Two teenagers are killed and seven other people injured in a collision involving two cars in East Yorkshire.[1]
The cap on bus fares in England rises from £2 to £3 per journey.[2]
West Midlands Police announce they have located Sheila Fox, missing from Coventry since 1972, and say she is safe and living in another part of the country.[3]
Graham Sheldon resigns as leader of Oldham Council's Conservatives, and from the Conservative Party itself, after police were called to a heated council meeting on 18 December.[5]
Rapper Stormzy is given a nine month driving ban by Wimbledon Magistrates' Court after he was caught using a mobile phone while driving in March 2024.[6]
A baby boy is killed when a car hits a tree after leaving the A1 dual carriageway near Grantham, Lincolnshire.[7]
3 January – Data from NHS England shows the number of people being treated in hospital for flu in the week ending 29 December was 5,000, a fourfold increase from November, and was continuing to rise "at a very concerning rate".[9]
A fire destroys a historic building housing the Dorset Burger Company in Weymouth, Dorset.[11]
6 January –
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer outlines plans to reduce hospital waiting lists in England, including setting up more community hubs and greater utilisation of the private sector.[12]
Former prison officer Linda De Sousa is sentenced to fifteen months in prison for having sex with an inmate at Wandsworth Prison.[13]
7 January –
Police launch a murder investigation after a 14-year-old boy, subsequently named as Kelyan Bokassa, is stabbed to death on a double-decker bus in Woolwich, south east London.[14][15]
The Crafter's Companion store, a business owned by Dragons' Den panellist Sara Davies, in Barlborough, near Chesterfield, is closed by administrators, leaving 10 people redundant. A second store in Evesham, Worcestershire base, remains open, along with the company's head office in County Durham. Davies was a previous shareholder in the business, but reacquired it from the administrators.[16]
10 January – Ten Reform UK councillors in Derbyshire resign from the party in protest at Nigel Farage's leadership, claiming the Reform is being run in an "increasingly autocratic manner" and "has lost its sense of direction" since Farage took over as leader. In response, Farage says the members were put forward by a "rogue branch" of the party and that "none of them passed vetting".[17]
11 January – An off-duty police officer, subsequently named as PC Rosie Prior, is killed when she is struck by a lorry on the A19 at Bagby in North Yorkshire after stopping to help at the scene of an earlier crash. Ryan Welford, a driver who was involved in the first crash, is also killed in the incident, while a passenger is taken to hospital for treatment.[18]
12 January – A man is arrested for attempted murder after a female member of staff, reported to be a nurse, was stabbed in the A&E department of the Royal Oldham Hospital and suffered lifechanging injuries.[19]
13 January –
A man is charged with the attempted murder of a nurse who was stabbed at the Royal Oldham Hospital on 11 January.[20]
Ryan Wellings, who became the first defendant to stand trial for the unlawful killing of his partner after she committed suicide following prolonged domestic abuse, is cleared of her manslaughter, but found guilty of assault and prolonged domestic violence.[21] He is subsequently sentenced to six and a half years in custody.[22]
At Birmingham Crown Court, five men who used dating app Grindr to target and rob a series of men are given prison sentences of between 12 and 17 years.[24]
14 January –
The NHS is to extend bowel cancer screening in the form of home test kits to everyone over the age of 50 in England, bringing England in line with Scotland and Wales.[25]
MPs vote to back a one-month cap on advanced rents in England as part of the Renters' Rights Bill.[26]
16 January –
Convicted murderer Jake Fahri, sentenced to life imprisonment for the 2008 murder of schoolboy Jimmy Mizen and released on parole in 2023, is recalled to prison after "shamelessly boasting" about his crime, the Probation Service says.[27]
Hassan Sentamu is found guilty of the September 2023 murder of Elianne Andam in Croydon.[28]
17 January – White supremacist Callum Parslow, who stabbed an asylum seeker at a hotel near Worcester in what a judge described as "undoubtedly a terrorist attack", is sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 22 and eight months after being convicted of attempted murder.[30]
18 January – A further three people are charged with the murder of Michelle Sadio, who was shot dead outside a church in Harlesden, north west London, on the night of 14 December.[31]
21 January –
Three men who stabbed motorist Sadiq Al-lami to death in a road rage attack in Didsbury, Greater Manchester in January 2024, are sentenced to life imprisonment.[32]
A murder investigation is launched following the fatal stabbing of a 12-year-old boy, subsequently named as Leo Ross, in the Hall Green area of Birmingham.[33]
24 January – Deveca Rose, whose four children died in a housefire after she left them alone in December 2021, is sentenced to ten years in prison for manslaughter.[35]
25 January –
West Midlands Police confirm that a 14-year-old boy has been charged with the murder of Leo Ross in Birmingham.[36]
West Yorkshire Police confirm that three teenagers were killed in a crash near Wakefield the previous evening when a car left the road and hit a tree.[37]
A police officer is injured after he is struck by a vehicle in Greater Manchester; a suspect is subsequently arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.[38]
26 January – Police are investigating the vandalism of two memorials to police officers who died in the line of duty in West Yorkshire, which happened on subsequent days.[39]
30 January – During a hearing at the Old Bailey, Steve Sansom and Gemma Watts plead guilty to the murder of Sarah Mayhew, whose dismembered remains were discovered in locations around London in 2023; both are sentenced to life imprisonment, with Sansom, who was on licence for committing a previous murder, given a whole life sentence.[41]
31 January – UK drill rapper Digga D is sentenced to three years and eleven months in prison for supplying 99lbs of cannabis.[42]
February
1 February – Four people are killed when the vehicle they are travelling in crashes into a building in Colchester, Essex.[43]
3 February –
New Ofsted report cards are launched for assessing schools, with government intervention for struggling schools to take place much sooner than under the previous system.[44]
4 February – Robert Jenner is sentenced to 30 years in prison for attempting to kill a police officer by stabbing him in the head with a pair of scissors at a flat in Maidstone, Kent, in 2023.[45]
6 February – Two couples tell the BBC that they went through with aborting healthy babies after doctors at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust told them the unborn children had serious genetic problems.[46]
9 February – A BBC News investigation discovers that Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire failed more than once to disclose the burning of wood from primary forests.[47]
10 February –
Simon Vickers is sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 15 years for the July 2024 murder of his 14-year-old daughter Scarlett Vickers, after a jury rejects his claim that he stabbed her with a kitchen knife during a play fight and that her death was "a freak accident".[48]
The UK government agrees a new funding deal with Drax Power Station that will reduce the amount of subsidies it receives by half.[49]
11 February – James Garnor resigns as a member of Whittlebury Parish Council after a video was shared that appeared to show an explosive device being triggered by a cat.[50]
12 February –
The UK government unveils a £300m project to build more affordable housing in England. Part of the plans will also curb the amount of housing benefit rogue landlords receive if their properties are substandard.[51]
The Parole Board confirms that Michael Steele, one of two men convicted over the 1995 Rettendon murders and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1998, will be released from prison on licence.[53]
David Newton is convicted of the 2013 murder of retired postmistress Una Crown, who was stabbed to death at her home in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. Originally a suspect at the time of the murder, he was re-arrested in April 2024 following advances in DNA technology.[54]
The UK government publishes a list of 100 proposed locations for potential new towns in England, with Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook saying work on them will begin before the next general election.[55]
14 February –
David Newton is sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 21 years for the 2013 murder of Una Crown.[56]
Around 100 people are rescued after fire breaks out at the five-storey Chiltern Firehouse hotel in Marylebone, Central London.[57]
Kent Police launch a murder investigation after a woman, who is subsequently named as 43-year-old Lisa Smith from Slough, is shot dead outside the Three Horseshoes pub on Main Road, Knockholt.[58][59]
Lottery winners Patrick and Frances Connolly, from Hartlepool, have acquired a 25% stake in Championship side Durham Women FC with the aim of reaching the Women's Super League.[60]
15 February –
BBC News reports that the convictions of Jack Whomes and Michael Steele for the Rettendon murders are being reviewed by the Criminal Cases Review Commission following an application.[61]
Netflix are forced to move their BAFTA Awards afterparty, scheduled to be held at the Chiltern Firehouse the following day, to a different venue after a fire at the hotel.[62]
16 February – A man is charged with the murder of Julie Buckley, a woman from Christchurch near March in Cambridge, who disappeared in January. Charges have been brought even though a body has not been found.[63]
17 February –
Prime Minister Keir Starmer says the UK government met a key election target to provide an extra two million GP appointments, with the target being met between July and November 2024.[64]
Logan Burnett is sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 23 years and 173 days for the murder of his partner, Courtney Mitchell, who was stabbed to death in front of her friends in Ipswich on 6 August 2024.[65]
18 February – Jack Bennett is sentenced to 28 weeks in prison by Exeter Magistrates after pleading guilty to sending malicious communications to MP Jess Phillips, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and a Metropolitan police officer between February 2024 and January 2025. He is also given a restraining order preventing him from contacting his victims for five years.[66]
20 February – Kent Police announce that they believe a man who they suspect of shooting his wife dead on Valentine's Day is dead. Edward Stockings is said to have entered the River Thames after shooting dead Lisa Smith outside a pub.[67]
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