Stalking, harassment, robberies and drug offences have all seen a sharp rise across Hampshire.

In just one year, stalking and harassment offences have sky-rocketed by 37 per cent.

In the year ending March 2020 there were 14,649 reported incidents alone.

But that’s not all - drug offences have soared by 18 per cent with 4,615 recorded in the last year.

Chair of Hampshire Police Federation Zoe Wakefield said she expects most areas of crime to increase.

She said: “With the impact on social deprivation, I would expect most areas of crime to increase in future as a full impact of coronavirus really hits home.

“On the stalking side, domestic abuse helplines have seen an increase, so that’s probably linked.”

Robberies have gone up by 12 per cent with 1,544 offences.

Public order offences 9 per cent with 16,271.

And violence against the person by 7 per cent.

Meanwhile offences where the victim was punched, kicked, or pushed but suffered no injury rose by 2 per cent.

With a population of 1,985,800 there were 162,532 crimes.

These figures were released by the Office for National Statistics.

Overall recorded crime in Hampshire has inched up by 2 per cent.

However, these increases are not across the board.

Bike thefts dropped by 16 per cent, non-residential burglaries by 10 per cent, thefts by 5 per cent, and violence with injury – wounding and assault with minor injury - by two per cent.

Zoe added: “Some decreases are related to the lockdown, obviously residential burglaries, as everyone has been at home.

“We have not stopped working and won’t stop, we will still be doing the same thing even if there is a second spike, and doing our best to protect our communities and bring offenders to justice.”