Officers from our taskforce dedicated to tackling youth violence are working with partners to assess retailers’ knowledge and actions around selling knives to young people through a series of test purchases as work continues to tackle knife crime in the city.

Following this activity there will be mandatory education sessions with shop workers to help prevent knives from getting into the hands of youths.

It is against the law to sell to anyone who is under the age of 18, but businesses should also never sell if they have concerns about how the buyer may use the item.

Officers alongside Trading Standards have recently been carrying out test purchases for knives in retailers in central Manchester and Trafford. This involves volunteers aged 15 attempting to purchase knives in 11 stores.

The volunteers, who are Greater Manchester Police cadets, are accompanied by officers into the store and those who decide to sell the knifes to our youngsters will be dealt with by Trading Standards who will go back, look at the history of the store in question and decide on a course of action.

Eight of the stores visited sold a knife to the teenage test purchaser, and only two stores - both in Trafford - refused to sell. The final business we approached did not have a knife available for sale.

Retailers that sell knives to undercover purchasers will be required to undergo education sessions to help them identify signs of child criminal exploitation (CCE) and understand the impact selling knives to young people has on our communities.

The training is also set up to strengthen ties between retailers and police, with the view of increasing reporting, enabling officers to gain intelligence and take preventive action.

Detective Inspector Kat McKeown said: “Shop workers play a key role in helping us to keep knives off our streets. While it was disappointing to see eight shops out of the eleven we visited agreeing to sell a knife to someone under the age of 18, it demonstrates where there is a problem and we have proactive plans in place to help solve it. 

“It’s one part of our multipronged approach to reducing knife crime, working alongside partners and the community.”

“One of the main reasons why we pinpointed which business premises to target comes off the back of complaints made to us and their respective councils. We then act on that information by building an intelligence picture and seeing if those complaints match up with our own intelligence.

“Myself and the rest of the team have seen firsthand how gaining access to a knife can escalate youth violence to have fatal and life-changing consequences.

“The focus of this activity was to ensure that our communities are kept as safe as possible and to provide education in relation the dangers and threats and ultimately prevent knife crime and the devastating effects knife-related incidents have on young people, their families and our communities.”