Robbery, Harassment and Fraud Rise Across England and Wales 2026

Key Points

• Amongst the offences which were increasing in England and Wales in the year ending March 2026 are robbery, harassment and fraud.
• The number of robberies which police reported was 87,362, registering an increase of 10 percent.
• There was a sharp increase of 91 percent in the number of business robberies, which was 29,669 in number. This was the largest increase amongst all the robbery offences.
• According to the ONS, there was an increase in the business robbery cases owing to the revision of police recording guidance from April 2025 onwards.
• Personal robbery cases declined by 9 percent to 57,693 offences.
• Police reported a 6 percent increase in harassment.
• According to the ONS, police recorded cases of harassment were not considered a good indicator for trends.
• The Crime Survey for England and Wales indicated that repeated harassment cases increased from 2.3 percent to 3.5 percent of adults who are above 16 years old, equating to about 1.7 million people.
• The adult victims of fraud increased by 10 percent to 3.8 million.
• Incidents of bank and credit account fraud increased by 15 percent to about 2.8 million.
• Overall fraud incidents numbered 4.5 million, but showed no statistically significant increase year on year.

Wales (Wales Times) October 15, 2026 — Robbery, harassment and fraud have risen across England and Wales in the year ending March 2026, according to official figures published by the Office for National Statistics and reported by The National. While the broader Crime Survey for England and Wales estimated 9.6 million incidents of headline crime and found no major statistical change from the previous year, the latest data show sharply different trends within individual offence categories.

Police recorded 87,362 robberies during the period, an increase of 10 per cent. The rise was driven overwhelmingly by offences against businesses, which increased by 91 per cent to 29,669. The ONS said the increase was mainly because police were instructed from April 2025 to record shop thefts involving violence or threats as robbery. By contrast, robberies of personal property fell by 9 per cent.

Harassment and fraud also recorded increases. Police-recorded harassment rose by 6 per cent, although the ONS cautioned that police figures for this offence are not a good indicator of underlying trends. The Crime Survey found a statistically significant increase in repeated harassment, while the number of adult fraud victims rose by 10 per cent to 3.8 million.

Why have robberies increased in England and Wales?

The increase in recorded robbery is concentrated in business robberies rather than offences against individuals. As reported by The National, police recorded 87,362 robberies in the year ending March 2026, up 10 per cent, with business robberies rising from a lower base to 29,669 offences.

The ONS said the business robbery increase was mainly linked to revised recording guidance. From April 2025, police were told that if an offender used or threatened violence against staff or security during a theft, including while attempting to escape, the incident must be recorded as business robbery.

This means the 91 per cent rise does not necessarily show that business robberies themselves became far more common. Instead, it reflects a change in how some shop thefts involving violence or threats are classified and recorded by police forces.

Personal robbery moved in the opposite direction. Police recorded 57,693 robberies of personal property, a fall of 9 per cent. The ONS said police data remain the preferred measure for robbery because the Crime Survey estimate is subject to year-to-year volatility due to the relatively small number of robbery victims in its sample.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales estimated 71,000 robbery incidents in the year ending March 2026. The ONS said there was no statistically significant change compared with the previous survey year.

How much has harassment increased?

Harassment increased in both police records and survey-based estimates, although the two measures point to different levels of change. Police recorded a 6 per cent rise in harassment offences, but the ONS said these figures are not a reliable guide to trends because they can be affected by changes in recording practice and by more victims coming forward.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales found a statistically significant rise in repeated harassment. The proportion of adults aged 16 and over who experienced repeated harassment increased from 2.3 per cent to 3.5 per cent, equivalent to about 1.7 million people. The ONS described these estimates as interim.

The survey also measured harassment more broadly, including one-off incidents. It found that 10 per cent of adults aged 16 and over, around 4.9 million people, had experienced some form of harassment in the previous year. This was a statistically significant increase from 8.3 per cent in the previous survey.

The ONS user guide states that harassment is included within police-recorded violence against the person. It also notes that a third of all police-recorded violent crime is now classified under stalking and harassment.

Is fraud rising in England and Wales?

Fraud showed a mixed picture: the number of victims rose, while the overall number of incidents did not show a statistically significant change. The Crime Survey estimated 4.5 million fraud incidents in the year ending March 2026, compared with 4.2 million in the previous year, but the ONS said this change was not statistically significant.

The number of adult fraud victims increased by 10 per cent, from 3.4 million to 3.8 million. The ONS said the prevalence of fraud also increased by 0.7 percentage points, to 7.8 per cent of the population measured by the survey.

Bank and credit account fraud was the clearest area of growth. Incidents increased by 15 per cent to about 2.8 million. The figures suggest that while the total volume of fraud remained broadly stable, more people were affected during the year.

Police-recorded fraud figures are collected through Report Fraud, the public-facing national reporting centre that records fraud and internet crime directly from the public and other organisations. The ONS said its fraud data combine survey estimates with information from the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau.

What happened to violent crime?

Violence showed contrasting trends depending on whether injuries were recorded. Police-recorded violence without injury edged up by 2 per cent, while violence with injury fell by 3 per cent.

The ONS cautioned that police figures for rape and other sexual offences, as well as violence, are not a reliable guide to trends. It said these figures can be affected by changes in recording practices and by more victims coming forward.

Recorded rape rose by 4 per cent to 74,727 offences. The ONS did not present this increase as evidence of a clear trend in offending, instead highlighting the limitations of using police-recorded data for these offence types.

The wider survey found no statistically significant change in headline crime. It estimated 9.6 million incidents in the year ending March 2026, compared with around 9.4 million in the previous year. Headline crime includes theft, robbery, criminal damage, fraud, computer misuse, and violence with or without injury.

What do police-recorded crime figures show overall?

Police recorded around 5.2 million crimes in England and Wales in the year ending March 2026, excluding fraud and computer misuse. This was a 1 per cent decrease compared with around 5.3 million offences in the previous year.

Despite the annual fall, the ONS noted that the figure remains higher than in earlier years, standing above the 3.6 million offences recorded in the year ending March 2015.

Separate Ministry of Justice figures on crime outcomes showed that the proportion of robbery offences resulting in a charge or summons rose from 7.5 per cent to 10.5 per cent. The number of recorded robbery offences increased by 10.2 per cent over the same period.

The outcome data also showed different resolution rates for personal and business robbery. The charge or summons rate for personal robbery was 6.2 per cent, while the rate for business robbery was 18.7 per cent. Both were slightly higher than the previous year.

Background of the development

The figures come from the ONS bulletin Crime in England and Wales: year ending March 2026, which combines police-recorded crime with the Crime Survey for England and Wales. The survey covers crime experienced by households and by people aged 16 and over, while police data record offences reported to and recorded by forces across England and Wales, including the British Transport Police.

The most significant methodological change affecting the latest release concerns business robbery. From April 2025, the Home Office counting rules were clarified to ensure that thefts involving violence or threats against staff or security, including during an attempt to escape, must be recorded as business robbery. The ONS said this clarification resulted in a marked increase in recorded business robbery offences from that point.

This distinction matters because robbery is defined as an incident in which force, or the threat of force, is used during or immediately before a theft or attempted theft. The ONS says police-recorded robberies range from armed bank robberies to muggings for mobile phones or small amounts of money.

The harassment findings are based on survey responses and include both repeated and one-off incidents. The ONS said the repeated harassment estimates are interim, meaning they may be revised when further data become available.

Fraud statistics are treated separately from many other offence types because much fraud is reported through national reporting channels rather than directly to local police forces. The ONS said police-recorded fraud now shows offences recorded by Report Fraud, which receives reports from the public and other organisations.

Prediction: what could this mean for businesses and residents?

For shopkeepers, retail staff and security workers, the rise in recorded business robbery is likely to keep attention on how thefts involving threats or violence are reported, investigated and classified. Because the increase follows a recording-rule change, businesses should expect the higher business robbery figures to continue appearing in official statistics while the revised guidance remains in force.

For residents, the fall in personal robbery may provide some reassurance, but the rise in repeated harassment and fraud victims suggests that risks are shifting towards offences that can affect people at home, online or through their bank accounts. The 15 per cent increase in bank and credit account fraud incidents is likely to reinforce the importance of reporting suspicious transactions quickly and using bank security controls.

For policymakers and police forces, the data may increase pressure to separate genuine changes in offending from changes caused by recording practice. The ONS has already flagged that police figures for harassment, sexual offences and violence should not be read as straightforward trend indicators. Future releases, including the provisional nature-of-crime tables expected in January 2027, may provide more detail on the circumstances, offenders and victim experiences behind these figures.