Calls for fresh knife amnesty to tackle nation's blade culture

Published on Saturday 3 January 2009 10:07

JUSTICE Secretary Kenny MacAskill was today urged to launch a knife amnesty in a bid to tackle Scotland's blade culture.

Latest figures show knife incidents take place in Lothian and Borders at the rate of one every day.

Lothians Labour MSP George Foulkes said it was time to call an amnesty and persuade people to hand in their weapons.

He said the first and only national knife amnesty in Scotland two years ago had taken 12,500 knives off Scotland's streets in just one month, 1840 of them collected by Lothians and Borders Police.

Mr Foulkes said: "An amnesty alone won't solve what is clearly a deep-rooted problem, but it is a good starting point.

"Giving people an opportunity to make that potentially life-saving decision and hand in their weapon without fear of investigation or prosecution is critical if we are going to get to grips with the problem of knives and gangs."

The mother of 20-year-old Brett Burnside, who was stabbed to death in 2004 and had a history of knife crime, welcomed the call for a new amnesty but said police should be more receptive to people handing in weapons at all times.

Caroline Burnside, 44, of Balerno, said: "When we cleared out Brett's flat we found a sabre-type weapon which his dad handed in to Wester Hailes police station.

"The policeman at the desk told him that he could be charged with possession of an offensive weapon if police found it in his car.

"What was he supposed to do, stick it in a wheelie bin?"

A freedom of information request by Labour to Lothian and Borders Police revealed 326 knife offences over a period of 322 days from November 23, 2007 to October 8 last year.

The 2006 knife amnesty, which ran for five weeks from May 24 to June 30, saw almost 13,000 weapons handed in across the country. But official figures showed the high-profile blitz failed to cut the number of people carrying lethal weapons on Scotland's streets.

In the first half of the year, 1910 offences of carrying a knife or other bladed weapon were recorded by police. In the six months following the amnesty, the number of offences increased to 1984.

In Lothian and Borders, the amnesty was hailed a success but the number of people caught with a knife increased towards the end of the year, with 50 people caught in possession of a knife in November and 49 in December.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said ministers were committed to tackling the problem of knife crime.

She said: "We know that in some parts of Scotland the level of violence and knife crime is too common. That's why we're working with the experts in our national Violence Reduction Unit and police forces on tough enforcement combined with work to educate and change attitudes."

The Violence Reduction Unit said anything which got knives off the streets was a good idea, but added it was not considering an amnesty at the moment.

A spokeswoman added: "Although an amnesty does take knives off the street in the short term, in the long term it has limited impact."