It is not possible to identify those offences which are knife-related from the data centrally collected on overall recorded crime. However, since April 2007, police forces have been providing separate aggregate data on serious violence involving knives. Home Office statisticians will assess the quality of these data and it is planned that figures for 2007-08 will be published in the main crime bulletin in July 2008. Since the data are collected at police force area level, it will not be possible to show the number of incidents at constituency or borough level.
Statistics for Scotland and Northern Ireland are a matter for the respective Secretaries of State.
Information on the number of persons found guilty at all courts for the illegal possession of knives in a public place and on school premises, in the North East region of England and Wales from 1997-2006, are provided in the following table. Information on convictions in (a) Jarrow constituency and (b) South Tyneside cannot be provided as the data held by the Ministry of Justice are not held at that level of detail.
The figures given in the table on court proceedings relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offence for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences, the offence selected is the one for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe.
The data provided do not cover persons found guilty of ‘other’ crimes involving the use of a knife, for example assault or threatening behaviour. Court data held by the Ministry of Justice do not include the circumstances behind each case; therefore it is not possible to identify all offences involving knives.
Found guilty 1997 134 1998 162 1999 180 2000 185 2001 230 2002 316 2003 317 2004 360 2005 376 2006 384 1 Includes the offences of having an article with a blade or point on school premises under the Criminal Justice Act 1988 S 139 and having an article with a blade or point in a public place under the Criminal Justice Act 1988 S 139a. 2 These data are on the principal offence basis. 3 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 the courts and 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.
The information available centrally relates to homicides by sharp instrument recorded each year between 1997-98 and 2006-07. As figures are not collected below police force area level, data relating to Northumbria police are given in the following table. Injuries data are not collected centrally.
Year offence initially recorded as homicide4 Number 1997-98 11 1998-99 5 1999-2000 9 2000-01 5 2001-02 4 2002-03 8 2003-04 8 2004-05 6 2005-06 7 2006-07 10 1 As at 12 November 2007; figures are revised as cases are dealt with by the police and by the courts, or as further information becomes available. 2 Includes knives as well as other sharp instruments. 3 Data for 2007-08 are scheduled to be published in January 2009. 4 Offences are shown according to the year in which the police initially recorded the offence as homicide. This is not necessarily the year in which the incident took place or the year in which any court decision was made.