Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)

Section 141 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 provides that any person who manufactures, sells or hires or offers for sale or hire, exposes or has in his possession for the purpose of sale or hire, or lends or gives to any other person, a weapon to which that section applies shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale or both. The importation of any such weapon is prohibited.

The Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Offensive Weapons) Order 1988 specified descriptions of weapons to which section 141 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 applies. This Order adds the weapons the stealth knife and straight, side-handled or friction-lock truncheons, to the list of specified weapons contained in the 1988 Order.

This Order does not extend to Scotland. It comes into force one month after it is made.