[1][2] Under England and Wales' Prevention of Crime Act 1953, Section 1(1) states it is an offence to carry an offensive weapon on or about the person while in a public place without a lawful authority or reasonable excuse.
Both subsection 4 of this section and the Court of Appeals decision R v Simpson (1983) consider essentially three types of offensive weapon: An offensive weapon is defined in this section as "any article made or adapted for use for causing injury to the person, or intended by the person having it with him for such use by him or by some other person"[3] The legislation further defines a "public place" under subsection 4: "In this section, 'public place' is taken to include any highway and any other premises or place to which at the material time the public have or are permitted to have access, whether on payment or otherwise."
[3][5][6] A Constable may arrest without warrant any person whom he has reasonable cause to believe to be committing an offence under subsection (1) of section 1, if the Constable is not satisfied as to that person's identity or place of residence, or has reasonable cause to believe that it is necessary to arrest him in order to prevent the commission by him of any other offence in the course of committing which an offensive weapon might be used.
[9] The list as it currently stands is: Due to the sweeping implementation of the Offensive Weapons Act 2019, Part 4 Section 46 redefined the previous offence wording of "manufacturing, sells, offers for sale or hire, lending", etc.
in relation to the above was replaced with subsection 1(A) which states: "Any person who possesses a weapon to which this section applies in private is guilty of an offence".
It is also a recognised defence for a person charged under this section to prove that he had the article with him for use at work, for religious reasons or as part of any national costume.
Despite the carrying of an offensive weapon in a public place being a criminal offence, suspected offenders are given the ability to raise a defence on the civil burden of proof i.e. on the balance of probabilities.
[3] This raises two individual points in relation to potential defences: whether an offensive weapon would not be considered as such if intended to be used on a non-human assailant (e.g. dog), although this has not yet been tested in court.
[3] Therefore, the carrying of an offensive weapon at home (i.e. private property) or behind the counter of a shop, fenced off building site, access controlled office block, etc.
[26] In relation to the offence of having a bladed or pointed article in a public place under Section 139 Criminal Justice Act 1988, as per subsection (4), "good reason" or "lawful authority" would be required.