The number of shoplifting offences recorded by police in England and Wales has risen to a new 20-year high. A total of 443,995 offences were logged by forces in the year to March 2024, up 30% on the 342,428 recorded in the previous 12 months. The figure is the highest since current records began in the year to March 2003, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which described the latest increases as notable. Shoplifting levels had already reached a 20-year high earlier this year, with the latest figures showing the number of offences recorded has risen even higher. The data published on Wednesday comes after leading retailers raised concerns about the rising cost of theft, and as the Labour government vowed to tackle low-level shoplifting and make assaulting a shop worker a specific criminal offence. The move to create a separate offence follows a long-running campaign from business owners amid rising violence against shop workers. Retailers have said they hope the measures set out last week in the king’s speech to parliament will make it easier for police to investigate and prosecute criminals. The figures also show the number of offences involving theft from the person stood at 131,453 in 2023-24, up 17% from 112,225 in 2022-23. Knife crime offences recorded by police forces in England and Wales in 2023-24 stood at 50,510, up 4% from 48,409 in 2022-23, but below the pre-pandemic level of 51,982 offences in 2019-20. There was a “notable increase” in the number of robberies involving a knife or sharp instrument, with 21,226 recorded by forces in 2023-24, up 13% from 18,787 in the previous 12 months, though this is below the 22,727 in 2019-20. Offences involving possession of an article with a blade or point fell slightly to 27,470, down 3% from 28,391 in the previous 12 months. This follows “substantial increases in recent years, which may have been influenced by targeted police action to tackle knife crime”, the ONS said. The figures on knife crime do not include offences recorded by Greater Manchester police due to problems recording data. Police recorded a 10% increase to 129,076 offences in stalking, and harassment also increased by 10% to 287,977 offences compared with the previous year. The report measures incidents of crime in households the 12 months before interview, meaning the latest survey, carried out in the 12 months to March 2024, reflects crimes that could have occurred as far back as April 2022. Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, said the figures showed a “disgraceful dereliction of the last Tory government on law and order”. “Shoplifting has shot up to 20-year highs, hitting our local businesses and hurting communities in our towns and cities, yet the number of neighbourhood police on our streets has plummeted, with devastating consequences for public confidence. “Knife crime, which tears families apart, has risen yet again, and we have seen a steep rise in stalking and harassment offences which disproportionately impact women and girls. We can’t carry on like this,” she said.