Member

In the year ending March 2024, there were around 50,000 offences involving a knife or sharp instrument recorded by the police in England and Wales. Police operations and amnesties regularly remove thousands of knives from the streets. In 2006, an amnesty collected 90,000 knives and, a couple of years ago, 60,000 knives were collected from the streets of England and Wales. However, it is estimated that there are 400,000 kitchen knives in circulation. They would not be handed in in any amnesty if the proposals from the noble Lord, Lord Hampton, went through—and I bet none of those 400,000 knives is like my paring knife.