Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the provisions on knives in the Criminal Justice Bill will also extend to weapons used for historical re-enactments.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
In the Criminal Justice Bill 2023 we are introducing three measures to tackle knife crime:
These measures will apply to all pointed or bladed articles, including those used for historical re-enactment.
On 25 January we laid the Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Offensive Weapons) (Amendment, Surrender and Compensation) Order 2024 in Parliament. The Order has now been approved by both Houses of Parliament and this will prohibit the manufacture, supply, sale and possession of zombie-style knives and machetes from 24 September 2024.
Zombie-style knives are defined in the Statutory Instrument and to fall under the legislation would need to be a bladed article with a plain cutting edge and a sharp pointed end, with a blade of over 8 inches in length, which also has one or more of, a serrated cutting edge, more than one hole in the blade, spikes or more than two sharp points in the blade.
Items which match this criteria will fall under the legislation including those used for historical re-enactment; however, there is a defence in the legislation for in scope items which are blunt.
Mentions:
1: Chris Philp (Con - Croydon South) of tragic examples of them using knives to commit homicide. - Speech Link
2: Jess Phillips (Lab - Birmingham, Yardley) The Minister for Crime, Policing and Fire, a Home Office Minister, is sat in front of me. - Speech Link
Found: The press release from the Home Office and Minister for Crime, Policing and Fire, The Rt Hon
Found: The press release from the Home Office and Minister for Crime, Policing and Fire, The Rt Hon
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to tackle violent assaults in Solihull constituency.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Tackling knife crime and violent assaults is a priority and the Government is determined to crack down on the scourge of violence devastating our communities.
As a result of the Government’s Police Uplift Programme (PUP) the West Midlands Force recruited 1,376 additional uplift officers against a total three-year allocation of 1,218 officers. On 31 March 2023, there were 8,067 police officers in West Midlands, a total growth of 1,376 additional officers against the baseline (6,691) at the start of the Police Uplift Programme.
The Government is proposing a total police funding settlement of up to £18.4 billion in 2024-25, an increase of up to £842.9 million when compared to 2023-24. Assuming full take up of precept flexibility, overall police funding available to PCCs will increase by up to £922.2 million (6.0% in cash terms). West Midlands funding will be up to £789.4 million for 2024/25, an increase of up to £50 million when compared to 2023/24.
West Midlands Police are delivering additional policing in their areas worst affected by serious violence via the Grip programme funding, including in Solihull City Centre. This is a combination of regular visible patrols in the streets and neighbourhoods (‘hotspot areas’) experiencing the highest volumes of serious violence to immediately suppress violence and provide community reassurance, and problem-oriented policing. Problem-oriented policing is bespoke to the local areas to tackle the local underlying drivers of crime, using a more comprehensive menu of policing interventions and enforcement. Interventions in the Force area have included targeted open space knife sweeps, knife crime education in schools, and conducting safeguarding referrals. Grip-funded analysts monitor operational police activity within the hotspots, as well as crime levels, to understand the effects of additional patrols on violent crime.
Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) bring together local partners to understand and tackle the drivers of serious violence in their area. They facilitate the sharing of data across organisational boundaries to build a shared understanding of the root causes of violence locally.
In the West Midlands its VRU delivers a range of preventative interventions, including Hospital and Custody Navigators (youth workers in settings steering young people away from violence at a ‘teachable moment’), cognitive behavioural therapy programmes and sports-based diversionary programmes.
Violence Reduction Units, in combination with Grip, have delivered a statistically significant reduction in hospital admissions for violent injuries since funding began in 2019 (an estimated 3,220 admissions have been prevented in areas where the programmes operate). VRUs have supported over 271,000 young people through funded initiatives in in their fourth year of operation alone.
We also recently consulted on new legislative proposals to tackle knife crime and as a result, in the Criminal Justice Bill, we have introduced provisions to provide more powers for police to seize knives held in private that could be used in crimes, increase the maximum penalty for the offences of selling prohibited weapons and selling knives to under 18s. When Parliamentary time allows, the Government intends to introduce a new ban on zombie-style machetes and knives.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to help tackle (a) knife crime by and (b) the online sale of bladed weapons to people under the age of 18 in Wales.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Since 2019, the Home Office has provided over £5 million of funding for a Violence Reduction Unit in Wales (known as the Wales Violence Prevention Unit (VPU)) which is providing a multi-agency, preventative response designed to tackle the drivers of serious violence and knife crime. Over the same period, we have invested c.£3.5 million (including c.£535k in 2023/24) in ‘hotspot policing’ to boost the policing response to serious violence in South Wales. In 24/25, we are providing c.£4.4 million of funding to all force areas in Wales under the Hotspot Response fund to deliver high-visibility patrols and problem-solving tactics in the streets and neighbourhoods worst affected by serious violence and Anti Social Behaviour.
The Wales VPU is tasked with investing in evidence-based approaches designed to steer vulnerable young people away from involvement in violence. As part of this approach, the VPU is funding local interventions including A&E Navigators, delivering advice, support and guidance to patients of any age who have experienced violence with injury, with the aim of engaging with those injured whilst they are in hospital to help break the cycle of violence at the point of crisis. The VPU is also funding youth workers to deliver sessions to young people within both education and community settings covering issues such as knife crime. Additionally, just under £1m was awarded in 2023/24 to support delivery of the Serious Violence Duty across Wales.
We have also introduced new legislation which, subject to parliamentary approval, will ban zombie-style knives and machetes from 24 September 2024. Through the Criminal Justice Bill 2023, we are providing more powers for police to seize knives held in private that they believe will be used for unlawful violence, increasing the maximum penalty for the offences of selling prohibited weapons and selling knives to under 18s and creating a new offence of possessing an article with blade or point or an offensive weapon with intent to commit unlawful violence.
It is an offence to sell bladed articles to people under the age of 18 and with measures in the Offensive Weapons Act 2019 we strengthened the requirements for age verification, and made it an offence to send bladed articles to residential addresses after they are bought online, unless the seller has arrangements in place with the delivery company to ensure that the product would not be delivered into the hands of a person under 18. This legislation is enforced by Trading Standards and the police. The Home Office does not hold enforcement data in relation to breaches of this legislation.
The Online Safety Act 2023 has finished its parliamentary passage and received Royal Assent on 26 October 2023. The Government's intention is to have the regime operational as soon as possible.
Ofcom published the first draft codes of practice on illegal content for consultation on 9 November 2023. The Government expects these to be finalised in late 2024. These codes of practice will set out the steps companies can take to fulfil the duties for illegal content. In scope services will either need to follow these codes, or show their approach is equally effective. Tech companies will need to remove and limit the spread of illegal content. This means less illegal content online and when it does appear it will be removed quicker.
Schedule 7 of the Act sets out a series of priority offences which includes the sale of weapons. Companies will need to take particularly robust action to prevent the proliferation of this content online and ensure that their services are not used for offending. This means companies will need to proactively mitigate the risk that their services are used for illegal activity or to share this illegal content, to design their services to mitigate the risk of this occurring and to remove any content that does appear as soon as they are made aware of it.
Dec. 12 2007
Source Page: Banning offensive weapons: summary of responses to a Home Office consultation paper. 7 p.Found: The proposals were aimed at improving public safety by reducing crime involving these weapons. 1.2
Asked by: Tobias Ellwood (Conservative - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to his Department's press release entitled New law to ban zombie-style knives and machetes, published on 25 January 2024, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of that proposed legislation on preventing the sale of zombie-style knives; and what steps his Department plans to take to confiscate zombie-style knives already in public possession.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The maximum penalty for being in possession of a bladed or pointed article in public is 4 years imprisonment. In 2015, we introduced minimum custodial sentences for repeat knife possession, alongside the existing minimum sentence for threatening with a knife. Adults face a minimum of 6 months’ imprisonment whilst young people aged 16 or 17 face a minimum 4-month Detention and Training Order.
Measures in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, which came into force on 28 June 2022, strengthen existing provisions by ensuring that the courts pass at least the minimum sentence for certain offences, including threat and repeat possession of a knife or offensive weapon, unless there are exceptional circumstances.
Sentencing in individual cases is a matter for our independent courts. Parliament has provided the courts with a broad range of sentencing powers to deal effectively and appropriately with offenders, including discharges, fines, community sentences, suspended sentences and custodial sentences.
It is the function of the court to decide the sentence in each case subject to the maximum that Parliament has provided and any guidelines that may be laid down by the Sentencing Council or the Court of Appeal. Sentencing must also be proportionate to the offence committed, considering all the circumstances of each case. That is why our sentencing framework generally sets maximum penalties but not mandatory or minimum penalties.
Research shows that it is the certainty of apprehension and punishment which consistently has a deterrent effect. However, it is of course crucial that serious offenders serve sentences that truly reflect the severity of their crimes, helping to protect the public and giving victims confidence that justice has been served.
Where someone is actually harmed by a knife or offensive weapon, there are a range of serious offences that the person may be charged with, such as causing grievous bodily harm. These can result in lengthy sentences including life imprisonment.
The Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Offensive Weapons) (Amendment, Surrender and Compensation) Order 2024 was laid in Parliament on 25 January 2024.
Once the legislation has been approved by Parliament, a surrender scheme will come into effect on 26 August 2024 to remove zombie style machetes and knives from circulation. The manufacture, supply, sale and possession of zombie-style knives and machetes will be outlawed from 24 September, and this will be enforced by the Police, Trading Standards and Border Force. An impact assessment, supporting the Statutory Instrument, will be published very shortly.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of age verification and identity checks by (a) Temu and (b) other online shopping apps for sales of (i) knives and (ii) other age-restricted items.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Organisations who sell knives to those aged under 18 face a range of fines from £500 to £1 million.
The government keeps knife crime legislation under continual review and has taken action in a number of areas.
The Criminal Justice Bill includes new measures for tackling knife crime, including increasing the maximum penalty for selling specified weapons or for selling any knives to under 18s to 2 years.
This measure will bring the offence within the remit of PACE powers, which is key to the police’s ability to investigate some of the more serious offences, for example, those who sell knives privately to under 18s, or those who sell prohibited weapons through social media or personal messaging applications.
The Criminal Justice Bill will strengthen measures which we took in the Offensive Weapons Act 2019 around age verification for online sales, including stopping knives being sent to residential addresses after they are bought online, unless the seller has arrangements in place with the delivery company to ensure that the product would not be delivered into the hands of a person under 18.
Further controls have been introduced through the Online Safety Act 2023 which sets out a series of priority offences which includes the sale of weapons. Companies will need to proactively mitigate the risk that their services are used for illegal activity or to share this illegal content, to design their services to mitigate the risk of this occurring and to remove any content that does appear as soon as they are made aware of it.
Ofcom published the first draft codes of practice on illegal content for consultation on 9 November 2023. Government expects these to be finalised in late 2024.These codes of practice will set out the steps companies can take to fulfil the duties for illegal content. In scope services will either need to follow these codes, or show their approach is equally effective.
On 30 August 2023 the Government response to our consultation on new knife legislation was published confirming that the Government will seek to legislate to ban certain types of large knives and machetes. The ban on zombie style machetes and knives will be implemented by secondary legislation when parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of reports of the sale of (a) knives and (b) other illegal weapons on online shopping apps.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Organisations who sell knives to those aged under 18 face a range of fines from £500 to £1 million.
The government keeps knife crime legislation under continual review and has taken action in a number of areas.
The Criminal Justice Bill includes new measures for tackling knife crime, including increasing the maximum penalty for selling specified weapons or for selling any knives to under 18s to 2 years.
This measure will bring the offence within the remit of PACE powers, which is key to the police’s ability to investigate some of the more serious offences, for example, those who sell knives privately to under 18s, or those who sell prohibited weapons through social media or personal messaging applications.
The Criminal Justice Bill will strengthen measures which we took in the Offensive Weapons Act 2019 around age verification for online sales, including stopping knives being sent to residential addresses after they are bought online, unless the seller has arrangements in place with the delivery company to ensure that the product would not be delivered into the hands of a person under 18.
Further controls have been introduced through the Online Safety Act 2023 which sets out a series of priority offences which includes the sale of weapons. Companies will need to proactively mitigate the risk that their services are used for illegal activity or to share this illegal content, to design their services to mitigate the risk of this occurring and to remove any content that does appear as soon as they are made aware of it.
Ofcom published the first draft codes of practice on illegal content for consultation on 9 November 2023. Government expects these to be finalised in late 2024.These codes of practice will set out the steps companies can take to fulfil the duties for illegal content. In scope services will either need to follow these codes, or show their approach is equally effective.
On 30 August 2023 the Government response to our consultation on new knife legislation was published confirming that the Government will seek to legislate to ban certain types of large knives and machetes. The ban on zombie style machetes and knives will be implemented by secondary legislation when parliamentary time allows.