Police call for simplified knife law in London

London, Mar 28: The Police Federation called for a new knives law to replace the confusion of existing legislation that was leading to many offenders avoiding conviction on technicalities.

It said yesterday the complexity of dealing with at least six different laws covering knife offences meant officers were making mistakes during arrests which were being exploited by defence lawyers.

The federation, which represents 140,000 police officers in England and Wales, made its plea in a written submission to a special inquiry by MPs into knife crime.

The hearing on Tuesday was called by the Commons Home Affairs Committee in response to a spate of knife murders of young men in inner cities that has shocked local communities and dominated newspaper headlines.

In one of the most recent cases, 15-year-old Adam Regis, nephew of Olympic sprinter John Regis, was stabbed to death in an east London street.

His killing came just days after 16-year-old Kodjo Yenga was knifed to death in west London and three men were fatally stabbed in separate incidents in Manchester.

The government has already increased the maximum sentence for carrying a knife in public without good reason to four years and from October the age at which someone can buy a knife rises from 16 to 18.

The federation called for a ''single, overarching Knife and Offensive Weapons Act'' to simplify and bring together existing provisions.

Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker told the committee that his department was working with police chiefs to produce a best practice guide on knife crime for constabularies.

He said this advice, to be published in the summer, would help officers become more aware of all the available legislation and show them how to use it effectively.

''I am not sure we will have one act that brings it all together,'' he said.

He told the committee that despite the headlines, knife crime levels were largely stable, at around 6 to 7 percent of all violent crime.

Knives and other sharp instruments such as broken bottles were involved in around a third of killings, a proportion that had remained steady over the last decade.

But Coaker conceded that the government needed to improve its crime data to better understand the problem, with police forces now recording knife offences in five separate categories.

He said officials were also studying how to include hospital accident and emergency statistics, which showed the number of patients arriving with stab wounds each year had nearly doubled to just under 6,000 in five years.

Reuters