Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effect on employment of proposed changes to the sale of knives online on people who purchase knives for their profession and live in rural areas.

The consultation on proposed new legislation on offensive and dangerous weapons was published on 14 October. We have produced consultation stage impact assessments to assess the impact to the criminal justice system and relevant stakeholders of the proposals.

The impact assessments are also available together with the consultation. A further impact assessment, taking into account information provided in the consultation will be produced after the consultation. The consultation is available in gov.uk. The consultation includes the proposal that knives sold online should not be delivered to a private residential address. This proposal is aimed at preventing the sale of knives to under 18s.

The proposal will not prevent knives being sold online and instead being collected from a place where the age and identity of the purchaser can be checked or from being delivered to a non-residential address such as a business. We recognise that knives are essential in everyday life at home and at work and this proposal does not change that.