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Community safety overview

The 2025/26 publication from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) showed that crime against individuals and households has generally fallen over the past decade, although offences such as fraud remain high. The Crime Survey for England and Wales (year ending March 2026) estimated 9.6 million headline crime incidents which has broadly unchanged from the previous year. Theft offences remained stable at 2.6 million incidents, although other household theft increased by 21%, largely due to theft from outside dwellings. Fraud also remained stable at 4.5 million incidents, but the number of victims rose by 10% to 3.8 million.

Latest estimates from the year ending March 2025 survey showed that an estimated 7.8% of people aged 16 years and over experienced domestic abuse in the last year (around 3.8 million people).

In the year ending March 2026, 10.0% of adults experienced harassment, up from 8.3% the previous year, while repeated harassment increased from 2.3% to 3.5%. An estimated 40.9% of people experienced or witnessed Anti-social behaviour (ASB), up from 35.5% in the year ending March 2025, although some of this increase reflects changes to survey methodology introduced in April 2025.

Source: Office for National Statistics (ONS)

Main points for Lancashire (2025)

This section provides a summary of police recorded crime in Lancashire-14, including comparisons between districts and an analysis of the most prevalent crime types to identify key local crime patterns.

  • Blackpool recorded the highest crime rate in Lancashire-14, at almost 260 offences per 1,000 population, although this represents a 7.8% decrease from the previous year.

  • Preston saw the largest reduction in recorded crime, with offences falling by more than 9% compared with the previous year.

  • Ribble Valley and West Lancashire continue to record the lowest crime rates across Lancashire-14.

  • Violence against the person remains the most common offence type, alongside theft offences.

  • Hate crime continues to decline, with offences falling by around 4% compared with the previous year. Although smaller than the 7.5% decrease seen between 2023 and 2024, this remains a notable reduction.

  • Anti-social behaviour (ASB) incidents fell by 3.4% compared with the previous year. Aside from a small increase of around 1% in 2024, the longer-term trend continues to show declining levels.

Please note: Police recorded data only reflect incidents that come to the attention of the police and are subsequently recorded. Many crimes, incidents of anti-social behaviour and other forms of victimisation are not reported, meaning these figures represent only part of the overall picture. Changes in reporting levels, public awareness and recording practices should also be considered when interpreting trends over time.

Further information can be found in the Community Safety dashboard below

Lancashire strategic assessment

The 2025-2028 strategic assessment states: this assessment highlights some of the key issues and risks across Lancashire which affect the local communities. They require multi-agency engagement to improve safeguarding, reduce vulnerability, reduce crime and anti-social behaviour, and improve the well-being of our residents. 

When looking at crime in a different perspective – harm – and using the ONS Crime Severity Tool, these volume crimes account for 20% of harm across the county. Using the ONS Crime Severity Tool to look at the most harmful crime categories, gives a different picture to that mentioned above. The most harmful crime types include residential and commercial burglary, assaults, wounding, rape, robbery and sexual activity involving a child. These crimes account for 25% of the volume, but 68% of harm. Investigations into the most harmful crimes are also the most resource intensive, not just for the police, but for partners as well. 

As part of the strategic process a Living in Lancashire survey was conducted, sending out 2,916 questionnaires to residents across Lancashire. There was a 68% (1,991) response rate with all community safety, crime and policing questions answered by respondents. Analysis of the results found the following highlights:

  • 85% of respondents felt safe in their local area - with the age group of 60 yrs+ feeling most safe (88%).

  • A lack of police presence (14%) was the most significant reason why respondents felt unsafe in their local area.

  • More than three-quarters of respondents felt that issues with violence, sexual exploitation and organised crime were not a big problem.

  • 38% of respondents felt that burglary, with half of respondents aged 25-44 years, was a problem.

  • 53% felt drug dealing was a problem in their area, with respondents aged 25-59 years having most concern.

  • Dangerous driving was seen as a big problem for 49% of respondents (increase from previous survey).

  • Less than half of respondents felt that the police and other local public services are dealing with crime and ASB successfully - this has been reducing in recent surveys.

  • Cleanliness of the streets (34%) and access to green areas (12%) were issues that had increased in dissatisfaction in local communities.

Further analysis can be found on the LG Inform Quarterly Reports on Crime and Disorder webpage.

Page updated September 2026