Offensive Weapons: Convictions

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 11 February 2009, Official Report, column 2056W, on the Tackling Knives Action Programme, how many convictions for possession of a knife were recorded in each of the 10 Tackling Knives Action Programme areas between June and November in each of the last five years. (258717)

The information requested is shown in the following table.

Figures for individual TKAP areas are not provided, on the advice of statisticians, because the numbers are small for some areas and this means that changes over time for an area can be volatile.

*Offences involving the possession of a knife or offensive weapon resulting in a sentence in TKAP areas as recorded on the police national computer, June to November, 2004-08*
	Number of offences
2004	5,016
2005	4,883
2006	4,859
2007	4,701
2008	5,516

The figures for the most recent period are likely to be revised as more information is recorded by the police.

Volume 489: debated on Wednesday 11 March 2009