M

Member

Speaking in the House of Lords on 19 November 2025

Debate

Crime and Policing Bill

Contribution

Batons with side handles, martial arts weapons known as tonfa and friction-lock truncheons will remain prohibited, but the law on straight truncheons does not appear to have been actively enforced for many decades. It follows that the removal of the straight truncheon from the restrictions of Section 141 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 presents no additional risk to society; we should consider providing an exemption. Someone carrying a straight-edged truncheon in public as an offensive weapon—or, indeed, a baseball bat, or even a branch pruned from a tree—could still be charged with an offence under the Prevention of Crime Act 1953, which says that, as some of us remember, anything that is made, intended or adapted to cause injury to a person can be an offensive weapon. It may be made, such as a dagger, or intended, which is whatever you pick up in your hand; something can be made from a stick that has been sharpened, for example.

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