What does the pledge mean? 

In its manifesto Labour said it would: “Take back our streets by halving serious violent crime.” This forms part of the third of the government’s five “missions to rebuild Britain”.

However we don’t yet know which specific offences are covered by this pledge, how progress will be measured or by when the government expects to have halved serious violent crime. We asked the Home Office about this in October 2024 and again in early November 2024 but have not so far received a response. 

We’ve assumed this pledge relates to England and Wales, as the criminal justice system in Scotland and Northern Ireland is devolved.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) says there is no single measure of violent crime. Instead the term covers a variety of offences, including violence with and without injury and murder, as well as offences likely to cause fear or distress such as harassment and stalking. 

There are two main sources of crime statistics in England and Wales—police-recorded crime and crime survey data—both of which are published by the ONS. The two sets of stats can sometimes appear to show conflicting trends. 

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) has shown gradual decreases in violence with and without injury over the past ten years, while indicating a rise in sexual assault. The number of police-recorded crimes for some forms of violence, such as knife crime, have risen over the same period, which is likely to be partly as a result of changes in the way such crimes are recorded. 

What progress has been made?

We don’t know for sure what offences fall within the government’s definition of ‘serious violent crime’, or what metric it plans to use to measure success against this pledge. But in any event, neither police-recorded crime data nor crime survey data for England and Wales is yet available for the government’s first few months in office.

Figures for both these measures covering the period July to September 2024 is due to be published in January 2025, so they can’t yet tell us if there’s been any change in violent crime trends since the election. 

It’s also worth noting that the government has yet to take some of the action it has planned in order to help reduce serious violent crime. 

A Crime and Policing Bill was announced during the King’s Speech, but this has not yet been published. Notes accompanying the speech said the Bill would include “early measures to help deliver the government’s mission to halve serious violence over a decade, with strong action to tackle knife crime and violence against women and girls”.