The Government is expanding its targeted knife-crime programme to more than 230 areas across 27 police forces in England and Wales, combining additional police patrols with CCTV improvements and early-intervention work.
The Home Office announced the expansion on Friday 18 September, saying local plans developed by police and councils will concentrate resources in communities experiencing the highest levels of knife crime.
Measures will vary between areas but can include enhanced police patrols, improved CCTV, better street lighting, redesigning public spaces to make it harder to conceal weapons and programmes aimed at young people considered at risk of becoming victims or perpetrators of knife crime.
Home Office reports 23% fall in knife-enabled robbery
The expansion comes alongside Home Office figures showing knife-enabled robbery recorded by seven priority police forces has fallen by 23% against the June 2024 baseline.
The seven forces are the Metropolitan Police, West Midlands Police, Greater Manchester Police, West Yorkshire Police, South Yorkshire Police, Avon and Somerset Police and British Transport Police.
Provisional Home Office management information shows those forces recorded 12,282 knife-enabled robberies in the year ending June 2026, compared with 15,921 in the June 2024 baseline — a reduction of more than 3,600 offences.
The Home Office says overall knife crime has fallen by 11% since the Government came to office as it pursues its ambition of halving knife crime within a decade.
The robbery figures are provisional and are taken from live police-force systems. While ministers point to the reductions as evidence supporting the targeted approach, the figures themselves do not establish that the programme alone caused the fall.
More than 230 areas across 27 forces
The expanded programme will focus on tightly defined locations rather than applying the same measures uniformly across entire police-force areas.
The Government's knife-crime plan says 27 police-force areas together account for around 90% of knife crime across England and Wales.
Police and local partners will identify locations with the highest concentrations of offending and use a combination of enforcement and prevention measures tailored to the local problem.
Mahmood backs targeted policing and prevention
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said everyone should be able to feel safe in their community and that young lives should not be damaged by knife crime.
She said targeted policing and prevention in the areas of greatest need was already reducing knife robberies, and confirmed that the approach was now being extended to more than 230 areas.
Mahmood visited the West Midlands on 17 September, including a boxing gym supporting vulnerable young people, alongside members of the Government's Coalition to Tackle Knife Crime.
£26.25m Knife Crime Concentrations Fund
The wider strategy is backed by the Knife Crime Concentrations Fund, through which the Government previously announced £26.25 million for targeted enforcement and prevention work during 2026.
The programme builds on earlier hyperlocal pilots using measures including visible patrols at times and locations where knife crime is concentrated, CCTV upgrades, youth outreach, knife wands and knife arches.
Government pursuing decade-long target
The expansion forms part of the Government's wider plan to halve knife crime within a decade.
That strategy also includes policing measures, restrictions on weapons, interventions for young people and work with retailers, technology companies and community organisations.