Knife Surrender and Compensation

Statement

My hon Friend the Minister of State for Policing and Crime (Sarah Jones) has today made the following Written Ministerial Statement:

The ninja sword surrender and compensation scheme and the extended surrender arrangements, introduced by this Government, has been one of the most successful weapon surrender regimes to date. Across both schemes, more weapons were surrendered by members of the public. 4,020 weapons were surrendered by members of the public compared to 2,738 weapons surrendered by the public during the zombie-style knives and machetes scheme, which took place last year.

The Government has implemented a ban on ninja swords approved by Parliament earlier this year, the ban came into force on 1^st August 2025.

A surrender and compensation scheme ran from 1^st July and concluded on 31^st July 2025. Compensating lawful owners is a legal requirement and the owner must be offered compensation when handing in their items in compliance with the law and guidance. An analysis of the scheme is set out below.

For the ninja sword surrender and compensation scheme, only 2 retailers submitted compensation claims compared to 25 retailers who submitted claims during the zombie-style knives and machetes surrender and compensation scheme last year.

The Government provided extended knife surrender arrangements in the West Midlands, Greater Manchester and London. These arrangements allowed members of the public to surrender weapons anonymously at a mobile surrender van operated by FazAmnesty and in 37 new surrender bins installed by Word 4 Weapons with Home Office funding. There is no compensation payable under such arrangements. The total number of surrendered weapons under the extended arrangements are set out below.

Mobile Surrender Van

Total surrendered weapons: 783

Surrender Bins

Total surrendered weapons: 2,787¹

[1] Count carried out on all surrender bins between 27 August and 3 September 2025