UK Offence Report

Mandatory conditions for all knife dealers' licences

article 3(4)(c)(i) of The Knife Dealers (Licence Conditions) Order 2009

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

i it is an offence to sell to

a person under the age of

18 any knife or knife blade (except if the person is aged

16 or over and the knife or blade is designed for domestic use);

Text as made, from legislation.gov.uk. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.

Who it binds, and what has to be proved

Binds
a person
Conduct
selling or supplying something the instrument restricts
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove that the conduct happened. This is a strict liability offence as drafted: the provision uses no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence, so there is no need to show that a person meant to do it, knew about it, or was careless.

Intention, knowledge and carelessness are irrelevant to guilt. They may still matter a great deal to sentence.

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

What would breach article 3(4)(c)(i)?

These are illustrations, not law. They are generated from the provision’s own words to show the shape of the offence. Whether any particular conduct is caught depends on the full text, on any amendment since, and on the facts.

  1. On these words it is an offence to sell to a person under the age of 18 any knife or knife blade (except if the person is aged 16 or over and the knife or blade is designed for domestic use).
  2. Selling the goods under the Knife Dealers (Licence Conditions) Order 2009 where the instrument prohibits the sale outright.
  3. Supplying without carrying out a check the instrument requires first, even where the sale would otherwise be lawful.
  4. Offering for sale counts as well as selling: displaying stock is enough where the provision reaches an offer.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

Sentencing

Offences of this kind are usually sentenced under the guidelines below. This is a mapping by subject, not a finding about this provision, and the links go to a search of the Sentencing Council’s own site.

Prosecution figures

No published per-offence figure was found for this provision, and it could not be matched to a Ministry of Justice offence code. Offences created by statutory instrument very largely do not have one. Absence of a figure is not evidence that the offence is unused.

Status and lifecycle

Current status
Revoked
Revoked by
The Knife Dealers (Licence Conditions) (Scotland) Order 2013
Revoked on
29 January 2013
Made
3 June 2009
In force from
1 September 2009
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: the instrument was revoked by a later instrument found in this corpus.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Order) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

This Order requires local authorities to attach mandatory conditions to knife dealers' licences granted or renewed under section 27C of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982. Article 3 specifies the mandatory conditions that must be attached to all knife dealers' licences granted or renewed by a local authority. These are the identity of the customer and the means by which the customer’s identity was verified; proof that the customer was at least eighteen years of age at the time of the transaction and the means by which the customer’s age was established or an explanation why it was considered unnecessary for proof of age to be established; and a full description of the article which was sold, hired, offered or exposed for sale or hire, lent or given to the customer. The records must be kept for 3 years. Article 4 requires local authorities to attach additional mandatory conditions to a licence where the dealer is carrying on a business in swords. These are that a knife dealer must take all reasonable steps to establish from the customer and confirm the intended use of any sword; and that the knife dealer must make and retain records for a period of at least 3 years on the enquiries made of the customer as to the intended use of the sword.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

Other offences in the same instrument

How this was identified as an offence

Everything above rests on the judgement that this provision creates a criminal offence, rather than mentioning one. That judgement is made by rule, from the words of the provision, and this is the rule that made it — with a confidence of 0.90.

Basis
the provision says “it is an offence”; the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens
Confidence
0.90 of 1.00

A provision that states a penalty for an offence created elsewhere can read very like one that creates an offence, and the rules can mistake the one for the other. If the text quoted above sets a penalty for something made an offence by another provision, treat the classification on this page with that in mind, and read the instrument.

Check the source