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The Offensive Weapons
Bill will make it harder for young people to buy
knives and acid online with sellers requiring rigorous age
verification to prove those purchasing knives or corrosives
are over 18. Failure to do so will leave them liable for
prosecution.
The Bill will also ban possession of weapons such as zombie
knives, knuckle dusters and death stars both in public and
private. Those who do will be forced to hand them in.
As part of the new legislation the Home Secretary,
, has been clear in his
support to police officers, with measures in the Bill
ensuring that the police have the powers to seize illegal
weapons whenever they are found.
Home Secretary said:
It is totally wrong that young people are able to get
their hands on dangerous weapons such as knives and
harmful acids.
That is why we are making the laws around this even
tighter.
Earlier this week I saw the great work our front line
officers do to keep our communities safe – and I am
determined to do everything I can to help them keep
weapons off our streets.
The Bill forms part of the government’s response to the
recent rise in serious violence, set out in the £40 million
Serious Violence Strategy, which places a new focus on
early intervention alongside robust law enforcement.
As such, existing offences of possessing a bladed article
or offensive weapon on school premises has been extended to
cover further education premises in England, Wales and
Northern Ireland.
The full measures of the Offensive Weapons Bill are:
- the Bill creates a new criminal offence of selling -
both online and offline - a corrosive product to a person
under the age of 18. The substances and concentration
levels of what constitutes a corrosive product are set out
in the Bill
- it creates a new criminal offence of possessing a
corrosive substance in a public place. There is a defence
of possessing the corrosive substance for good reason.
There is a minimum custodial sentence in England and Wales
where a person is convicted for a relevant offence a second
time
- where a corrosive product or bladed product is sold
online, the defence of having taken reasonable precautions
can only be relied on where the seller meets certain
conditions in terms of age verification and packaging and
delivery of the items
- it creates new criminal offences prohibiting the
dispatch of bladed products and corrosive products sold
online to a residential address. The offence for bladed
products is limited to those that can cause serious injury
and includes defences for made to order items and those for
sporting and re-enactment purposes
- it creates new criminal offences on delivery companies
of delivering a bladed article or a corrosive product on
behalf of a seller outside the United Kingdom to a person
under 18
- it updates the definition of a flick knife and
prohibits the possession of flick knives and gravity knives
(their sale etc is already prohibited)
- it amends existing law to make it a criminal offence to
possess certain weapons (such as knuckledusters and death
stars) – the sale and importation of these is already
prohibited. It provides for compensation of owners
- it extends the existing offences of possessing a bladed
article or offensive weapon on school premises to cover
further education premises in England and Wales and
Northern Ireland
- it amends the legal test for threatening with an
offensive weapon in England and Wales to aid prosecution
- it prohibits high energy and rapid firing rifles and a
device known as a “bump stock” which increases the rate of
fire of rifles and provides for compensation of owners
BILL
EXPLANATORY NOTES
