We are consulting on two guidelines for the offence of the sale of knives etc to persons under 18 contrary to section 141A of the Criminal Justice Act 1988; one for sentencing individuals and one for sentencing organisations.
There are currently no guidelines for this offence. The offence of selling knives to persons under the age of 18 is prosecuted by Trading Standards departments within local authorities and almost all prosecutions are as a result of test purchases. In 2020 the Council received a submission on behalf of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham regarding the need for a sentencing guideline for this offence. The submission argued that sentences being passed for larger organisations did not adequately reflect the seriousness of the offence and the means of the organisation. The Council agreed to add this to the list of future guidelines to be developed when resources were available.
The Council is seeking views from judges, magistrates, professionals across the criminal justice system and as many people as possible interested in the sentencing of these offences. We would like to hear from anyone who uses sentencing guidelines in their work or who has an interest in sentencing. We would also like to hear from individuals and organisations representing anyone who could be affected by the proposals including:
We have prepared this consultation paper to set out the Council’s thinking. We are particularly interested in your views on:
You can give your views by answering questions on just the areas which you are interested in or all of the questions in the consultation.
The consultation runs until 24 August 2022.
