What does the pledge mean? 

In its manifesto Labour said it would: “Take back our streets by halving serious violent crime.” This formed 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 and November 2024, and again in March 2025, but have not so far received a response. 

The manifesto does not give a timescale for when this pledge will be completed, but it does state that Labour intends to halve both knife crime and violence against women and girls within a decade. This was restated in the government’s December 2024 “Plan for Change”, and the notes accompanying the 2024 King’s Speech also suggested the timespan of the pledge to halve serious violent crime would be “a decade”.

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

The most recent figures from police-recorded crime data and the CSEW were published on 30 January 2025 and cover the year ending September 2024. According to the survey, incidents of violence increased by 27% on the year before, but this was not considered statistically significant (meaning the rise may be due to chance or the variable nature of the sample). The number of homicides fell by 4%. 

Police statistics for knife-enabled crime showed a rise of 4%, but these figures are influenced by changes in recording practices which were in use by 42 out of the 43 police forces in England and Wales by March 2024. 

These figures roughly cover Labour’s first three months in government, as well as nine months of the previous Conservative government. We expect data that covers Labour’s first six months (and six months of the previous government) to be released in April 2025.

The government has announced a number of initiatives aimed at reducing crime, such as additional police recruitment, new police powers and a reform of neighbourhood policing. Some of these measures are included in the Crime and Policing Bill which is currently being considered by Parliament.