Almost 280,000 Violence Against the Person offences were recorded across London in the 12 months to September 2026, with Westminster recording the highest rate among the capital’s boroughs, according to Metropolitan Police data.
The Met’s dashboard shows 279,664 offences during the period, a 7.6 per cent increase compared with the previous 12 months ending in September 2025.
Rate versus count: two different league tables
Westminster recorded 12,242 offences, but it was the rate relative to its population that stood out: 47 offences per 1,000 people, the highest rate in the table. Tower Hamlets had the second-highest rate at 37.2 per 1,000, followed by Hounslow at 36.0, Hackney at 35.8, Camden at 35.0 and Newham at 34.9.
Rates and counts tell different stories. A rate divides offences by the resident population, so it highlights where offences are most concentrated per head. A count simply totals offences, so larger or busier boroughs tend to top that table even when their rate is lower.
On counts, Croydon topped the borough table with 12,443 offences, followed by Newham with 12,331. Other high totals included Tower Hamlets with 11,792, Ealing with 11,431, Lewisham with 11,239, Lambeth with 10,819, Greenwich with 10,244 and Southwark with 10,237. Wandsworth recorded 8,414 and Waltham Forest 7,273.
At the other end, Richmond upon Thames had the lowest borough total shown at 3,465, while Kingston upon Thames recorded 4,165 and Merton 4,783.
What the category covers
Violence Against the Person is a broad police-recorded category. It includes offences ranging from harassment and common assault to serious offences such as murder and grievous bodily harm, so the total should not be read as a count of serious violence alone.
There was one encouraging sign within the annual rise: Violence Against the Person offences fell by 3.3 per cent in September 2026 compared with August 2026.
The figures sit alongside other recent Met data published on this site, including gun crime across London over three summer months and knife-crime victims over the same period.
