West Midlands MP raises questions on knife crime

23 June 2025

Aldridge and Brownhills MP Wendy Moreton.

The policing minister has highlighted a reduction in crimes involving a knife or sharp instrument in the Force area in the year ending December 2024 when responding to a written question from the Aldridge and Brownhills MP Wendy Morton.

Conservative Ms Morton, who is a shadow minister in the foreign, commonwealth and development office, had asked Dame Diana Johnson three questions centred on knife crime seeking to find out what discussions the policing minister had had with the Coalition to Tackle Knife Crime; what steps she is taking to encourage the community, campaign groups and families affected by knife crime to participate in the coalition and what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the levels of knife crime in the West Midlands in the last five years.

The police minister said the Government had allocated around.£3.7 million for the Hotspot Action Fund in 2025-2026 to deliver high visibility patrolling and problem-oriented policing tactics in the areas with the highest densities of knife crime and anti-social behaviour.

Fall

She explained: “We routinely monitor police recorded crime data trends for all forces. West Midlands Police recorded 4,664 offences involving a knife or a sharp instrument in the year ending December 2024, a 12 per cent fall compared with the previous year (5,323 offences). The fall was driven by a 14 per cent fall in knife-enabled robbery (from 2,684 to 2,309 offences) and a 11 per cent fall in assault with injury and assault with intent to cause serious harm (from 1,952 to 1,730).

“Through our Young Futures Programme, the Government will introduce Prevention Partnerships across the country, including in the West Midlands, to intervene earlier and ensure that children and young people who are vulnerable to being drawn into crime are identified and offered support in a more systematic way.

“As we continue to design the Young Futures Programme, we want to ensure that it learns from and builds on the work of the Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) in this regard. In 2025/26 we are investing £47m via the Home Office in core grant funding to VRUs, including making over £4.3m available to the West Midlands VRU this year.”

Jess Davies, chair of West Midlands Police Federation, has welcomed Ms Morton’s efforts to raise the issues around knife crime across the West Midlands and called on the Government to maintain police funding.

“Our officers are on the frontline seeing the reality of knife crime and the devastating impact it is having on families. We are pleased the Government has made a commitment to halving knife crime over the next decade as part of its Safer Streets Mission and clearly the reduction in knife crime over the 12 months to the end of 2024 is a positive start,” Jess said.

Investment

“But the Government must also commit to sustained, long-term investment in policing so that the Force can continue to tackle knife crime and also maintain the visible policing presence that we know is an effective means for preventing and dealing with all types of crime.

“At the moment, the police service is facing an officer retention crisis that threatens to derail crime-fighting initiatives. Police pay does not appropriately reflect the challenges and risks officers face every day and it is no surprise that many are quitting the service. We need to stem this tide for the sake of the police service and the communities we serve.”

Dame Diana pointed out that the Crime and Policing Bill 2025 will increase the penalties for illegal sales of knives, creating a new offence of possessing a knife with the intention to commit unlawful violence and will give the police a new power to seize knives when they believe they are likely to be used in connection with unlawful violence.

Read the Home Office written questions and answers in full.