Havering police say it is “alive” to the issue of people being injured by knife crime as reports of the offence continue to rise, a Havering Council sub-committee was told.

At a crime and disorder panel on March 14, Det Ch Supt Paul Trevers acknowledged that it presented a “challenge we’ve got where we’re not reducing to where we want to be”.

There were 13 instances recorded for the October to December period last year.

It is not the only crime to have experienced a growth in figures, with domestic abuse and overall notable offences also up when compared to the same period in 2020.

However, when held against pre-Covid data, overall offences have gone down, dropping from 4,906 in 2019 to 4,430 in 2021.

Burglaries are an example which, while Det Ch Supt Trevers admits are "still not great figures” with a total of 302 recorded for the period, the "investment in the officers investigating properly is slowly but surely starting to reap the dividends”, he said.

Instances of calls to the police regarding antisocial behaviour (ASB), meanwhile, were down 40 per cent on last year, a reduction the report credits to the relaxation of Covid restrictions.