Ten crimes a day committed against UK churches

An average of ten crimes a day took place against churches last year, new figures have revealed.

According to police data obtained by the Countryside Alliance, there were 3,809 crimes recorded on church property and religious buildings across the UK in 2025. The majority of the crimes were theft, followed by criminal damage and violence.

But the group said the true scale of the issue is “undoubtedly” worse than reported, as seven police forces did not respond to their request for data, including Police Scotland.

However, in some instances, data was only gathered on ‘religious buildings’, when officers did not specifically record ‘church’ as a building type.

Broken pews

Most crimes were committed in London, with 531 recorded by the Metropolitan Police and a further 30 by City of London Police, followed by West Yorkshire at 445 crimes and Greater Manchester at 172.

Ben Sims, Head of Policy and Public Affairs at the National Churches Trust, told Premier Christian News to imagine a scenario where you “discover that all of the gravestones have been smashed, all the windows have been smashed. Or inside, the pews have been broken up.

“It’s a really demoralising, quite scary thing to happen, especially because these are places of worship”.

‘Abhorrent’

Deputy Chief Constable Rachel Nolan, who is the National Police Chiefs’ Council Lead for Heritage Crime, added: “Stealing from, or damaging any places of worship, historic buildings and cultural sites is abhorrent.

“We are committed to tackling this issue and our heritage crime officers across the country will continue to work with partners to reduce offending and raise awareness about the long-lasting damage heritage crime can have.”