Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answers of 10 September 2020 to Question 85969 and 14 October 2020 to Question 100312, if she will take steps with knife (a) manufacturers and (b) retailers to change the design of kitchen knives to replace pointed ends with rounded ends.

We know that knives are used for legitimate purposes by the vast majority of people. Bladed articles with pointed ends have legitimate uses and are often needed for a wide range of purposes, including as tools for work for instance in farming or fishing and in private such as in the household for use during cooking. While we are always ready to engage with manufacturers and retailers to help ensure public safety, it is important that the government strikes the right balance between allowing access to knives for legitimate reasons, with the need to protect the public from dangerous weapons. We believe the current legislation strikes the right balance. We will, however, continue to do everything we can to ensure that people do not carry dangerous weapons and commit violent crime in the first place.

This is why we have invested £176.5 million over two years in preventing serious violence in local communities and bolstering police capacity to respond to serios violent crimes when they do occur.

It is also why we have launched a consultation on new powers for the police to target those who have been convicted of knife related offences. We will also be piloting new Knife Crime Prevention Orders, introduced through the Offensive Weapons Act 2019. These new preventative orders will provide an additional tool for police to steer people away from serious violence.