Knife robberies rise by 18%

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The number of offences recorded by police in England and Wales rose by 18% from 3,951 to 4,207 between July and September while the number of murders involving knives also rose, by 10%.

Domestic burglaries were up 4%, fraud and forgery up 16% and drug offences up 9%, the quarterly figures reveal.

However, the overall level of recorded crime was down 3% and the number of recorded firearms offences plummeted by a third.

The British Crime Survey, the Government's preferred measure of crime, found thefts from the person were up 13% in the year to September.

But it is the knife crime figures which are likely to cause the most concern among ministers. Murders and other homicides involving knives were up 10%, and attempted murders up 8% on top of the huge increase in knife robberies.

The increases came despite a clampdown by ministers in knife crime hotspots which began in June.

Increases in "acquisitive crimes", such as burglary, will also raise fears that the economic downturn is beginning to fuel criminal activity.

Although the total amount of crime was down, the quarterly report shows a worrying trend, with progressively smaller falls in the last year. In the final few months of 2007 the total was down 12%, it was down 8% in the first three months of last year and 6% last summer. The total of reported violent attacks was down by 6% between July and September, but the level of serious violent crime is not included in the figures.

The Home Office is not revealing the breakdown because of concerns about the accuracy of police data. It emerged last year that 18 forces, including the Metropolitan Police, were under-reporting the level of serious violence by putting some offences in the wrong category.