Knife crime amnesty bins drop by half in past seven years

The chairwoman of the all-party parliamentary group on knife crime says youth violence is at "crisis point", and backed the public health model supported by the Evening Standard to tackle the problem (Picture: PA Wire/PA Images)

The number of knife crime amnesty bins, credited with removing 50,000 weapons from the capital’s streets, has halved in the past seven years, the Standard reveals.

The Word 4 Weapons charity has worked with Scotland Yard for the past decade to provide bins where knives and guns can be surrendered anonymously to be taken out of circulation and destroyed.

Its founder Michael Smith, 59 — a retired policeman awarded an MBE for his anti-crime work — said today that a loss of funding had “pulled the rug” from under the operation.

In 2012, there were 36 bin locations where knives and guns could be dropped off.

Today there are just 18 and only three are in the capital’s 50 most violent wards.

It comes two years after Sadiq Khan pledged to support “knife bins in locations with high levels of knife crime” and committed extra funding.