To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 17 March 2009, Official Report, column 1093W, on offensive weapons: convictions, how many convictions there were for possession of a knife in the period June to November (a) 2008 and (b) 2007. (269246)

The answer of the 17 March 2009 referred to a provisional 815 more convictions for the possession of a knife or offensive weapon in the 10 TKAP areas in the period June to November 2008 compared with the same period in 2007. Of this number, there were 777 more convictions for the possession of “an article with a blade or point” and 38 more convictions for the possession of an “offensive weapon”.

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.