UK: Online shoppers to collect knives in person as ministers act to close home-delivery loophole that put weapons in teens' hands

Amber Rudd said she wants to stop people buying knives without verifying their ID

Online shoppers will have to collect knives in person under government proposals to clamp down on sales of blades to children and teenagers. It is already an offence to sell knives to under-18s but the planned measures would mean they cannot be delivered to private property, such as the buyer’s home. Ministers say this would make it harder for underage purchases to go undetected following warnings that online age checks can be sidestepped. Under the plans, anyone who buys a knife on the internet will be required to collect it at a store or other premises.
Retailers would be responsible for checking the age of all buyers by asking them to show ID such as a passport or driving licence.  Arrangements for how online sellers without high street stores can comply will be considered as part of a consultation to be launched later this year. It is illegal to sell a blade of more than 3in to anyone under 18 but reports have suggested that checks can be circumvented.  Calls for action on internet sales intensified last year after a court heard that a knife used in the fatal stabbing of Aberdeen schoolboy Bailey Gwynne was purchased online by his 16-year-old killer.
Announcing her intention to tighten the law, Home Secretary Amber Rudd said: ‘We are going to be consulting on new legislation so that people can’t buy knives online without having their identity checked.
'At the moment you have to do it by the click of a button.
'What we are proposing is that if you want to buy a knife online it has to be collected from a place where you have to show your ID.
We have evidence that young people have been able to buy knives without verifying their ID and I want to stop that.’
Figures indicate that almost three-quarters of online retailers fail to carry out proper age checks. The proposals will also aim to close a loophole that means police can be powerless to act if they find knives in someone’s home, by banning the possession of weapons such as zombie knives and knuckledusters on private property.