Information showing the number of persons found guilty at all courts for having an article with a blade or point in a public place and on school premises in Dyfed Powys police force area and Wales from 1998 to 2007 (latest available) is shown in the following table. Data for 2008 will be available in November 2009.
Police force area 1999 1998 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Dyfed-Powys 23 29 27 31 35 36 39 45 29 35 Gwent 18 20 21 20 33 23 48 36 56 66 North Wales 55 60 42 51 74 61 67 77 113 89 South Wales 98 101 83 94 114 111 124 120 153 140 Wales 194 210 173 196 256 231 278 278 351 330 1 Includes the following offences and statutes; Having an article with blade or point in public place. (Criminal Justice Act 1988 S.139 as amended by Offensive Weapons Act 1996 S.3). Having an article with blade or point on school premises. (Criminal Justice Act 1988 S.139A (1)(5)(a) as added by Offensive Weapons Act 1996 S.4(1)). 2 The statistics relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences the principal offence is the offence 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. 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. Source: Evidence and Analysis Unit - Office for Criminal Justice Reform