Information about Knife crime data

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.25.042274

I note you seek access to the following information:

I contacted Lambeth Council who advised me that they did not have the information I required and suggested that I contact you.

Can you advise me on the following?

1. How many Knife Bins are currently located within the Lambeth Borough and locations?
2. How many knives have been handed in to date?
3. How many knives are deposited into the bins each year?
4. Where do the knives go after they have been collected? Company name and purpose of them being redirected there?
5. Are the knives re-manufactured by the company into something else or melted down in order to be resold and re used by a manufacturing company?
6. Does any of the proceeds from sale of the recycled steel material or re-manufactured steel goods from the knives go back into the community? if so how much?

Decision

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

Please find below information pursuant to your request above.

Knife bins are not an MPS responsibility.

Please be advised of the following organisation:
W4W Weapons Surrender Bins “Together Partnership"

Helping to create safer communities through Education and Knife Bins. Word 4 Weapons has been a leading weapons surrender charity in the UK for the last 10 years, supplying knife bins to a number of police forces, community groups and faith organisations.

Any knives held in the knife bins on behalf of the charity would not be forensically tested as they are not managed or controlled by the MPS.
The charity make a point of these bins not being near CCTV to keep anonymity of the depositor.

All word for weapons disposals are brought to Belvedere for secure disposal on behalf of the charity. These are not recorded on CONNECT so cannot be quantified.

Q1 - How many Knife Bins are currently located within the Lambeth Borough and locations?

This information is not held by the MPS, this would be found with Word for Weapons who manage all knife bins in the areas requested. The following two bins are part of the Word for Weapons charity and are situated in the London Borough of Lambeth. This information is taken from their website.

St John’s, Angell Town, Wiltshire Road London SW9 7NE
St Mark’s Church, 337 Kennington Road London SE11 4PW

Q2 - How many knives have been handed in to date?

As above please refer to Word for Weapons who provide these bins and manage the process, knives recovered through this scheme are not entered onto CONNECT.

Q3 - How many knives are deposited into the bins each year?

As above please refer to Word for Weapons who provide these bins and manage the process, knives recovered through this scheme are not entered onto CONNECT.

Q4 - Where do the knives go after they have been collected?

Once collected all knife bins are sent to the MPS Central Warehouse for disposal, knives recovered through this scheme are not entered onto CONNECT.

Q5 - Company name and purpose of them being redirected there?

This is an arrangement with Word for Weapons to manage secure disposal of all knives that come in.

Q6 - Are the knives re-manufactured by the company into something else or melted down in order to be resold and re used by a manufacturing company?

There is no resale and all knives are currently held for full destruction. This used to be via a London based recycling plant which has now ceased trading. There is no replacement for this company at this time and we are seeking an on-site solution for destruction

Q7 - Does any of the proceeds from sale of the recycled steel material or re-manufactured steel goods from the knives go back into the community? if so how much?

There is currently no contract in place for final secure disposal and all knives are held at Belvedere in pallets awaiting final destruction. As such there are no proceeds to account for.