Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to prevent young people obtaining knives online.

Reducing violence including knife crime is a priority for this Government. In addition to our work with the police and other partners we are working closely with retailers to encourage the responsible sale of knives both in-store and online.

There are already strict laws on the sale of knives and on how knives can be marketed. It is illegal to sell knives to anyone under 18 (except for folding knives with a blade that does not exceed 7.62cm). The Home Secretary chaired a roundtable with major retailers and the British Retail Consortium on 14 March to encourage them to sell knives more responsibly and discuss what steps they can take to ensure that they have strong age verification processes in place.

On 23 March the Home Secretary announced agreement of a new set of principles with major retailers to prevent the underage sales of knives both in-store and online, together with commitments on staff training, safe displays, and sales in online marketplaces.

The agreement is available online at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sale-of-knives-voluntary-agreement-by-retailers

We will be working with the British Retail Consortium to promote and extend the principles to other retailers.