Knife murders have dropped by 27% in two years across the UK, the Home Office has said. Overall knife crime has been cut by 10% and more than 1,900 knives were removed from the streets in the same time span, since July 2024.
County Lines Programme Success
Meanwhile, 2,833 county lines were closed in the 2025 to 2026 period and 7,381 people were arrested. The Home Office described it as the “best year on record” for its County Lines Programme, which was created in 2019 to tackle gangs using children and vulnerable people to run drugs from cities to small towns.
“Independent evaluation shows the programme reduces hospital admissions for knife injuries by 25% in key areas, preventing an estimated 840 stabbings each year”, it added.
Victim Stories Highlight Exploitation
Cuckooing and exploitation victim Mark, in his late 30s, had ulcerated legs from his drug addiction and faced homelessness, and believed he was fortunate when men offered him money to sell drugs on the street. In a statement collected by The Salvation Army and issued by the Home Office, he said: “At first, I thought they were my friends. I was so desperate, I believed they were helping me by giving me this job. They made me work from 8am to 2am the next day, every day. They stopped me getting methadone to come off the drugs or medical help for my legs. I was in a really bad way but it was impossible for me to get to hospital. Every day they pushed me deeper and deeper into debt.” He added: “I didn’t want to admit that I’d been tricked and abused.”
Jordan, 18, said he “mixed with the wrong people” in college and started selling weed. In his statement issued by the same bodies, he said: “The people who are getting you into it find ways to make you think that it’s OK, that it’s the right way to carry on. If you keep hearing it again and again, it’s like a subliminal message and then you’re stuck in that cycle, programmed to sell drugs and forget college, it just gets into your system. You lose the ability to think whether it’s a good or bad thing. All you’re worried about is the situation you are in right then and there.”
Gang members pushed him to sell crack and heroin and work from 9am to 6am, with them offering to buy him a bike, £500 trainers or a tracksuit “to keep me working”. “They started to tell me that they’d given me a bag worth, say, five or six thousand pounds but it was only worth three thousand so when we came to settle up money, they said it was my fault, and I owed them money which they’d take from my pay to cover up ‘my mistakes’ and you have to work to pay it back. Then you’re stuck in a loop you can’t get out of, week after week.” He added: “The trauma of the things I’ve seen or experienced don’t leave me. I’ve had guns pointed at me, friends who’ve been stabbed.”
Police and Ministerial Statements
Commander Paul Brogden, national policing lead for county lines and gangs, said the criminals involved in county lines “are violent, exploit vulnerable people, and cause serious harm to communities”. Police made “a significant impact dismantling operations and safeguarding vulnerable people” after intensifying their work in March. “As county lines gangs’ methods continue to evolve, so too does our policing approach, led by the National County Lines Coordination Centre”, Mr Brogden added.
Crime and policing minister Sarah Jones said: “We are shutting down more county lines, bringing more gang leaders to justice and taking more deadly weapons off our streets than ever before. This Government will not let up in its mission to halve knife crime within a decade, break the grip of county lines gangs and make our communities safer.”
