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, what the figure of 815 more convictions for possession of a knife or offensive weapon in the 10 Tackling Knives Action Programme areas represents as a percentage increase. (258718)

Management information being used to monitor TKAP suggests that in the period June to November 2008 there were 815 more convictions for possession of a knife or offensive weapon in the 10 TKAP areas than in the same period of 2007. This figure represents a 17 per cent. increase between the two periods.

These figures are provisional and have been derived from the police’s administrative IT system, which, as with any large scale recording system, is subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.