[DanaC]

Well for a few years it worked really well and knife crime fell - we've just had the first increase in knife crime for several years.

We currently have a growing problem with young people and knives which may be what is driving up knife crime. Of course - it's a good deal more difficult to control knives, which are used every day in every kitchen in every house everywhere, and a lot of the knives used in violent crime are domestic knives.

We didn't 'ban knives' really. But we banned the sale of certain kinds of knives and criminalised the carrying of a knife.

There were spikes, but in general the trend has been downwards I think since the laws were tightened up in the 90s and then again a few years ago.