Knife law change faces an amendment

Friday 25th July 2008, 1:00PM BST.

ATTEMPTS to strengthen control on knives through banning their sale to under-18s have been branded as a nanny state knee-jerk reaction.

John Gollop will move an amendment to the Home Department’s proposed legislation so that the ban would affect only under-16s. He said he appreciated the spirit behind the report.

‘I agree that the law needs to be more strictly tackled and enforced, but I see this legislation as being not a priority, unnecessary in some of its detail and self-defeating because it criminalises legitimate activity by hard-working teenagers,’ said Deputy Gollop.

‘It doesn’t do anything to tackle teenagers who already do illegal things, or older people who may be unstable who buy knives.’