Information on the number of persons found guilty and sentenced to immediate custody at all courts for carrying a bladed article in England and Wales for 2005 are shown in the following table.
Data for 2006 will be available shortly.
2005 Statute Offence description Found guilty Immediate custody Prevention of Crime Act 1953 S.I Possession of offensive weapons without lawful authority or reasonable excuse 5,728 829 Criminal Justice Act 1988 S.139 Having an article with a blade or point in a public place 5,961 965 Criminal Justice Act 1988 S.139(A) as amended by Offensive Weapons Act 1996 S.4(l) Having an article with a blade or point on school premises 44 5 Criminal Justice Act 1988 139(2) as amended by Offensive Weapons Act 1996 5.4(1) Possession of offensive weapons without lawful authority or reasonable excuse on school premises 29 3 1 These data are on the principal offence basis. 2 Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. 3 Excludes data provided by West Mercia police force area (for offences of carrying a knife on a school premises) Source: Court proceedings database held by RDS—OCJR, Ministry of Justice