Thought this may be of interest to you guys. I got this from a fellow UK formite who is also a Police Officer there.
Cheers, Tardis
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Bladed items etc:- 139 Offence of having article with blade or point in public place
(1) Subject to subsections (4) and (5) below, any person who has an article to which this section applies with him in a public place shall be guilty of an offence.
(2) Subject to subsection (3) below, this section applies to any article which has a blade or is sharply pointed except a folding pocketknife.
(3) This section applies to a folding pocketknife if the cutting edge of its blade exceeds 3 inches.
(4) It shall be a defence for a person charged with an offence under this section to prove4 that he had good reason5 or lawful authority for having the article with him in a public place.
(5) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection
(4) above, it shall be a defence for a person charged with an offence under this section to prove that he had the article with him
(a) for use at work;
(b) for religious reasons; or
(c) as part of any national costume.
(6) A person guilty of an offence under subsection (1) above shall be liable
(a) on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or both;
(b) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or a fine, or both.
(7) In this section public place includes any place to which at the material time the public have or are permitted access, whether on payment or otherwise.
(8) This section shall not have effect in relation to anything done before it comes into force.
[Criminal Justice Act 1988, s 139 as amended by the Offensive Weapons Act 1996, s 3.]
1 Sections 139142 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 which are printed here came into force on the 29 September 1988. For other provisions of the Criminal Justice Act 1988, see in particular Part I: Magistrates Courts, Procedure,
2 Part XI contains ss 133167.
3 For a knife to be a folding pocket-knife within the meaning of this section, it must be readily and immediately foldable at all times, simply by the folding process. A lock-knife, which required a further process, namely activating a trigger mechanism to fold the blade back into the handle, was held not to be a folding pocket-knife (Harris v DPP [1993] 1 All ER 562); followed in R v Deegan [1998] Crim LR 562,[1998] 2 Cr App Rep 121. The section applies to articles which have a blade or are sharply pointed, falling into the same broad category as a knife or sharply pointed instrument; it does not apply to a screwdriver just because it has a blade (R v Davis [1998] Crim LR 564).
4 Once the prosecution has discharged the burden of proving the ingredients of the offence against s 139(1), the defendant is guilty unless he can discharge the burden imposed by s 139(4) of the Act; see Godwin v DPP (1993) 96 Cr App Rep 244.
5 The fact that a defendant has forgotten that he has with him an article to which s 139 applies does not constitute a defence of good reason within s 139(4)(DPP v Gregson (1992) 157 JP 201).
6 Interpretation of the ordinay everyday use of for use at work is not a matter of law but it is for the justices to decide for themselves what the phrase means in the context of the case.
Therefore possession of a bladed article by an unemployed mechanic to do some repairs on his car that was parked in the road could come within this defence, see R v Manning [1998] Crim LR 198, CA.
7 For procedure in respect of this offence which is triable either way, see the Magistrates Courts Act 1980, ss 17A-21, in Part I: Magistrates Courts, Procedure, .
822681
139A Offence of having article with blade or point (or offensive weapon) on school premises
(1) Any person who has an article to which section 139 of this Act applies with him on school premises shall be guilty of an offence.
(2) Any person who has an offensive weapon within the meaning of section 1 of the Prevention of Crime Act 1953 with him on school premises shall be guilty of an offence. (3) It shall be defence for a person charged with an offence under subsection (1) or (2) above to prove that he had good reason or lawful authority for having the article or weapon with him on the premises in question. (4) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (3) above, it shall be a defence for a person charged with an offence under subsection (1) or (2) above to prove that he had the article or weapon in question with him (a) for use at work,
(b) for educational purposes,
(c) for religious reasons, or
(d) as part of any national costume.
(5) A person guilty of an offence
(a) under subsection (1) above shall be liable1
(i) on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum, or both;
(ii) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or a fine, or both;
(b) under subsection (2) above shall be liable
(i) on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum, or both;
(ii) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years, or a fine, or both.
(6) In this section and section 139B,school premises means land used for the purposes of a school excluding any land occupied solely as a dwelling by a person employed at the school; and school has the meaning given by section 4 of the Education Act 1996.
)...also many many non-knife ppl actually carry pos mini lock knives on keyrings. would they ever be prosecuted for such 'locking' blade items, well unless they are commiting other crimes, generally no.