How many children charged with a knife-related offence received bail at a (a) high or (b) sheriff court in each of the last three years, br…

Information on the number of persons charged is not held centrally.
Statistics on the number of persons aged 18 and under proceeded against for knife possession or handling an offensive weapon that received a bail order are provided in the table below. As requested, the data is broken down by police force area and court type. Data is only provided for 2009-10 since a breakdown of bail orders by offence types is not available for the period 20 October 2007 to 31 March 2009.
In the classification system of crimes and offences used by the Scottish Government, the “handling an offensive weapon” crime category contains three sub-groups:
Possession of an offensive weapon;
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point, and
Restriction of offensive weapons.
The “having in a public place” group includes knives and other sharp instruments, while knives can also be included in the ‘possession of an offensive weapon’ category. There were zero bail orders recorded under the category of ‘restriction of offensive weapons’.
Number of Children1 Proceeded Against for Handling an Offensive Weapon2 that Received a Bail Order3,4, by Police Force and Court Type, in 2009-10
Police Force
Stipendiary Magistrate5
High
Court
Sheriff
Court
Central



Possession of an offensive weapon
-
0
12
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point
-
0
8
Total
-
0
20
Dumfries and Galloway



Possession of an offensive weapon
-
0
8
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point
-
0
3
Total
-
0
11
Fife



Possession of an offensive weapon
-
0
8
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point
-
0
4
Total
-
0
12
Grampian



Possession of an offensive weapon
-
0
5
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point
-
0
9
Total
-
0
14
Lothian and Borders



Possession of an offensive weapon
-
0
21
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point
-
1
27
Total
-
1
48
Northern



Possession of an offensive weapon
-
0
14
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point
-
0
4
Total
-
0
18
Strathclyde



Possession of an offensive weapon
16
0
134
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point
1
0
153
Total
17
0
287
Tayside



Possession of an offensive weapon
-
0
21
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point
-
0
16
Total
-
0
37
Unknown



Possession of an offensive weapon
-
1
0
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point
-
0
0
Total
-
1
0
Scotland



Possession of an offensive weapon
16
1
223
Having in a public place an article with a blade or point
1
1
224
Total
17
2
447
Notes:
1. In this table, “children” refers to those aged 18 and under.
2. Crimes of “handling an offensive weapon”, include knives and other offensive weapons. Zero bail orders were recorded for the “restriction of offensive weapons” category which has therefore been excluded from the table.
3. Bail order where main offence was for “handling an offensive weapon”
4. Excludes modifications to existing bail orders. Persons counted once only where more than one bail order on the same day.
5. At present, Stipendiary Magistrates only exists in the jurisdiction of Glasgow.