Possession of weapons offences by police force area, England and Wales
Official statistics, not accredited
Possession of weapons offences recorded by each police force in England and Wales in the latest year and the year before, from the ONS's police force area tables.
England and Wales
63,732
Year ending June 2026
Verified against source, 28 October 2026, 12:52 UTC- Year ending June 2026
- Year ending June 2025
Source: Office for National Statistics. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Data table
56 rows
| Area | Year ending June 2026 | Year ending June 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Metropolitan Police E23000001 | 7,624 | 6,238 |
| West Midlands E23000014 | 6,903 | 6,257 |
| Greater Manchester E23000005 | 5,172 | 5,012 |
| Sussex E23000033 | 2,502 | 2,500 |
| West Yorkshire E23000010 | 2,348 | 2,169 |
| Hampshire E23000030 | 2,259 | 2,046 |
| South Yorkshire E23000011 | 2,039 | 2,126 |
| Kent E23000032 | 1,904 | 1,801 |
| Lancashire E23000003 | 1,816 | 1,651 |
| Essex E23000028 | 1,793 | 1,591 |
| Devon and Cornwall E23000035 | 1,657 | 1,596 |
| Nottinghamshire E23000019 | 1,635 | 1,706 |
| Northumbria E23000007 | 1,429 | 1,488 |
| Merseyside E23000004 | 1,415 | 1,207 |
| Thames Valley E23000029 | 1,400 | 1,562 |
| South Wales W15000003 | 1,263 | 1,065 |
| Avon and Somerset E23000036 | 1,257 | 1,072 |
| Staffordshire E23000015 | 1,242 | 1,137 |
| Cambridgeshire E23000023 | 1,191 | 1,052 |
| Derbyshire E23000018 | 1,123 | 956 |
| West Mercia E23000016 | 1,002 | 1,037 |
| Northamptonshire E23000022 | 933 | 1,028 |
| Humberside E23000012 | 913 | 913 |
| Cheshire E23000006 | 875 | 767 |
| Hertfordshire E23000027 | 855 | 761 |
| Surrey E23000031 | 850 | 753 |
| Norfolk E23000024 | 818 | 787 |
| British Transport Police | 811 | 784 |
| Cleveland E23000013 | 790 | 733 |
| Leicestershire E23000021 | 781 | 720 |
| Suffolk E23000025 | 683 | 609 |
| Bedfordshire E23000026 | 671 | 537 |
| Gwent W15000002 | 666 | 524 |
| Warwickshire E23000017 | 605 | 538 |
| Durham E23000008 | 573 | 520 |
| Cumbria E23000002 | 566 | 501 |
| North Wales W15000001 | 560 | 455 |
| North Yorkshire E23000009 | 526 | 448 |
| Gloucestershire E23000037 | 462 | 447 |
| Wiltshire E23000038 | 461 | 404 |
| Lincolnshire E23000020 | 453 | 408 |
| Dyfed-Powys W15000004 | 442 | 421 |
| Dorset E23000039 | 416 | 453 |
| London, City of E23000034 | 48 | 81 |
| England and Wales | 63,732 | 58,861 |
| England | 59,990 | 55,612 |
| North East | 2,792 | 2,741 |
| North West | 9,844 | 9,138 |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | 5,826 | 5,656 |
| East Midlands | 4,925 | 4,818 |
| West Midlands | 9,752 | 8,969 |
| East of England | 6,011 | 5,337 |
| London | 7,672 | 6,319 |
| South East | 8,915 | 8,662 |
| South West | 4,253 | 3,972 |
| Wales | 2,931 | 2,465 |
Source and licence
- Publisher
- Office for National Statistics
- Check it yourself
- https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/policeforceareadatatables
- Licence
- Open Government Licence v3.0 – Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Retrieved
- 28 October 2026, 12:39 UTC
- Raw files fetched
- https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/policeforceareadatatables/dataSHA-256 d93ad65c9b66f146443e8d0425bd3e43e3c6d366bc78e0a533cd76a6568fb8ca · 6,239 bytes
- https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/policeforceareadatatables/yearendingjune2026/dataSHA-256 4fd7c94134620305a7facf63df79e1314d720f13868189a876ebad4cf4c74da9 · 358 bytes
- https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/policeforceareadatatables/yearendingjune2026/pfatablesyejune2026.xlsxSHA-256 d28f75222ae1395cda4c415a20056251744d3b090fdd63c6802de893c2304ef3 · 657,875 bytes
Verification
Verified against source, 28 October 2026, 12:52 UTC Run at 28 October 2026, 12:52 UTC; 112 of 112 figures matched the live source.
| Result | Check | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Pass | Provenance recorded | Office for National Statistics; Open Government Licence v3.0; retrieved 2026-10-28T12:39:39Z; 3 raw file(s) |
| Pass | Raw files match recorded SHA-256 | 3 of 3 files intact |
| Pass | Re-parsing raw files reproduces figures | 112 of 112 figures and the headline reproduced |
| Pass | Figures are finite numbers | 112 figures, 0 invalid |
| Pass | Live source matches every figure | 112 of 112 figures match exactly after downloading 3 source file(s) again (3 byte-identical); the headline matches |
| Pass | ONS edition is current | the yearendingjune2026 edition counts at 2026-06-30, 120 days before retrieval (limit 200) |
| Pass | The forces add up to their region or Wales, and the nations to England and Wales | in 24 of 24 cases the forces of each region and of Wales, England's regions, and England, Wales and the British Transport Police sum to the whole within 0 (24 exactly) |
| Pass | The hub's police-recorded-crime agrees | 2 of 2 figures match police-recorded-crime's record (England and Wales in the ONS's appendix table A5a) |
| Pass | Source page answers | https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/policeforceareadatatables – HTTP 200 |
Notes
- Counts exclude fraud and computer misuse, which Action Fraud records for every force, so the ONS gives no figure for them by force. Recorded crime reflects what is reported to the police and how they record it, which changes with recording practice.
- The British Transport Police count in England and Wales's figure but in neither nation's, and hold no area. The chart leaves England and Wales, the nations and England's regions to the table, since they would dwarf every force.