Second Standing Committee on Delegated Legislation
Tuesday 20 April 2004
[Mr. Jimmy Hood in the Chair]
Draft Criminal Justice Act (Offensive Weapons) (Amendment) Order 2004
2.30 pm
The Minister for Crime Reduction, Policing and Community Safety (Ms Hazel Blears): I beg to move,
That the Committee has considered the draft Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Offensive Weapons) (Amendment) Order 2004.
I am delighted to serve in this Committee under your chairmanship, Mr. Hood. The Criminal Justice Act 1988 introduced an order-making power that allows the Secretary of State to ban the manufacture, sale and importation of specified offensive weapons. In an effort further to improve airline and public safety, we seek to add stealth knives and batons/truncheons to the schedule in order to make it an offence to sell, manufacture or import them. A person would be liable on summary conviction to a maximum term of six months' imprisonment, and/or a fine.
At present, the offensive weapons order prohibits 15 weapons, including sword sticks, push daggers, death stars, butterfly knives and disguised knives and many other items, some of which are probably connected with martial arts, such as a kubotan, which is a cylindrical container holding spikes, and a kusarigama, which is a sickle attached to a rope, cord or wire. A variety of weapons are banned under the order.
In the light of the events of 11 September, the concern of the airport industry and our wish to ensure effective levels of airline security, we added disguised knives to the offensive weapons order in 2002. Such weapons have no legitimate purpose. They are manufactured simply to evade detection and provide those so minded with a convenient means of carrying a deadly weapon. There was an incident of a journalist from the Sunday People making a trip from Heathrow to Manchester and carrying on board a comb knife, an ink-pen knife and a mini-cleaver that failed to be detected. That was the impetus for our bringing in provisions for disguised knives, and in this order we deal with stealth knives as well.
Stealth knives are non-metallic hunting or stiletto knives. They are made of a range of materials such as nylon zytel or high-impact plastic. They look like conventional knives but are extremely difficult to detect because they are non-metallic. I was particularly concerned by a manufacturer's advertisement that states that the knives are made of a super-strong nylon composite that is almost as hard as steel, that they can be driven through plywood like a nail and that they are completely undetectable when passing through metal detectors. That is the manufacturer's claim; clearly,
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such knives are marketed on the basis that they cannot be detected, which is a matter that should concern us all.
The knives present a general threat because of their portability and the ease with which they can be concealed, but they pose a particular risk to airline security because they cannot be detected by the metal detectors in airports. That is why it is a priority to legislate to prohibit not just carrying such weapons but the manufacture, sale and import of them. Stealth knives have no legitimate purpose, and it is undesirable that they should be freely available for purchase and carriage by the public.
Ministers have received several representations from Members of Parliament and the police about batons and truncheons being sold to criminals and used for unlawful purposes. I believe that it was my hon. Friend the Member for Hornchurch (John Cryer) who originally contacted the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, my hon. Friend the Member for Don Valley (Caroline Flint), to highlight the fact that batons were being sold in his constituency and were a matter of concern.
Telescopic truncheons are already included in the offensive weapons order. In this order we are adding batons and truncheons that are extended by gravity. Such batons are lengthened out into a frightening and offensive weapon simply by throwing them.
Side-handled and friction-lock batons are used by the police as important pieces of self-defence equipment. I reassure hon. Members that the order will not affect the ability of the police to carry and use such equipment. The police and those manufacturing and supplying otherwise prohibited weapons to the police have a defence under section 141 of the 1988 Act for importing, manufacturing or possessing such items because they are carrying out functions on behalf of the Crown for the purposes of the Act. Therefore, even though the order will prohibit batons and truncheons, it will not affect the police's ability to continue to use those important items of self-defence equipment.
Although legislation that makes it illegal to carry offensive weapons and most knives in public is already in place, there is nothing to prevent the sale, importation or manufacture of stealth knives or those kinds of baton. An individual can walk into a shop or log on to the internet and get hold of those weapons with ease, which is why we intend to ban their sale and manufacture.
We do not really know the number of stealth knives and batons that are in circulation, but we do know that they are freely available and used in crime. That shows the willingness of certain manufacturers to produce those weapons and to provide the public with a wide range of concealed weapons. I have highlighted my concerns about the manufacturer's claim and the way that the stealth knives are marketed.
In 2002-03, Her Majesty's Customs and Excise seized 1,983 offensive weapons at airports, seaports and in the postal system. That gives me a strong indication of the willingness of a significant number of people in this country to try to equip themselves with those kinds of weapon for criminal purposes. As those
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weapons are easily available, we believe that it is of the utmost importance to cut off the supply as fast as we can and to reduce the number in circulation. We feel that legislating to ban the sale and importation of stealth knives and batons would improve public safety, not just on airlines and at airports, but in nightclubs, sports grounds, public houses and other public places where individuals might try to evade security and to carry the weapons for criminal purposes. Some of our nightclubs now have fairly good security systems, but if metal detectors cannot detect the plastic knives, they could find their way into nightclubs and there could be some pretty dangerous situations.
Mr. James Paice (South-East Cambridgeshire) (Con): Will the Minister clarify one point? It is not on the substance of the order, which I will address later, if I catch your eye, Mr. Hood. The Minister referred to weapons, both batons and stealth knives, in existing circulation. The explanatory memorandum, which accompanies the order, states:
''The amendment to the Statutory Instrument will also have the effect of making it an offence to possess one of these items in public without lawful authority or reasonable excuse . . . (Section 1 Prevention of Crime Act 1953.)''
Yet nowhere in this order, or in the original 1988 order, is there any reference to the Prevention of Crime Act 1953. Will the Minister clarify whether the order that we are being asked to approve this afternoon has any impact on the possession of the weapons, as opposed to their sale, manufacture and importation?
Ms Blears: My understanding is that the possession of items of this nature would fall foul of the original prohibition in the 1953 Act because that prohibits the carrying of any offensive weapon in a public place without lawful authority or reasonable excuse. With this order, we are going one step further and seeking to ban the sale, importation and manufacture of the weapons. The weapons are already unlawful under section 1 of the 1953 Act, which covers all offensive weapons, but we are in the anomalous position that people can have such items in private, in their bedrooms, and it is not a criminal offence. We want to prevent them from getting hold of the weapons in the first place by preventing the weapons' sale or manufacture.
Mr. Paice: I am still unclear about this point. We are talking about the 1953 Act. As the Minister says, that banned offensive weapons, but I fail to see the legal reference between that Act and this order, which is made under the 1988 Act. The 1953 Act uses the general term ''offensive weapons'', which is a matter of interpretation for the courts. The order refers to a schedule containing a list of specific types of weapon. I should be grateful if the Minister could clarify where there is a legal link between this order and the 1953 Act.
Ms Blears: I will certainly do my best to take the hon. Gentleman through the legislative chronology to build up the picture. First, there was the 1953 Act, which states that the carrying of any offensive weapon in a public place is an offence. It was then realised that for some of the blades and items of equipment, it was
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necessary to go further than simply making carrying them in a public place unlawful. The intent was to stop people getting hold of the items in the first place. The first attempt to do that was the Restriction of Offensive Weapons Act 1959, which prohibited the manufacture, sale, hire or offer for sale of flick knives and gravity knives. So, the first extension that we made was to ban all offensive weapons from being carried in a public place. We then moved on to where they are particularly dangerous, wanting to ban their sale or manufacture. The first things to come into the net were flick knives and gravity knives.
The Criminal Justice Act 1988 created a new offence of having a blade or point in a public place without good reason or lawful excuse. That was specifically designed to hone the Act down to consider knives. The only exemption was a pocket-folding penknife with a blade of 3 in. There is a series of legislative measures in that area.
Other provisions in the Act include banning the manufacture, sale, or hire, or offer for sale or hire, of a range of weapons specified in the 1988 order. That is the list of 15 items that are now banned in addition to gravity knives and flick knives. There is a general prohibition against having them in a public place and a further prohibition on the sale, manufacture or importation of particularly dangerous items. We started with flick knives and gravity knives and moved on to the 15 items that I have outlined, which include push-daggers, butterflies and some of the martial arts equipment.
This order builds on the 1988 order to extend that ban on sale, importation or manufacture to plastic stealth knives, batons and truncheons. As technology develops and people seek to extend the boundaries, we have to make sure legislation keeps up with the new items that come on stream. Our legislative link is the Criminal Justice Act 1988 and the order under that Act, as it was that Act that brought in the order-making power that this order seeks to amend.
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