Knives (Hansard, 10 May 1995)

§ Mr. Jim Cunningham
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what consideration he has given to restrictions on the buying of knives by children; [22722]
(2) what representations he has received on the purchase of knives by children. [22725]

§ Mr. Maclean
The question of the sale of knives to children has been raised with my right hon. and learned Friend from time to time—he has received three letters from hon. Members about this in the last 12 months. Banning such sales would do little to reduce the availability of knives given that they are available in most homes.

§ Mr. Jim Cunningham
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what talks he has had with the police on the control of knives; [22723]
(2) what work has been carried out on behalf of his Department to define for legislative purposes the difference between assault and working knives; and what plans he has to resume this work. [22727]

§ Mr. Maclean
Chief officers of police were last formally consulted about controls on the sale of knives during the preparation of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Offensive Weapons) Order 1988. This lists 14 weapons the sale of which is prohibited. No item has been added to the list. We will consider adding to the list weapons which have no legitimate use and have some feature which enables them to be distinguished from ordinary knives. Whether these criteria apply is considered in relation to individual items. An assault knife, although possibly offensive in the way it is described, may, depending on its exact specification, not be distinguishable in practice from an ordinary domestic knife.

§ Mr. Jim Cunningham
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what are the figures for knife-related incidents for each of the last five years(a) for the country as a whole and (b) by region. [22724]

§ Mr. Maclean
The available information relates to an ad hoc survey concerning notifiable offences recorded by the police in which knives were involved. The results were published in table 2.24 of "Criminal Statistics, England and Wales, 1989". A copy of this publication is available in the Library.

§ Mr. Jim Cunningham
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many children were arrested for knife-related incidents in each of the last five years(a) in the country as a whole and (b) by region. [22726]

§ Mr. Maclean
This information is not collected centrally.