Fed reacts to knife amnesty and knife crime fall as 15,000 blades surrendered

The Fed has welcomed the Home Office announcement of a fall in knife crime, including fewer murders, following a mass knife amnesty, but has continued to call on the government to act against this problem and the wider problem of knives used in retail crime and harassment of shop workers.

The latest data from the Home Office included an announcement that more than 15,000 knives and offensive weapons had been taken off the streets, following the introduction of surrender bins which had been installed in urban areas of London, Greater Manchester and the West Midlands, expanding the network into new communities. Further details of all surrender bin locations can be found on the government website. 

It was also announced that knife enabled homicides have fallen 26 per cent while knife crime overall has dropped by 11 per cent since under this government.

Commenting on this week’s data, the Crime and Policing Minister Sarah Jones MP said: “”Every dangerous weapon that has been surrendered so far is a weapon off our streets and a community made that little bit safer… Knife crime is down by 11 per cent since the General Election but we will not stop until we meet our commitment of halving knife crime in a decade.”

The data follows last week’s announcement of a small fall in retail crime. However, the Fed continues to engage with the government on this topic and does not want it to be complacent.

Commenting last week on the latest figures from the Office of National Statistics on shoplifting figures, the Fed’s National President Hemanshu Patel said: “We continue to call on the Government to do more to support small retailers by making crime easier to report, strengthening neighbourhood policing, giving trading standards and other enforcement agencies the resources they need, and considering a dedicated retail crime grant scheme for independent retailers.