Weapons at Schools

Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request ref: 01/FIN/25/003600/X

Version Date: 08/09/2025

The Performance Analysis (PA) Department have provided the following information.
PA filtered on the main crime groups to show ‘possession of weapons’ only. They also filtered on the suspect age to 18 or under at reported date. Within the occurrence address building name, PA entered the keyword ‘school’ and within the location subtype, they entered the keyword ‘school’.
PA have manually reviewed all occurrences.

Under the Freedom of Information Act, please provide the following information broken down by the school academic years 2022-2023, 2023-2024 and 2024-2025.

1 - The number of pupils aged 18 and under recorded as being in possession of an offensive weapon on a school premises (primary and secondary schools only) during the academic years outlined above.

2 – Please provide a breakdown of the number of offences which took place in a primary school setting and the number of offences which took place in a secondary school setting

2- A list of the type of weapons involved - i.e – knife, machete, knuckle duster, firearm, hammer etc

*One incident had multiple weapons connected.
3 – A breakdown of the ages of pupils involved provided in the following two age categories:
Age 4-11
Age 12-18

4 – The age of the youngest pupil recorded as being in possession of an offensive weapon on school premises (primary and secondary schools only) for the academic years outlined above (this does not need to be broken down by academic year) and the type of weapon involved.
The youngest pupil recorded was 9, in possession of a knife.