By David Young-
New sentencing guidelines for retailers and individual shop owners convicted of selling knives to children have been published by the Sentencing Council.
It is the first time magistrates’ courts will have specific guidance for sentencing this offence, which is prosecuted by Trading Standards, with larger organisations facing fines of up to £1 million.
The two guidelines, which will come into effect on 1 April 2023, apply to organisations and individuals who fail to ensure that adequate safeguards are in place to prevent the sale of knives to under 18s either in-store or online.
The offence of selling knives etc to persons under the age of 18 is a summary only offence contrary to s.141A of the Criminal Justice Act 1988; it carries a maximum of six months’ imprisonment (or, in the case of an organisation, an unlimited fine) and can only be dealt with in magistrates’ courts.
These guidelines apply to the unlawful sale in a single transaction of a knife or a small quantity of knives (whether in-store or online) by retailers or those employed by retailers. They do not apply to cases involving large quantities of knives or those whose marketing of knives has deliberately or recklessly attracted children.
It comes as the number of people killed with a knife in England and Wales in 2021/22 was the highest on record for 76 years.
Around four in ten homicides were committed using a knife or sharp instrument in the year to March 2022 (282) according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics – a 19 per cent rise compared with the previous year and the highest annual total since records began in 1946.
In practice prosecutions result from test purchases where a child, under the supervision of Trading Standards officers, attempts to purchase an age restricted item. If the retailer allows the sale to go ahead, they are liable to be prosecuted. The majority of offences are punished by way of a fine.
Fine amounts received by individuals between 2017 and 2021 ranged from £34 to £6,000 (the median was £383). All of these fine amounts are after any reduction for a guilty plea.
Between 2017 and 2021, of around 70 adult offenders sentenced, 76 per cent were fined, 14 per cent received an absolute or conditional discharge, and 6 per cent were made subject to a community order.
A further 3 per cent were ‘otherwise dealt with’ and the remaining 2 per cent received a suspended sentence order.
The guidelines, which will come into effect on April 1, apply to organisations and individuals in England and Wales who fail to ensure that adequate safeguards are in place to prevent the sale of knives to under-18s, either in-store or online.
Issued on Wednesday, following consultation, they will ensure that courts take a “consistent approach” to sentencing this offence, said the Sentencing Council.
Organisations face a range of fines from £500 to £1 million, with fines linked to turnover to make penalties proportionate to its size, while individuals face a range of non-custodial sentences, from a discharge to a high-level community order or fine.
The Council said it does not expect sentences to change overall for most offenders but, for large organisations, sentences may be higher under the new guidelines.
Sentencing Council magistrate member, Jo King JP, said: “Knives in the hands of young people can lead to very serious consequences. The responses we received to the consultation demonstrate that the vast majority of retailers take this issue very seriously and put safeguards in place to prevent the sale of knives to children.
“Prosecutions result when retailers fail to put safeguards in place or to implement them properly.
“The new guidelines set out clearly how magistrates’ courts should approach such cases when sentencing retailers for selling knives to children.”
The Council made some changes to the guidelines following its consultation, including changes to the factors that can make the offence more serious to reflect the different safeguarding measures that may be appropriate in different retailing situations.
It has also revised its guidance on the relevance of previous convictions to include organisations. The guidance previously related only to individual offenders.
Lord Michael Bichard, chair of National Trading Standards, said: “Knife crime causes devastation in local communities and blights many young lives.
“Consistent sentencing rules are important when action is taken against those who sell knives to children. Trading Standards strongly support this move by the Sentencing Council to seek to achieve this important outcome.”