Crime rates in Surrey have risen by 14 per cent in the last year, with domestic violence representing the majority of physical violent crime.

A “significant contributory factor” to the rise was a 16.6 per cent increase in recorded violent crime- 4,053 more than the year before.

Violent crime can include a range of incidents, some of which are not physical.

Of the 28,526 violent crimes recorded, 74.9 per cent are ‘without injury’, such as verbal abuse.

However, 7,291 of violent crimes relate to domestic abuse, which makes up most of the rest.

Surrey Police said it has “committed to training over 90 per cent of first responders in the College of Policing accredited DA Matters training, up-skilled nearly 90 DA Matters Mentors and accredited frontline officers and staff in domestic abuse specific risk assessments”.

Possession of weapons has increased by 29.7 per cent, an increase of 127 offences.

Police have put this down to a rise in stop and searches.

In June 2017, for the first time in ten years, burglaries started to increase in Surrey- the past year has shown an 8.4 per cent increase (499 to 6,472).

The force puts the rise, which is a national issue, down to increases in reporting of non-recent offences including sexual abuse, an increase in domestic violence, tighter rules about crime data reporting, and a general rise in crime.

The rise can be positive in some ways, in that more people are reporting crimes that have been “significantly” under-reported in the past, such as domestic violence, hate crime, and historical sexual abuse.

Speaking about the increases, DCC Gavin Stephens said: “We started a number of proactive burglary initiatives in 2017 to address the increase through a variety of means including building our intelligence picture of problem offenders and focussing our Serious and Organised Crime Unit on identified criminal gangs.

“This has led to a 32.9 per cent improvement in the volume of positive outcomes for burglaries.

“We are also involved in a programme of ‘property marking’ with industry leaders Selecta DNA, marking property and valuables in homes to act as a deterrent, evidentially connect criminals to stolen goods and help reunite property should the worst happen.

“We continue to focus this activity in areas that have been repeatedly targeted over a period of time.

“Following the implementation of this activity, the volume of burglaries has dropped to expected levels – showing our response is turning the tide.”

Although crime rates rose by 14 per cent last year, the year before they rose by 20 per cent, showing a slower pace of increase.