Nottingham’s Community Safety Partnership has reported rising overall crime, increasing reoffending and growing pressure on domestic abuse and Prevent services, as councillors prepare to review performance and shape the city’s next three-year safety strategy.
A detailed annual report to the Communities and Environment Scrutiny Committee ahead of a meeting on 4 March 2026 sets out the role, performance and emerging risks facing the Nottingham Community Safety Partnership (NCSP).
The NCSP is the statutory body established under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 to reduce crime and disorder, reoffending, substance misuse and anti-social behaviour. Its five responsible authorities are Nottingham City Council, Nottinghamshire Police, the Probation Service, Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service and the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board. The board is independently chaired by Paddy Tipping and also fulfils additional legal roles, including acting as Nottingham’s Domestic Abuse Local Partnership Board under the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 and overseeing local compliance with the Serious Violence Duty.
The current three-year Partnership Strategy, covering 2025 to 2028, focuses on slavery and exploitation, domestic and sexual violence and abuse, preventing radicalisation and violent extremism, serious violence, substance use and anti-social behaviour. Progress is reviewed annually through a statutory strategic assessment.
Performance data up to the end of December 2025 shows recorded crime in the city is 4 per cent higher than the previous 12 months, equating to 1,154 additional offences. While the most recent quarter shows no overall change compared with the previous three months, the longer-term trend remains upward. Experience of crime, measured through the Police and Crime Commissioner survey, has risen from a low of 27 per cent to 33 per cent over the past two years, above the 30 per cent baseline.
Hate crime has also increased over the longer term. Non-crime hate incidents rose from 451 in 2024 to 537 in 2025, a 19 per cent increase, while recorded hate crime rose slightly from 1,852 to 1,897 offences. Combined, this represents a 5.7 per cent rise in hate-related occurrences. Race-related hate crime accounts for around two-thirds of reports, with sexual orientation the second most common category at around 15 per cent. Religiously motivated offences, including anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim hostility, have also increased, reflecting national trends. Despite higher volumes, positive criminal justice outcomes improved to 28 per cent in November 2025 and 30 per cent in December, and victim satisfaction stands at 88.2 per cent, up from 86.8 per cent in 2024.
Reoffending remains a significant challenge. The binary reoffending rate stands at 44 per cent, the highest point in four years, with frequency rates at a four-year peak of 3.0 offences per offender. Female offenders show particularly high frequency rates at 4.1. The proportion of offenders recalled into custody has risen from 30 per cent to just under 40 per cent over the past year, increasing pressure on partners. While 75 per cent of offenders are housed three months after release, up from 60 per cent last year, only 22 per cent are in employment at that point.
Serious violence over the rolling 12 months to November 2025 has decreased by 1 per cent compared with the medium term, but is 5.6 per cent higher over the longer term, equivalent to 383 additional offences. Knife crime offences have fallen by 2.5 per cent compared with the previous year and 7 per cent compared with two years ago.
Prevent referrals have risen significantly over the past year, partly linked to national events, increasing pressure on the Channel programme and partner agencies. The report identifies this as a key risk for the coming year, alongside community tensions linked to international conflicts and the management of potentially dangerous individuals who do not meet the Prevent threshold.
Domestic abuse services are also facing growing demand. While MARAC referrals have fallen in recent quarters, the number of cases heard remains consistent, reflecting tighter referral processes. However, repeat survivors of domestic abuse are beginning to increase again after a period of stability. The strategic assessment highlights that planned changes to sentencing policy, moving away from short custodial sentences towards greater community supervision, are likely to create additional pressures across domestic abuse and wider community safety services.
In the city centre, targeted policing under Operation Listing and the Winter of Action followed a serious incident involving youths brandishing machetes in November. This resulted in a high volume of arrests across offences including violence, drug supply, knife possession and robbery, alongside increased patrols and enforcement activity. Arrests for drug dealing in Market Square rose significantly compared with the previous year, while knife-related offences in that area decreased overall.
The partnership has also highlighted prevention work delivered by Equation, a commissioned domestic and sexual violence and abuse service. In 2024–25 the organisation reached nearly 29,000 young people in schools and trained more than 1,000 staff, and supported 452 male and LGBTQ+ survivors through specialist services.
A new draft strategy for 2026 to 2029 is being developed, structured around prevention, early intervention and enforcement, safeguarding and support, and collaborative working. Proposed priority areas include serious violence, anti-social behaviour, vulnerability and contextual safeguarding, and community cohesion and counter-radicalisation, with substance use and reoffending as cross-cutting themes.
Councillors are not being asked to approve the new strategy at this stage, but to review performance and provide input ahead of final proposals. The outcome will influence how agencies across Nottingham coordinate resources and respond to rising demand, reoffending pressures and community tensions over the next three years.
