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Violent Crime Reduction Bill

My name is attached to this amendment. The offence of carrying a knife in a public place is already well catered for in criminal law. That is the matter concerning public safety. Simply banning the sale of a knife to someone between the ages of 16 and 18, as proposed by the Government, is a futile gesture. Knives are regularly available in the household. I can tell the Minister from long experience that those knives are more likely to be Exhibit A than anything purchased illegally and carried by a youth, but that is perhaps beside the point. Banning youngsters of the age of 16 who may need knives, as the noble Earl, Lord Shrewsbury, has said, for their trade and perhaps for domestic arrangements as they leave home adds nothing to the Government’s worthy aim of cutting down knife crime.