THEFT and injuries from violence are on the rise in South Worcestershire according to latest figures.

The Office for National Statistics data, for Worcester, Malvern Hills and Wychavon, has released its latest figures for crime in England and Wales.

There has been a total of 23,305 crimes throughout the year, ending in June 2023, which has risen from 22,569 last year (by 736 crimes).

The biggest rise in the data can be seen in 'theft offences, with 6,816 rising to 7,361 in the space of a year, and 1,729 shoplifting offences last year rising to 2,328.

This year has also seen 9,019 cases of violence against the person', down from 9,126 the previous year, but there has been an increase in violence with injury (2,957 from 2,709).

Robin Walker MP for Worcester, said: "Any rise in crime is always a concern, and the rise justifies the increase in policing which we are currently seeing.

"It is interesting that there has been a substantial rise in shoplifting as local retailers have raised this as a concern to me. There is a new government initiative to focus on this and increase police action on this.

"The good news is that violent crime and sexual assault are down, which does reflect that there are more police on the street which hopefully has a deterrent effect."

Chief inspector for South Worcestershire SNT Brian Gibbs said he understands that there will be concern around shoplifting.

He said: “These statistics are largely encouraging with some reductions in key areas, particularly residential burglary and theft from person.

“However, understandably there will be concern about the increase in shoplifting and although this follows the national picture, it is something we are committed to reducing across our communities.

"We are carrying out an array of proactive work to reduce such crimes, both operationally, and from a longer-term problem-solving perspective.

"We have recently welcomed our new Neighbourhood Crime Fighting Teams who will assist in reducing these kinds of crimes.

"Our focus on high volume offenders and how our officers are committed to stopping them carrying out crime has given us a positive outcome rate that has increased to around 50 per cent.

"We will continue to work with retail outlets around security and prevention. We understand the concern around bicycle theft and we have a clear focus amongst our teams to reduce the current statistic.

"I encourage people to take advantage of our bike marking and Smartwater events that we provide across our communities with bike-safe events and to remind people that they can protect their property by using basic bike security."