Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps her Department has taken to prevent the illegal sale of knives and other offensive weapons online.

The Government continues to work with the police and partners, including retailers to ensure we have strong controls in place to prevent sales of knives to under 18s. In March 2016 we agreed a set of commitments with major retailers including Amazon UK and Ebay UK to prevent the underage sales of knives more generally in their stores and online. The commitments include a requirement to have robust measures in place to ensure age verification for sales, in-store and online.

In addition, on 14 October 2017, the Government launched a consultation on new laws on offensive weapons which included proposals to restrict the online sales of knives to further prevent sales to under 18s. The consultation was closed on 9 December and we are now considering the responses.