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There were firearm offences recorded in London 2024/25, compared with in 2023/24. After teaching a recent high of in 2016/17, firearm offences have fallen to lower levels recently. This is not reflected in London's overall crime rate, however, which reached crimes per 1,000 people in 2024/25, compared with **** in 2015/16.

Firearm homicides are rare in the UK

The United Kingdom has some of the strictest gun laws in the world, resulting in relatively low levels of gun crime and firearm homicides. In 2023/24 just *** percent of homicides in England and Wales were the result of shootings, compared with percent in the United States in 2023. The most common method of killing for homicides in England and Wales was by far the use of a sharp instrument, such as knife, at ** percent of homicides in the 2023/24 reporting year.

London police budget cut in 2025/26

In 2025/26, the budget for policing in London was cut to **** billion pounds, from over **** billion in 2024/25. Prior to this, London's police budget increased for sixth-consecutive years, occurred alongside a recruitment drive for police officers, which had fallen to quite low levels in the mid 2010s. It is unlikely that the London policing budget will fall to as low as it did in the mid 2010s, when the budget was effectively frozen at around *** billion pounds a year between 2013/14 and 2018/19