Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing legislative proposals to include butter knives in the exemptions in the Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Offensive Weapons) (Exemption) Order 1996.

Tackling knife crime is a priority and the Government is determined to crack down on the scourge of violence devastating our communities.

Section 141A of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 created the offence of selling any knife, knife blade, razor blade, axe or any other article which has a blade or which is sharply pointed and which is made or adapted for use for causing injury to the person, to a person under the age of 18. In Scotland, the word ‘axe’ has been added to this list of prohibited items. Originally the age limit was 16 and this was raised to 18 by the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006