Mayor of London Knife Crime Statistics review

FOI reference: FOI-2024-1753

You asked

I understand that the Office for Statistical Regulation (OSR) have engaged the Mayor of London about his claims on knife crime.

Could you let me know if there has been any result of this case yet?

We said

Thank you for your request. 

A concern was raised with us about the use of crime statistics by the Mayor's office in a 20 July 2023 press release. The press release claimed that "knife and gun crime, homicides and burglary have all fallen since 2016". Having reviewed the data source, we found that the claim about knife crime was incorrect. It is true only for knife crime with injury for those under 25 years. Total knife crime has increased significantly since 2016. 

We engaged with the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC), which provides analytical support to the Mayor and his communications team on policing and crime-related issues. We wrote a private letter (in the associated download) to the Greater London Authority asking MOPAC to work with Mayor's office to ensure that the statement is corrected and clearly sourced and to support them in reviewing their processes for using analysis in press releases. 

The Mayor's office updated the text in the press release to "knife crime with injury for those aged under 25" to clarify that the statement refers to this subset of victims and added additional information on the data source. We are continuing to monitor the Mayor's office's press releases for statements about trends in knife crime and will follow up with MOPAC where necessary.