FEWER homicides were recorded by police in South Yorkshire last year, new figures show.

Figures from the Home Office show there were eight homicides recorded by South Yorkshire Police in the year to June - down from 19 the year before.

Homicide refers to the offences of murder, manslaughter and infanticide.

Across England and Wales, the number of homicides decreased by six per cent, with 518 offences last year.

It was the lowest figure since current police recording practices began in 2002/03, when the figure stood at 1,047 - although this includes 173 victims of serial killer doctor Harold Shipman.

Other recorded crimes in South Yorkshire included 14,279 shoplifting offences in the year to June, down five per cent from 14,996 in 2023/24.

Across England and Wales, shoplifting rose 13 per cent to 529,994 crimes in the recent year - just below the recent all-time high.

Billy Gazard, of the Office for National Statistics, said the data for police-recorded crime ‘paints a mixed picture’.

He said: “While shoplifting continues to rise year on year, there are signs the rate of increase in reporting of these offences is slowing.”

Crime and policing minister Sarah Jones said: “This government is making real progress in protecting vulnerable young people, homicide rates have hit their lowest levels since the 1970s and knife crime is down after just one year in office.

“But we know that any life lost is one too many and we are not complacent as we seek to halve knife crime over the next decade.”