JUSTICE MINISTER David Hanson recently announced tougher, more intensive punishments for people who are convicted of carrying knives.
“This means a significant loss of liberty and free time for all those knife offenders across the whole of England and Wales,” he said.
Since 5 January courts can hand out tougher and more intensive penalties for everyone convicted of possession of a knife who is ordered to carry out community payback work, such as picking up litter and renovating community centres.
Mr Hanson said: “Earlier this year [2008] I announced that anyone convicted of a knife-related offence and sentenced to the maximum 300 hours of community payback from the courts will complete their sentence in intensive blocks. This is now being extended to include all knife crime offenders given any amount of community payback as part of their sentence. They will now have to do at least 18 hours of work a week, and potentially be subject to a curfew that keeps them off the streets in the evening and a probation appointment during the week on top of these hours.”
Knife crime, particularly among young people, is in the news almost every day.
At the moment a number of different rules apply to knives and it isn’t always immediately clear what is legal and what isn’t, says Directgov, the official government website for citizens.