Knife Crimes - 1057/23

Provision of information held by Northumbria Police made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the 'Act')

As you may be aware the purpose of the Act is to allow a general right of access to information held at the time of a request, by a Public Authority (including the Police), subject to certain limitations and exemptions.

You asked:

1) The number of reports which contain both the word ‘blade or point on school premises’ where the suspect was under 18. Please provide figures for the 2019/2020, 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23 academic years (1 September to 31 July), broken down by age of suspect, local authority area and the name of the school (unless the name of the school is exempt from release). If that's not possible because of time/cost restraints - please provide as much data as possible counting back from 2022/23.

2) Details of the weapon involved in each report - ie knife, screwdriver etc

3) Details of any other crime that accompanied the 'blade or point on school premises' - for example ABH, GBH, wounding with intent.

 

In Response:

We have now had the opportunity to fully consider your request and I provide a response for your attention.

Following receipt of your request, searches were conducted with the Corporate Development Department of Northumbria Police. I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by Northumbria Police.

I am able to disclose the located information to you as attached and with the below caveats noted.

• The data has been taken from systems using the Crime, Suspect and MO text data.

• The offence of 'Having an article with a blade or point on school premises' was used and the suspects of this offence where the suspect was under the age of 18. The data was then reviewed to find the weapon used and the number of offences that the suspect was charged with.

• Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from a number of data sources used by forces for police purposes. The detail collected to respond specifically to your request is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when interpreting those data.

• The figures provided therefore are our best interpretation of relevance of data to your request, but you should be aware that the collation of figures for ad hoc requests may have limitations and this should be taken into account when those data are used.