Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Offensive Weapons) (Amendment No. 2) Order 2008

It does not seem long since we welcomed the previous order on 6 April. We understood why the Government were going to introduce that provision. The fact that they have listened to the various groups and made some further exceptions is useful, but my questions relate to whether the various widening of the exceptions will mean that the defences are widened in the case of people using swords for offensive purposes. Obviously, in widening the group substantially, the Government are widening the supply of the weapons that are likely to be lent, given away or sold. My questions relate to the Gurkha kukri knife, which has very important ceremonial qualities. Will this be exempt? Will they count the ceremonial athame for followers of hermetic magic and paganism? Freemasons traditionally carry swords as part of their regalia; I have no idea whether they are curved or not, but would they be exempt if they were? Presumably they would because they are ceremonial. But when people die, for example, those swords go to the antique or the collectors markets. What happens to them then? Is that a defence if you have bought one of them? The Minister made the point that it was a defence if the weapon was made by hand, but what is the definition of that? Can it be made in a factory and simply finished by hand? Furthermore, having mulled this over, I wonder why the provision refers to blades of 50 centimetres and over; are blades of 49 centimetres any less likely to be deadly? I associate myself with the comments of those who have said that these provisions, while worthy, merely touch the tip of the problem, including the comments from the Front Bench about knife crime and knives from the kitchen drawer. I am sure that that is something that we will debate in future.