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Can Scouts carry knives?

27/03/2009

There is much confusion around whether Scouts can carry knives.

The main piece of UK legislation regarding the possession of knives and other sharply pointed/bladed objects is the Criminal Justice Act 1988. The Act details what is generally deemed to be an 'offensive' weapon and Section 139 particularly describes what types of knives are banned, those that can be carried in public and under what circumstances.

The law in a nutshell:

• Buying/selling knives
  
  
• It is illegal for any shop to sell a knife of any kind (including cutlery, kitchen knives or swiss army knives) to anyone under the age of 18 (in England, Northern Ireland and Wales) or under the age of 16 (Scotland).
  
  
• Carrying knives
  
  
• In general, it is an offence to carry a knife in a public place without good reason or lawful authority (for example, a good reason is a chef on their way to work and carrying their own knives).
• However, it is not illegal for anyone to carry a foldable, non-locking knife, like a swiss army knife, in a public place as long as the blade is shorter than three inches (7.62cms)

What is The Scout Association policy on the use of knives?

 

 

Comments

By Nick Fawdry - ASL and Bivouac Activity Camp Leader (07/04/2009 10:49) As an organiser of the Birmingham County Bivouac Event we teach and assess the skills needed for the survival skills badge and therefore the use of knives has been a hot topic at quite a few of our planning meetings. Like the forester badge where as Scouters we teach the use axes, for many of the requirements of the survival skills badge the scouts need access to a knife. I believe like the use of an axe, the use of a knife is an essential skill that should not be lost and with our event the use of a knife is an essential tool to help the scouts ‘survive’ the weekend. Since we took over the event some 6 years ago there has been increasing media reports about knife crime. Therefore one of the first topics to be reviewed was the guidelines relating to the selection and use of knives. Unfortunately outside of POR there was a general lack of any practical advice regarding knives and scouts, so we had developed our own guidelines. Thankfully the advice now reported by Dave Budd is both informative, practical and essentially the same as we currently operate. All good stuff!

By Mark Jewell SL 8th Alton Hampshire (09/05/2009 23:17) I read the article with interest and most of the comment swe had already implemented . Scouts do not need to bring knives to troop nights becuase we have a number of Swiss army knives for training. Plus scouts can not use a knife until they have passed the safety test and watched afilm i have produced about knife crime which is now used nationaly. One note of concern in the article was that you ask parents to carry knives to troop evenings/meetings. This act now places the adult in far more danger? What must be remembered in all this is if you have a reason for carrying a knife eg on scouting event then you are ok it is when you feel you have it for protection and do not have a good reason for possesion. If we teach our young people reasponsible use of these tools then they can only encourage others outside to do the same . The otrher thing to note is that parents should be encouraged to purchase a good quality knife rather than a cheap copy of a swiss army as they cause more injuries than anything else. Perhaps we can come up with a training chart for knives along with the new guide lines? Cheers

By Lt Col Keith Fisher (10/09/2009 11:54) As a Queen's Scout (34th Croydon 1963) I think the restrictions the movement has imposed on the carriage and use of knives is wrong. in one breath you speak of giving scouts responsibility and treating them in a mature and respectful way and then say 'but you can't be trusted to look after a knife when you are away from camp.' I applaud your training programme but please have the courage to trust and en-power the youngster and also be confident and robust enough to argue the point in public. You will then demonstrate to the youngsters that you trust and support them and they, in turn, will accept the responsibility in a mature way. This halfway solution solves nothing and only undermines the fundamental principles and characteristics of scouting.