Knife stop and search

Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request ref: 01/FIN/25/3043

Version Date: 09/04/2025

I would like to know how many children/teenagers (anyone 18 or under) were stopped/caught carrying knives or similarly logged weapons in the last decade?

Please could I have the figures broken down into each year (so 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 or up to most recent data).

The Performance & Analysis Department have provided the following information.

Please see below table showing all stop and searches on persons aged 18 and under for offensive weapons where the searched for item was found

(Please Note: We cannot identify what the offensive weapon was without manual review of each Niche record which would be fees).

We can only provide from 2017 onwards as that is when the stop and search reports changed.