Schools: Knives

Every child deserves to feel safe. The department takes all reports of violent incidents in schools seriously and helps ensure settings have appropriate support in place. Our rapid response and regional teams work proactively with schools when the department is notified of an incident, and we have a dedicated serious violence team that works closely with the Home Office and other partners on improving prevention of serious violence in schools.

Local police forces are responsible for responding to and reporting on violent crime, including in education settings. The Home Office has responsibility for collating police recorded crime data from the police forces of England and Wales. This includes offences using knifes and sharp implements. Open data tables for police recorded crime, which underpin the data released by the Office for National Statistics, are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/police-recorded-crime-and-outcomes-open-data-tables.

The department receives Serious Incident Notifications for incidents that involve death or serious harm to a child where abuse or neglect is known or suspected, and any death of a looked after child. This includes death or serious harm due to knife crime incidents. The most recent data is here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/serious-incident-notifications/2026#headlines-section.

The department monitors a range of other data related to children’s risk of violence, including education, social care and police national computer data. Our published dashboard allows local areas to understand factors in their area which result in vulnerability to crime and comparisons with their nearest statistical neighbours. The dashboard is available here: Release home - Education, children’s social care and offending: local authority level dashboard - Explore education statistics - GOV.UK