Criminal Justice Bill: Knife crime
Updated 23 February 2024
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What are we going to do?
We are going to ensure that the police and the courts have the necessary powers to get offensive weapons off the streets and help tackle knife crime. Measures in the Criminal Justice Bill will:
1. Enable the police to seize, retain and destroy knives held in private when they are lawfully on private property and have reasonable grounds to suspect the item(s) will likely be used in connection with unlawful violence.
2. Increase the maximum penalty, from six months’ imprisonment to two years’ imprisonment, for the offences of private possession, importation, manufacture, sale or supply of prohibited offensive weapons and of selling knives to those under 18.
3. Introduce a new offence of possession of a knife or offensive weapon in public or private with intent to use unlawful violence. The offence will carry a maximum penalty of four years’ imprisonment.
How are we going to do it?
1. The bill introduces a new power for police to seize, retain and destroy legally held bladed articles held in private when the police are lawfully on private property and have reasonable grounds to suspect the item is likely to be used in connection with unlawful violence, including damage to property and the threat of violence. The power will be exercisable by any police officer, regardless of rank, when carrying out their policing duties.
The power will be exercisable where the police are lawfully on private property, for example while executing a search warrant or having been invited onto the property by the owner or occupant.
The police must leave a written record of the seizure, including a description of the item and the reason for forfeiture. The owner of an seized item will be able to seek an order from a magistrates’ court where the court is satisfied that it would be just to make such an order (for example, if the court concludes that the item had been inappropriately seized).
2. This bill will amend sections 141 and 141A of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 and section 1 of the Restriction of Offensive Weapons Act 1959 to increase the maximum penalties for the offences provided for in each of those sections. Under section 141 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 it is an offence to manufacture, sell or otherwise supply prohibited offensive weapons or to possess such weapons for the purposes of supplying them. Under section 141A of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 it is an offence to sell knives or other bladed articles to those under 18. Under section 1 of the Restriction of Offensive Weapons Act 1959 it is an offence to manufacture, sell or otherwise supply a flick knife or gravity knife or to possess such knives for the purposes of supplying them. The current maximum penalty for each of these offences is six months’ imprisonment, an unlimited fine, or both. In each case, the bill increases the maximum penalty to two years’ imprisonment, an unlimited fine, or both. As a result, these offences will change from a ‘summary only’ offence to an ‘either way’ offence, meaning that more serious cases can be tried in the Crown Court.
This will bring the maximum penalty of these offences into line with the existing offence of unlawful marketing of knives in section 1 of the Knives Act 1997.
Increasing the maximum penalty will not only reflect the severity of the crime, but it will also be of operational benefit to the police, allowing them more time to investigate cases without the constraint of the six-month time limit on the prosecution of summary-only offences.
3. This bill will introduce a new offence for possession of a knife or offensive weapon in public or private with the intention to use in unlawful violence against another person, or cause them to fear such violence, or to cause serious unlawful damage to property. This new offence will provide police with the power to charge someone who is found to be in possession of a knife or offensive weapon with a more serious offence than possession in public. This can be exercisable where the police officer has reasonable grounds to suspect that the knife or offensive weapon was intended to be used to commit a crime of serious violence.
The maximum penalty for the offence will be four years’ imprisonment, an unlimited fine, or both.
Background
Tackling knife crime is a priority and the government is determined to crack down on the scourge of violence devastating our communities.
These new legislative measures are intended to help the police take action and tackle knife crime by disrupting those who own knives, whether prohibited or not, for the purpose of using them in violent crime. These measures were developed in partnership with the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) in response to concerns raised about increasing prevalence of machetes and large knives in crime.
The Home Office ran a public consultation on these measures from 18 April to 6 June 2023. We received 2,544 responses to the consultation. The vast majority (98%) were submitted by members of the public, including practitioners responding in their individual capacity.
Most responses were supportive of the measures overall. However, a number of respondents raised concerns in relation to the new police power to seize knives held in private, and how the power would be exercised. We will work with the NPCC to develop guidance to police forces to ensure that these powers are exercised appropriately. Further information on the consultation can be found in the published government response: Government response to consultation on proposals to tackle the use of machetes and other bladed articles in crime.
Key statistics
The police recorded crime figures, published by Office of National Statistics (ONS) for the year ending June 2023 [footnote 1], show that knife-enabled crime remained 7% lower (50,833 offences) than pre-coronavirus pandemic levels in the year ending March 2020 (54,417 offences).
Although lower than pre-pandemic, the year ending June 2023 (50,833 offences) knife-enabled crime was 3% higher than the year ending June 2022 (49,435 offences).
The police recorded 602 homicide offences in the year ending June 2023, a 10% decrease since the year ending June 2022 (667 offences).
Of all recorded homicides in the year ending June 2023, the proportion of homicides where a knife or sharp instrument was the method of killing was 41%. This was similar to the year ending June 2022 (40%).
All figures exclude Devon and Cornwall Police.
Provisional admissions data for NHS hospitals in England and Wales showed a decrease in the number of admissions for assault by a sharp object in the year ending June 2023 (3,692 admissions). This was 11% lower than the year ending June 2022 (4,147 admissions) and 23% below the pre-coronavirus pandemic year ending March 2020 (4,769 admissions).
Frequently asked questions
Will the police be able to seize kitchen knives and other household objects?
The new powers will apply to any knife.
The police will have the power to seize, retain and destroy legally held bladed articles from private property when the police are lawfully on private property and have reasonable grounds to suspect the bladed article will be used for serious violence or other crime.
This power can only be exercised by an officer as part of their duties when they are on private property lawfully, for example, under “PACE” powers, and they have reason to suspect a knife will be used for serious violence or serious crime.
The bill includes provision for the owner of any seized knives to secure their return by applying for an order from a magistrates’ court. In deciding whether to grant such an order, the court will consider whether the knife had been appropriately seized.
Are there protections in place for sellers who carried out necessary checks and had no reason to suspect believe the buyer was under 18?
This measure is not intended to be used to charge sellers who have carried out all the reasonable steps to verify age.
There is currently a ‘due diligence’ defence under section 141A of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 if the seller shows that they took all reasonable steps to verify age. This will continue to apply.
What makes this new offence of possession with intent different to the existing offences for possession of banned knives? Why is this needed?
It is already an offence to carry a bladed article over three inches in public without good reason. It is also an offence to then go on and threaten a person with the bladed article or weapon.
Under section 52 of the Offensive Weapons Act 2019, it is an offence to intentionally threaten someone with an offensive weapon in public or private.
The introduction of this new offence bridges the gap between being in possession of a knife (or offensive weapon) in public or education premises and it being used to threaten or harm anyone. This offence will target those who equip themselves with bladed articles with the intention to endanger life, cause serious harm or intend to cause fear of violence but are intercepted by the police before they have had the chance to carry out any attack on the intended victim. It will empower the police to bring charges against those individuals.
The government has also committed to introduce a targeted ban of certain types of machetes and large knives, why isn’t this in the bill?
Not all measures included in the public consultation require changes to primary legislation, the ban being one of them. We assessed the most appropriate vehicle for each measure to be progressed and we are pursuing this measure through secondary legislation when parliamentary time allows.