Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, a) what assessment she has made of the regulatory and commercial burden on manufacturers and retailers arising from the application of age verification requirements to sales and deliveries of ordinary non-pointed cutlery knives which are not designed for or capable of being used as dangerous weapons; b) whether she has made an assessment of whether the application of those requirements to such products to be consistent with the policy objective of reducing access to dangerous knives; c) if, in light of forthcoming increased age verification requirements for the sale of knives, she will take urgent steps to clarify that references to 'cutlery knives' for the purposes of section 141A of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 do not include cutlery knives that lack the sharpness or pointed features necessary to cut skin or cause injury.

The Government is committed to legislation around knife sales which helps ensure that knives do not fall into the hands of those aged under 18. The new measures being brought in by the Crime and Policing Act 2026 around age verification and safe delivery for online sales of knives will help to achieve this aim.