Violent Crime Reduction Bill

I am grateful to the Minister for that commitment to review whether something needs to be done. I accept that other offences may carry a higher maximum sentence. The difficulty is, as he explained, the circumstances in which that might happen. It is very much within the context of the weapon having been used. I want to get to the situation where people are deterred from carrying something that could be used as the weapon in the first place. The reason for tabling the amendment was to ensure that the subsequent use of the weapon might not occur. The Minister also referred to the incidence of knife-carrying among young people. We should perhaps refer to weapons with blades. There are different types of knives: some are butterfly knives, or hidden; others are strictly kitchen knives or penknives. He said that only a small number of people carry knives. I wonder whether that is taking percentages over the whole country. When I was doing some work for this amendment, I made sure that I looked at several websites of victims and those who are trying to discourage young people from using weapons of any kind. Certainly some of the work that has been done by them showed that in two areas of London—I shall not identify them because one does not want to draw attention to areas of London where young people may think that it is cool to carry knives; it is not—secondary schools thought that as many as 25 to 30 per cent of their pupils had at some stage in the past year carried a bladed weapon. I find that extremely disturbing. I accept entirely what the Minister said about the importance of consulting the Sentencing Guidelines Council about the hierarchy of penalties and the importance of carrying out a review to ensure that whatever is done is proportionate. On that basis, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. Clause 38 [Sale etc. of knives and other weapons]: