Weapons/nature of the weapons seized from pupils in schools across the MPS area from 2017 to 2021

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.026879

I note you seek access to the following information:

Could you please supply me with the following information concerning the numbers of weapons seized from pupils in schools and the nature of these weapons, as outlined below:

Q1. How many weapons were seized from schools in the area covered by your constabulary in the years 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021?

Q2. What category of weapon were these and how many of each were there? Eg. 2 knives, 3 guns, 1 sword etc

Q3. How old were the pupils who the weapons were seized from?

Q4. How many of these incidents resulted in pupils being excluded from school?

Q5. How many of these incidents resulted in criminal prosecution for the pupils?

Decision

I have today decided to disclose the located information to you in full.

Please find below information pursuant to your request above.

This FOIA sets out the data held by the MPS, however head teachers do have discretion to deal with incidents in the best interests of the pupils. The MPS encourages schools to inform us of all weapon related incidents so we can assist with safety and safeguarding of the school community.

In addition to the above, I can confirm that the MPS do not collate data in relation to pupils being excluded from schools.