Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of recent trends in the level of knife crime in Essex.

In the year ending March 2024, there were 1,539 offences involving knives or sharp instruments recorded by Essex Police, a fall of 8% compared with the year ending March 2023 (1,667). Across England and Wales (excluding Greater Manchester Police), the number of knife and sharp instrument offences rose by 4% across the same period (from 48,409 offences in year ending March 2023 to 50,510 offences in year ending March 2024).

The Government is already taking action to get dangerous weapons off the street. We have banned Zombie style knives and zombie style machetes, and , the manufacture, supply, sale and possession of zombie-style knives and machetes became illegal on 24 September 2024. We will also be taking action to ban ninja swords in line with our manifesto commitment and a review of online sales of knives is currently being conducted by Commander Clayman of the Metropolitan Police at the request of the Home Secretary.

We will also create a new Young Futures programme - intervening earlier to stop young people being drawn into crime. It is vital we have a system that can identify and support those young people who need it most and we will be introducing Prevention Partnerships and Young Futures Hubs to help deliver this.