Imitation firearms now main weapon used in gun crime, figures show

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said a rise in gun crime was largely down to the growing presence of imitation firearms.

Some 6,193 firearms offences were recorded by police in 2022, an 11 per cent increase on the 5,581 logged a year earlier.

The use of imitation firearms – anything which looks like a gun regardless of whether it can shoot a bullet – recorded by police in such offences rose 22 per cent in a year, from 1,800 in 2021 to 2,196 in 2022 and is “now the most prevalent principal weapon” in those types of offences, the ONS said.

Imitation firearms accounted for more than a third (35%) of firearms offences in 2022, ahead of handguns (31 per cent) and unidentified firearms (16 per cent) – the first time imitation firearms have been the most prevalent type.

In 2021, handguns were slightly more prevalent than imitation firearms, accounting for 33 per cent and 32 per cent of police-recorded firearms offences respectively, while in the pre-pandemic 12 months to March 2020 the gap was wider, at 40 per cent for handguns and 23 per cent for imitation firearms.

The figures also show there was a rise in threats to kill being made using knives last year being reported to police.

Overall, the number of knife crime offences recorded by police in 2022 (49,265) was nine per cent lower than levels prior to the coronavirus pandemic in the year to March 2020 (54,230).

Despite this, the number of threats to kill made with a knife that forces recorded rose by 22 per cent to 5,942 offences in 2022.

In the 12 months to March 2020, 4,861 offences were recorded.

The ONS said the figures for police-recorded crime exclude data from Devon and Cornwall Police because of problems with a new computer system.

There were 189,731 sexual offences recorded by police in England and Wales in 2022, up seven per cent from 177,646 in 2021 and up 19 per cent from 159,080 in the pre-pandemic year of 2019/20.

The rise reflects improvements in police recording practices and increased reporting by victims, which means the figures “do not provide a reliable measure of trends in these types of crime”, the ONS said.

The data may also have been influenced by “the impact of high-profile cases and campaigns on victims’ willingness to report both recent and historical incidents”.

Similar factors are likely to have contributed to the rise in police-recorded rape offences, which stood at 67,169 in 2022, up three per cent from 64,900 in 2021 and up 17 per cent from 57,586 in the year to March 2020.

The overall number of crimes recorded by police in England and Wales in 2022 stood at 6.6 million, compared with 5.9 million in 2021 and six million in 2019/20, although this is “unlikely to reflect a genuine increase in crime”, the ONS said.

This is because the rise has been driven chiefly by increases in the offence categories, which are “most subject to changes in reporting and recording practices”.

Separate figures published on Thursday (April 27) from the ONS Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) for the year ending December 2022 suggest adults experienced nine million offences, down 12 per cent from 10.2 million in a survey for the year ending March 2020.

The survey measures experiences of crime in the 12 months before interview, meaning the 2022 survey, which was conducted between January and December last year, reflects crimes that could have occurred as far back as January 2021.

Experiences of crimes, as measured by the ONS survey, have been on a broad downwards trend since the mid-1990s.

Pete Jones of the ONS said: “Overall crime decreased in 2022 compared to before the pandemic, mainly driven by a reduction in theft. However, it is too early to say whether this will continue to be an ongoing trend.

“Though relatively low numbers, there was a large increase in the number of advance fee fraud cases, where victims make advance or upfront payments for goods or services that do not materialise. This may be in relation to increased levels of online activity during the pandemic.

“For crimes which are well-reported and recorded by the police we can gain additional insight from police data.

“Today’s figures show robbery, knife crime and firearm offences are all down on what was seen pre-pandemic but have risen in the last year.

“There have also been increases in other police recorded crimes, such as sexual offences and rape, but we need to be cautious when interpreting these figures.

“They can reflect a number of factors including the impact of high-profile cases and victims’ willingness to report both recent and historical incidents.”

Overall theft decreased by 20 per cent. The largest reduction was seen in theft from the person (44 per cent), but falls were also seen in “other theft of personal property” (31 per cent), domestic burglary (23 per cent) and vehicle-related theft (21 per cent). Criminal damage also fell by 24 per cent.

There was no “significant change” in fraud offence, which returned to pre-coronavirus pandemic levels. The ONS said this suggests that previous increases in fraud may have been “specific to the coronavirus pandemic period, rather than a sustained change in trends”.

Despite no significant change in fraud overall, there was a 654 per cent increase in advance fee fraud (from 60,000 to 454,000 offences), while bank and credit account fraud decreased by 14 per cent (to 2.1 million offences)

Police recorded robbery offences were 20 per cent lower than the year ending March 2020, however, there was a 15 per cent increase compared with the year ending December 2021 during which social restrictions were still in place.

“From data gathered by both police recorded crime and the CSEW to December 2022, it appears too early to say whether the decreases seen in most crime types occurring during the coronavirus pandemic will come to represent a sustained change in long-term trends,” said the ONS.