PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Knives: Crime (18 February 2019)

The Government supports the police in their important work to tackle knife crime in a number of ways. We continue to encourage forces to participate in the national weeks of enforcement action under Operation Sceptre, co-ordinated by the National Police Chiefs’ Council. Results from the September 2018 phase of Operation Sceptre are as follows:

• All 44 police forces took part in the week of action.
• Over the course of the week of action a total of 1002 arrests were made

• A total of 1779 stop and searches were carried out

• 9302 knives were surrendered or seized

• 1158 weapon sweeps were conducted, resulting in the recovery of 172 knives and other weapons. In addition, 8781 knives were surrendered

• 496 test purchase operations were carried out in retail premises. Of these, there were 397 passes. 99 resulted in the retail outlet failing the test purchase

• 1280 education events - including workshops, were also held in schools to raise awareness of the dangers of carrying knives.

The next week under Operation Sceptre is taking place in March.

We are encouraging the police to use stop and search. It is a vital policing tool when used correctly and officers have the Government's full support to use these powers in a targeted way that is fair, lawful and effective. We are looking at ways to work with the police to reduce bureaucracy and increase efficiency in the use of this power. We have also listened to the police re-quest that we introduce new Knife Crime Prevention Orders to help them to divert those involved in knife crime away from a violent lifestyle. The Government is seeking to introduce the new Order through amendments to the Offensive Weapons Bill.

The Offensive Weapons Bill, currently passing through Parliament, includes specific new knives offences, in particular making it an offence to possess certain offensive weapons in private, and stopping knives being sent to residential addresses after they are bought online. These measures are designed to help the police in their response to knife crime.

In addition to supporting the police on law enforcement, our Serious Violence Strategy stresses the importance of early intervention to tackle the root causes of serious violence and provide young people with the skills and resilience to lead productive lives free from violence. Our Early Intervention Youth Fund is already supporting 29 projects in England and Wales, and our anti-knife crime Community Fund is supporting 68 local community projects to tackle knife crime. Our national knife crime media campaign - #knifefree – also aims to raise awareness of the consequences of knife crime and to discourage young people from carrying knives.