FOI 533/25

REQUEST

Please can you provide the following information for the 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 calendar years:

1 - How many knives were seized by police following stop and search

2 - How many knives were seized by police from people aged under 18 following stop and search

RESPONSE

We have consulted with our analysts who have conducted a search for the number of stop searches where an object was found in the requested time-period. The data has then been filtered to bring back results where at least one of these objects was a ‘weapon/bladed article’.

Question 1

Please see the below table that provides the results retrieved broken down by year:

Question 2

The data has been filtered under the category ‘Age at stop search report date’ to only include those individuals who were under 18.

Please see the below table that provides the results retrieved broken down by year:

Please be advised, the following table provides the types of weapons that fall under the term ‘weapon/bladed article’. These are included in the NDQIS (National Data Quality Improvement Service) ruleset.

The use of Stop and Search powers is a valuable tool in the prevention and detection of crime, reducing the number of arrests that would be made by allaying or confirming suspicions and if used sensitively, is likely to increase community confidence in the police and make a positive contribution to reducing the fear of crime. 

All stops and searches are conducted in accordance with Police and Criminal Evidence Act1984 Code A. 

Supervisors monitor the issuing officer’s use of stop and search to ensure that they have exercised their powers fairly, ethically and in line with any relevant requirements and that they are recording in accordance with this policy. 

South Wales Police will continue to monitor each stop and search and are aware of the sensitive nature around the use of this power