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Updated September 2026

UK Safeguarding
The Picture Right Now

Primary-source statistics on knife crime, county lines exploitation, online grooming, substance misuse, and radicalisation across England and Wales. Cited and updated for 2025/26.

ONS Crime Statistics 2025/26 Home Office County Lines 2025/26 Home Office Prevent to Sep 2025 OHID Treatment Data 2024/25 Ofcom Children's Report 2024
New Strategy · April 2026

"Protecting Lives, Building Hope": the government's new serious violence strategy commits to 50 Young Futures Hubs , new criminal offences for cuckooing and CCE under the Crime and Policing Bill, and a £34m renewal of the County Lines Programme.

Read strategy ↗

Headline Figures 2025/26

48,774
knife offences
Yr ending Mar 2026
205
homicides by sharp instrument
yr ending Mar 2025 · 39% of all homicides
2,833
county lines closed
2025/26 · Home Office Programme
15,500+
children at risk of or involved in CCE
HO County Lines Programme, yr ending Mar 2025
16,212
children in treatment
substance misuse ↑13%
10,293
Prevent referrals
Yr ending Sep 2025 · Home Office

Trends Over Time

Knife Crime Offences

England & Wales, year ending March · ONS

County Lines Disrupted

Lines closed per year · NCA / Home Office

Children in Drug Treatment

Under-18s in treatment, England · OHID/NDTMS

By Category

Knife Crime

ONS 2025/26
48,774
total offences 2025/26 · ↓8% YoY
43%
victims aged 10 to 24 (ONS)
18%
of cautions/convictions are juveniles (10 to 17)
3,500
NHS hospital episodes 2024/25 · ↓10.4%
▸ Metropolitan Police recorded the highest rate nationally: 182 offences per 100,000 population in 2024/25 (ONS police force area data). Cumbria recorded the lowest at 31 per 100,000.
▸ 205 homicides by sharp instrument in year ending March 2025, 39% of all 522 homicides in England and Wales (ONS, Homicide in England and Wales, year ending March 2025).
▸ The Offensive Weapons Act 2019 introduced Knife Crime Prevention Orders (KCPOs). The YJB's Child First framework emphasises diversion and trauma-informed responses for children involved in knife crime.
▸ Overall figures remain 11.6% below the 2019/20 pre-pandemic level , though they are significantly elevated compared to 2014/15 (ONS, Crime in England and Wales, year ending March 2026).
Knife Crime Hub → Commons Library SN04304 ↗ YJB Resource Hub ↗

County Lines & Child Exploitation

Home Office 2025/26
2,833
lines closed in 2025/26
15,500+
children at risk of or involved in CCE (Home Office, County Lines Programme data, yr ending Mar 2025)
15 yrs
avg age of runner
£34m
programme funding
▸ Lines closed have risen from 1,506 in 2021/22 to 2,833 in 2025/26 , a sign of more robust enforcement, not necessarily an increase in total lines.
▸ Cuckooing , taking over a vulnerable person's home to deal drugs, is being criminalised under the new Crime and Policing Bill (2026).
▸ Under Working Together 2026 , county lines involvement is classified as child criminal exploitation (CCE), children are victims, not offenders.
▸ The Modern Slavery Act 2015 provides the primary legislative framework for prosecuting those who exploit children in county lines networks.
County Lines Hub → NCA Source ↗

Online Safety & Grooming

Ofcom / NSPCC 2024
1 in 3
children contacted by stranger online
5.5 hrs
avg daily screen time teens
82%
young people use social media daily
61%
teens aware of the dark web
▸ The Online Safety Act 2023 , now in force, places a duty of care on platforms to protect children from harmful content.
▸ CEOP Command received over 100,000 reports of suspected online child sexual abuse in 2023/24, up 19% year-on-year.
▸ AI-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM) is now a specific offence under the Online Safety Act 2023.
▸ Grooming typically begins on public platforms (Instagram, TikTok) before moving to encrypted apps (Snapchat, WhatsApp) within 72 hours of first contact.
Online Grooming Hub → Ofcom Source ↗

Substance Misuse

OHID/NDTMS 2024/25
16,212
children in treatment
↑13%
year-on-year increase
82%
started using before age 15
57%
primary substance: cannabis
▸ 1 in 5 young people aged 11 to 15 have been offered drugs (NHS Digital, Young People's Substance Misuse 2023).
▸ Ketamine misuse among under-18s increased by 43% between 2022 and 2024 (NDTMS 2024).
▸ Vaping among 11-17 year olds rose to 20.5% in 2024, up from 16% in 2022 (ASH, 2024).
▸ Under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 , nitrous oxide (laughing gas) is now a Class C drug following reclassification in November 2023.
Substance Misuse Hub → OHID Source ↗

Prevent & Radicalisation

Home Office to Sep 2025
10,293
referrals, year ending Sep 2025
20%
extreme right-wing (ERW)
34%
from education sector
1,810
Channel cases adopted
▸ Education (schools and colleges) is now the largest referral source , accounting for 34% of all Prevent referrals, ahead of the police (31%).
▸ Extreme right-wing ideology now accounts for approximately 20% of Prevent referrals, up from 14% in 2018/19.
▸ The Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 (s.26) creates a statutory Prevent duty for schools, colleges, and universities.
▸ Under the Prevent Duty Guidance 2023 , schools must have a designated Prevent lead and a policy for supporting vulnerable students.
Prevent Hub → Home Office Source ↗

Prevent Referrals by Sector

Source: Home Office, Individuals Referred to and Supported through the Prevent Programme, year ending March 2025.

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For journalists and commissioners

All statistics on this page are sourced from primary UK government data. If you would like to cite this page or use the data in a report, please link to safeguard-hub.org/stats/ and include the source date.

Primary Sources

ONS (2024). Crime in England and Wales: Year Ending March 2024. Office for National Statistics, gov.uk.
NCA (2025). County Lines Strategic Assessment 2024/25. National Crime Agency.
Home Office (2025). Knife and Offensive Weapon Sentencing Statistics 2024. gov.uk.
Home Office (2025). Individuals Referred to and Supported through the Prevent Programme, year ending March 2025. gov.uk.
OHID / NDTMS (2025). Young People's Substance Misuse Treatment Statistics 2024/25. Office for Health Inequalities and Disparities, gov.uk.
Ofcom (2024). Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes Report 2024. ofcom.org.uk.
NSPCC (2024). How Safe Are Our Children? Annual Report 2024. nspcc.org.uk.
HM Government (2026). Working Together to Safeguard Children 2026. gov.uk.
HM Government (2026). Protecting Lives, Building Hope: Serious Violence Strategy. gov.uk.

Statistics last reviewed: September 2026. The Safeguard Hub is an independent resource and is not affiliated with any government department. All data is reproduced from open government sources under the Open Government Licence v3.0.