Firearm Crime Statistics: England & Wales

Statistics on the number of police recorded firearm offences are published by the ONS in the Crime in England & Wales bulletin. Gun related crime statistics are published by the ONS in the Offences involving the use of weapons: data tables. 

Recorded firearm offences

Non-air firearms (all firearms that are not air weapons, e.g. handguns, shotguns, rifles) accounted for 69% of all firearm offences recorded during the year ending 31 March 2021. Air firearms (e.g. air rifles) accounted for the remainder of offences (31%). There there were a total of 5,709 non-air firearm offences recorded by police in England & Wales in 2020/21. This was a decrease of 14% compared with 6,622 offences recorded in 2019/20.

Source: ONS, Crime in England and Wales: year ending March 2021, Offences involving the use of weapons: data tables, Table 2, 28 November 2021

Homicide

The most recent data suggests that there were 35 homicides committed by shooting in the year ending 31 March 2021 – 6% of all homicides. Of these 35 victims, 11% were female and 89% were male.

Types of firearm offences 

In the year ending 31 March 2021, Criminal damage and Violence Against Person (VATP) offence categories respectively accounted for 31% and 29% of air and non-air firearms offences combined. Possession of weapons represented 15% of offences and Robbery 12%. 

Source: ONS, Crime in England and Wales: year ending March 2021, Offences involving the use of weapons: data tables, Table 8, 28 November 2021

Type of firearms used

Since 2010/11, handguns have remained the most commonly used non-air firearm, with such offences accounting for 37% of non-air firearm offences in 2020/21. This was a 7 percentage point decrease from 44% in 2010/11. Rifles have remained the least common non-air firearms type, accounting for around 1% of all offences over the period.

Source: ONS, Crime in England and Wales: year ending March 2021, Offences involving the use of weapons: data tables, Table 2, 28 November 2021

Firearm offences by Police Force Area

In 2020/21, the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) recorded the largest number of non-air firearm offences – accounting for 22% of all non-air firearm offences in England & Wales. Compared to 2019/20, the number of non-air weapon offences recorded by the MPS decreased by 27%, from 1,765 to 1,281. In the year ending 31 March 2021, West Midlands Police had the highest rate of non-air firearm offences at 24.5 per 100,000 population, followed by South Yorkshire Police at 20.8.

Source: ONS, Crime in England and Wales: year ending March 2021, Offences involving the use of weapons: data tables, Table 12, 28 November 2021

Data and reporting practices

In reporting the number of firearm offences, it is not always possible to ascertain whether a real firearm was actually used. Unless a weapon is fired or recovered by the police following a criminal offence, in many cases there is no way of knowing conclusively whether the firearm was real or an imitation, or whether it was loaded or unloaded at the time of the offence. Moreover, the categorisation of firearms will sometimes be strongly reliant on the description given to the police by victims or witnesses, or upon other evidence. Some offences also involve the use of imitation weapons, while others involve the use of a ‘supposed firearm’.

It is worth noting that the ONS suggest that some of the recent increases in recorded crime are due to “improved crime recording practices and processes leading to a greater proportion of reports of crime being recorded.”