£1m fine for selling knives to children

New sentencing proposals published at the start of the month, and open to consultation until 24 August 2022, are proposing fines of up to £1m for large retailers found to have sold knives to anyone under the age of 18.

The guidance to judges from the Sentencing Council is an attempt to deter knife crime amid growing concerns that penalties are too lenient, partly because there are no current sentencing guidelines, resulting in a lack of consistent approach by courts in England.

The range of penalties will run from £500 to £1m according to the annual revenue of the business concerned.

In the year to March 2021 there were over 41,000 offences involving knives and other sharp instruments. But probably due to lockdown, that figure was 15% lower than the previous year.