Guidance

Technical guide to knife and offensive weapon sentencing statistics

Providing more detail on the knife and offensive weapon sentencing statistics presented in the knife and offensive weapon sentencing statistics publications.

• From: Ministry of Justice
• Published: 9 March 2017
• Last updated: 16 May 2024 — See all updates

Applies to England and Wales

Documents

Knife and Offensive Weapon Sentencing Statistics Technical Guide

HTML

Details

This page provides more detail on the statistics presented in the Knife and Offensive Weapon Sentencing Statistics publications which provide information on knife and offensive weapon offences. Unless the offences are separately specified this includes:

• Possession of an article with a blade or point in a public place or on school premises.
• Possession of an offensive weapon without lawful authority or reasonable excuse in a public place or on school premises.
• Offences involving threatening with a knife or offensive weapon in a public place or on school premises (introduced on 3rd December 2012 this is an aggravated form of possession offence which occurs when an offender in possession of a knife or offensive weapon uses it to threaten and endanger others).

Published 9 March 2017
Last updated 16 May 2024 + show all updates

1. 16 May 2024

   Changing the technical guide to a HTML rather than PDF.

2. 8 March 2018

   Guide updated.

3. 9 March 2017

   First published.