice system, prisons are struggling with capacity issues and have been operating with very little spare capacity for several months as of 2024.
