Home Office offers to buy knives ahead of coming ban
The Home Office has offered to buy offensive weapons, including knuckledusters and zombie knives, ahead of a ban.
Owners will be able to claim between £2 and £40 for each of the 23 knives that they hand in at designated police stations, and up to £5,105 for the guns that it will become illegal to possess, even at home, from next year.
The “surrender” scheme is the first of its kind following a similar Government offer for handguns in 1997, and is different to amnesties in that owners are compensated for handing in the weapons.
Most of the weapons are already illegal to sell or import but last year’s Offensive Weapons Act aims to take designer or dangerous knives and rapid firing guns out of circulation by making even private ownership illegal.
“I am committed to ensuring our streets are safe from the scourge of violent crime,” said policing minister Kit Malthouse.
“We are prohibiting ownership of dangerous weapons which have a high potential for causing harm, and every item surrendered is one which can no longer fall into the hands of criminals.”
Other weapons include zombie knives (£10), knuckle duster (£2), flick knife (£20), swordstick (£12), butterfly knife (£9), death star (shuriken) (£5), footclaw (£7), telescopic truncheon (£20) and even a blow pipe (£14).
Least valuable is £2 for a T-handled push dagger that can be clasped in a fist and most expensive is £40 for a gravity knife, which has a blade in its handle that opens by force of gravity.
Guns ranged from £1,950 for a VZ58 Mars rifle to £5,105 for a Lever Release .223 rapid fire rifle.
Lawful owners can claim compensation for handing them in to police if the total value of the claim is more than £30.
Owners will have to provide proof of ownership or purchase and complete a Home Office form to claim compensation but there is no limit on the number that can be submitted.
“All legal owners will be entitled to compensation if their claim falls into the scope of the scheme,” said a spokesman.
People are entitled to challenge the value if they think their knife or gun is worth more but will have to provide an auction house valuation, a purchase receipt, or other documentary evidence.
To avoid being prosecuted for carrying an offensive weapon when taking it to the police station, owners are advised by the Home Office to package it up “in a manner that allows it to be transported without causing distress or alarm to other members of the public".
“For example, items must be wrapped up and placed in a bag or box where possible. They must not be carried on your person at any time. Once in the police station, you must not take out the item until you are requested to do so by a police officer or member of police staff,” it added.
The Home Office said it could not anticipate how much the scheme would cost and has yet to set a date for the ban to take effect but owners will have three months from Thursday until March 9 next year to claim compensation for weapons they hand in.
Similar buyback gun programmes in other countries have provided a model for the scheme including New Zealand which saw 47,000 firearms handed in after a gun buyback programme was introduced in 2019 following the Christchurch mosque shootings.
The UK scheme comes amid surging levels of knife crime which rose to a record high in the 12 months to March 2020, with 46,265 offences, up six per cent from the previous year.
