Knife sale records to curb crime.
ANYONE buying a knife will have to place their details on a national register under plans being drawn up by ministers to reduce crime.
The purchaser of any type of bladed instrument - from a penknife to a sword or from a fish knife to a machete - will be asked by shopkeepers for details of their
name, address and proof of identification. Although the register would be voluntary, anyone who refused to give the information would be told they could not buy the knife.
Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, is favouring a nationwide extension of the register after wounding and knife-related crimes dropped by more than a third in in a pilot scheme in Coventry. In its first year after being launched in 1996, West Midlands Police reported a 46 per cent drop in the number of incidents of wounding. Burglaries known to involve knives were also 25 per cent down. Similar schemes have since been adopted in 30 other towns and cities across the country including Croydon, Liverpool and Sheffield.
The Home Secretary has been considering introducing legislation since Lisa Potts, a nursery nurse, and children in her charge were injured in a knife attack in Wolverhampton three years ago.
But Mr Straw encountered difficulties because outlawing possession of large and and potentially lethal knives could have turned the hunting or fishing community into
criminals. So far he has only increased the penalties for carrying a knife in public without a good reason. But ministers believe the register is the way to control the
possession and use of knives.
The registers will be kept by shopkeepers selling knives and are available for the police to see. Staff will also note the time, date and the type of knife sold, plus any registration number on the knife. Anyone aged 17 or under will have to be accompanied by a responsible adult and prove that they have a legitimate reason for wanting the knife by producing a letter of authorisation from an official club or organisation supporting their claim.
The pioneering scheme was the idea of Coventry's youth crime prevention officer Pc Enda Hughes. He said: "At the moment there is no law to stop anyone of any age going into a shop and buying a knife despite the fact that they are potentially lethal weapons. Shop staff are forced to make an on-the-spot decision as to whether they should sell a knife to a customer however unsuitable they might seem.
This register allows staff to ask for a few details and dissuades people from trying to buy knives if they are unwilling to give them. People who have a legitimate reason to buy a knife have nothing to fear."
Pc Hughes received an OBE last month in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services in helping to reduce crime in Coventry after setting up the successful
weapons register. The Home Office is now consulting chief constables and shopkeepers' organisations on the best way of setting up the national register.
Although information would be held initially on shop premises, it could eventually be transferred to computers at police stations, as long as those registering consented. New laws would not be needed to introduce a voluntary scheme in England and ministers in the Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliament are also keen to introduce the register.
