Knives crackdown continues

Minimum buying age is 18

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Councils have reaffirmed their determination to crack down on the illegal sales of knives to under-18s.

The response follows a call from the Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker to "our partners in the police and Trading Standards to get tough with anyone illegally selling knives to under-18s".

"Enforcement action is one part of the solution and that is why I ... want to see more test purchasing operations like those being undertaken in Birmingham to catch any unscrupulous retailers," he added.

But Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services (LACORS) argues that trading standards teams are already taking a tough stance on shops selling knives to children.

Chairman Geoffrey Theobald OBE said: "Recent test-purchasing operations across the country show that the majority of retailers are responsible and ask for ID whenever they suspect somebody may be under age. Unfortunately there are clearly still a minority who are prepared to profit by selling knives to children.

"The legal age for buying a knife was raised from 16 to 18 last year and it's important that retailers understand the implications of breaking the law. Councils aren't trying to hoodwink retailers, and will only use volunteers who look under 18.

"There is simply no excuse for selling knives to children, and retailers must accept their share of responsibility if we are to keep our streets, and our young people, safe and free of knives."

Among recent successes, LACORS details how Blackpool Council's trading standards team used a 14-year-old girl and a fifteen-year-old boy to test local shops' compliance with knife laws. In one day the pair bought 13 knives, including a nine-and-a-half-inch cook's knife, from retailers including Marks and Spencer and Argos.

Islington Council's trading standards team caught four shops - all of them 'pound shops' - selling knives to youngsters a week after 16-year-old Ben Kinsella was stabbed to death in the borough.

Young volunteers helping Rochdale Borough Council trading standards officers were able to purchase knives from one in three outlets across the borough. Eighteen premises were visited in total by 15-year-old volunteers, of which the sale of a knife to a minor took place in six outlets.

Since May 2007, Westminster City Council's trading standards officers have caught 26 premises selling knives to children for which they have all been issued formal police warnings. Since April 2008 a total of 38 test purchases have been carried out, resulting in 17 sales to under-18s.