BRIEFING PAPER Number 08349, 25 March 2019 The Offensive Weapons By Sally Lipscombe Jennifer Brown Bill 2017-19 Grahame Allen Contents: 1. Background 2. The Home Office consultation 3. The Bill as introduced to the House of Commons 4. Progress through parliament www.parliament.uk/commons-library | intranet.parliament.uk/commons-library | [email protected] | @commonslibrary 2 The Offensive Weapons Bill 2017-19 Contents Summary 3 1. Background 5 1.1 Violent crime and Government policy 5 1.2 Offensive weapon offences statistics 6 1.3 Acid attacks 9 Existing controls on sale 9 Acid attacks: criminal offences 10 Calls for change 12 1.4 Knives 13 Government strategy 13 Existing criminal offences 14 1.5 Firearms 15 The Firearms Act 1968 16 2. The Home Office consultation 18 2.1 Acid 19 The consultation proposals 19 Reaction to the proposals 20 2.2 Knives and offensive weapons 21 The consultation proposals 21 Reaction to the proposals 23 2.3 Firearms 25 The consultation proposals 25 Consultation responses 26 Reactions from interest groups 28 3. The Bill as introduced to the House of Commons 29 3.1 Clause by clause analysis 29 Acid 29 Knives and offensive weapons 32 Firearms 36 4. Progress through parliament 38 4.1 Second reading 38 4.2 Committee stage 38 Acid 39 Knives and offensive weapons 46 Firearms 52 4.3 Report Stage and Third Reading 55 Acid 55 Knifes and offensive weapons 55 Firearms 56 4.4 Lords amendments 57 Acid 57 Knives and offensive weapons 58 Firearms 64 Cover page image copyright: Bin the blade results by Greater Manchester Police. Permission to use image granted by Greater Manchester Police by email 29 January 2016. 3 Commons Library Briefing, 11 October 20189 Summary The Offensive Weapons Bill 2017-19 was introduced on 20 June 2018. Accompanying Explanatory Notes and an Impact Assessment have also been published. The Bill’s territorial extent is complex, as the Bill covers a mixture of reserved and devolved policy matters. Annex A to the Explanatory Notes provides a useful clause-by-clause analysis of the Bill’s territorial extent, and whether a legislative consent motion will be required. The Bill covers three types of weapon – acid, knives and offensive weapons, and firearms – and is the Government’s legislative response to a Home Office consultation that ran between October and December 2017. The key changes that the Bill (as introduced) would make are as follows: • a new offence of possessing a corrosive substance in a public place; • a new offence of selling certain harmful corrosive products to under18s; • new restrictions on online sales of bladed articles and corrosive products, including restrictions on deliveries to residential premises; • a new offence of possessing certain offensive weapons in private (the weapons concerned are already subject to restrictions on their sale, manufacture and importation); and • reclassifying certain firearms as “prohibited weapons” under section 5 of the Firearms Act 1968. Lords amendments The Commons is due to consider Lords amendments on 26 March 2019. The Bill was subject to a number of amendments in the Lords, including one Government defeat. The most significant areas of change include: • amendments successfully moved by Lord Kennedy of Southwark (resisted by the Government but approved on division by 234 votes to 213) to introduce a “trusted courier” exemption for the delivery of knives to residential addresses; • Government amendments to add new “knife crime prevention orders” to the Bill; and • amendments moved by Earl Attlee, with Government and Opposition support, requiring the Secretary of State to consult on and bring forward regulations to specify the safety conditions under which owners of certain high-powered rifles must keep their weapons. 4 The Offensive Weapons Bill 2017-19 A summary of the main Lords amendments is set out in section 4.4 of this Briefing Paper. Minor and consequential amendments have not been covered. Explanatory Notes are available. Progress of the Bill through Parliament The Bill received its Commons Second Reading on 27 June 2018. Its Commons Committee Stage was completed in ten sittings between July and September 2018. No significant changes were made to the Bill during its Committee stage. Commons Report and Third Reading took place on 28 November 2018 (having been postponed twice). The most significant development at Report Stage, following concerns raised by a number of backbenchers, was Government amendments to remove the Bill’s provisions that would have prohibited certain high-powered rifles. The Government also committed to consult on “firearm safety”. The Government said that this consultation would look again at the issue of prohibiting high- powered rifles as well as the other concerns relating to firearms raised during the passage of the Bill. The Bill passed through the House of Lords between 29 November and 19 March 2019. Substantial changes were made to many aspects of the Bill. There was one Government defeat, involving amendments moved by Lord Kennedy of Southwark (resisted by the Government but approved on division by 234 votes to 213) to introduce a “trusted courier” exemption for the delivery of knives to residential addresses. There was also significant debate on new Government amendments, which were agreed, that added new “knife crime prevention orders” to the Bill. The issue of prohibiting high-powered rifles was returned to during the Lords stages. Amendments moved by Earl Attlee, supported by the Government, have added a requirement on the Secretary of State to consult on and bring forward secondary legislation to specify how licence holders of high-powered rifles must safely store their weapons. The Government spokesman Earl Howe indicated that the consultation previously committed to on ‘firearms safety’ would now also consider the secondary legislation that would be required under the Bill. 5 Commons Library Briefing, 11 October 20189 1. Background 1.1 Violent crime and Government policy There has been an increasing focus on the prevalence of violent crime – particularly acid attacks and knife crime – in the context of increases in police recorded crime. The number of violence against the person offences recorded by the police in England and Wales in 2017 was 21% higher than the number recorded in 2016. However, the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) suggests that the percentage of adults that have been the victim of violence once or more (prevalence) has remained relatively stable since 2013/14 at around 1.8% and is below the peak of 4.8% observed in 1995.1 The Government has published several strategies aimed at addressing the issue, including: • Ending Gang Violence and Exploitation (January 2016), which set out six priorities for a cross-government approach to ending gang violence and exploitation; and • the Modern Crime Prevention Strategy (March 2016), which set out evidence on six key “drivers of crime” – opportunity, character, the effectiveness of the Criminal Justice System, profit, drugs and alcohol – and proposals under each driver that were intended to make crime harder to commit and less attractive to criminals. The most recent strategy was the Serious Violence Strategy, which was published in April 2018.2 The Strategy focused on four key strands: • tackling county lines and misuse of drugs; • early intervention and prevention; • supporting communities and local partnerships; and • law enforcement and the criminal justice response. In relation to the last of these strands, the Strategy commented that: …a multiple strand approach is essential to tackling and reducing serious violence, but a robust response from law enforcement remains an absolutely critical strand within this approach.3 The actions set out in this strand included taking action against social media encouraging serious violence, co-ordinated police action against knife crime, increased involvement for Trading Standards in tackling underage sales of knives, and reducing serious violence in prisons. 1 ONS, The nature of violent crime in England and Wales: year ending March 2017: Appendix Tables 3 and 4, year ending March 2017, 8 February 2018 2 See Commons Library Debate Pack 2018-0124 Serious Violence Strategy, 21 May 2018 for full background 3 Home Office, Serious Violence Strategy, April 2018, p79 6 The Offensive Weapons Bill 2017-19 The Government also set out its commitment to legislate on offensive and dangerous weapons, following a Home Office consultation that had run from October to December 2017. It indicated that these proposals were “based on operational concerns about strengthening the current legal framework”.4 The Bill is the result of that commitment. Details of current law and policy on the three types of weapon covered – acid, knives and firearms – are set out in the remainder of this section. 1.2 Offensive weapon offences statistics Acid attacks The Home Office does not currently collect statistics on acid attacks: Acid and other corrosive attacks resulting in injury are included in Office for National Statistics published statistics within assault with injury offences and assault with intent to cause serious harm offences, but cannot be disaggregated. The National Police Chiefs’ Council undertook a voluntary data collection from police forces between November 2016 and April 2017 and 39 forces provided returns. This found that there had been 408 cases of attacks in the six month period. These figures must be treated with caution, as they are not official statistics and have not been subject to the usual assurance processes.5 The Home Office has asked the National Police Chiefs’ Council to undertake a further data collection exercise with police forces to provide the Government with updated figures on the level of corrosive substance attacks.6 However, statistics released by the Metropolitan Police Service in response to Freedom of Information request suggest that the number of acid attacks in London has risen sharply in recent years.