The number of people attending A&E jumped by nearly a quarter as serious violence surged after lockdown measures were eased last year.
A study by Cardiff University found that violence leapt by 23% between 2020 and 2021 – the biggest jump since records began in 2001. The figures for England and Wales showed that an estimated 146,856 people attended A&E for violence-related injury in 2021, with violence peaking in August 2021. Wales moved fully into alert level one from July 17, 2021 while most legal limits on social contact were removed in England on July 19, 2021 and nightclubs reopened.
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Although the increase represents the biggest yearly rise since records began in 2001, overall rates of serious violence in 2021 were lower than in the years prior to the pandemic, with long-term trends showing a steady decline, the researchers found. And despite concerns Covid-19 restrictions having increased the risk of serious violence for women and girls, the researchers found no evidence of this.
The report’s authors also studied violence in Scotland for the first time, with an estimated 8,549 people attending emergency units for violence-related injury in 2021.
Professor Jonathan Shepherd, co-author of the report, said: “The easing of restrictions after national Covid-19 related lockdown in England and Wales was linked to the biggest increase in serious violence in a single year since our records began 21 years ago. The easing of restrictions in 2021 was associated with a significant increase in serious violence; by August pre-pandemic levels were reached.
"Our data are the only overall measure of serious violence during the pandemic and provide evidence of how restrictions affected this during a fascinating period. Our findings also point to prevention priorities, such as earlier and more precise targeting of police resources at violence hot spots identified from A&E data. Without this detailed information police are blind to when and where half of this serious violence takes place."
Data was gathered and analysed by the Violence Research Group (VRG) from 74 emergency units in England and Wales, including Grange University Hospital, Morriston, Nevill Hall, the Royal Gwent, and the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff. It showed that in the 12 months ending December 31, 2021, an estimated 146,856 people attended for treatment of violence-related injuries, up from 27,745 in 2020. The figures followed the biggest annual fall in serious violence in 2020.
Overall, serious violence fell significantly between September 2020 and January2021 - a period where social gatherings of more than six people were banned, people were encouraged to work from home, and a 10pm curfew was imposed on the hospitality sector.
But during 2021, serious violence jumped across all age groups – by 42% among children aged 0-10, by 20% among adolescents aged 11-17, by 29% among young adults aged 18-30, by 20% among those aged 31-50 and by 16% among those aged over 50. Males were more than twice at risk of violence-related injury than women. Encouragingly, overall rates of serious violence in 2021 were lower than in the years before the pandemic, down 24% and 49% compared to 2017 and 2011, for example.
Professor Shepherd said the figures showed serious violence "is preventable, not inevitable" and added: “The government’s 2019 assessment of public health contributions to violence prevention, signed by Sajid Javid when he was Home Secretary, concluded that even if just 5% of community safety partnerships used specified A&E data to guide their work – the tried and tested strategy known as the Cardiff Model – savings over 10 years would be almost £1bn."
