Offensive weapons on school premises 928/23

FOI Reference: 928/2023

Request:

1. The number of pupils aged 18 and under found in possession of offensive weapons such as knives, pellet guns, hammers etc on school premises (nursery, primary and secondary) in the academic years 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 so far.

2. The above information should be broken down by date/month of incident, age of pupil, and description of the weapon.

3. It should also include what the police response was (arrest, warning etc), and whether the weapon was used to commit another crime, such as assault against a pupil or teacher.

Response:

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, as outlined below.

 Q1.

September 2022- August 2023- Eight (8) possession of offensive weapon on school premises records.

September 2023-2024 to date- Five (5) possession of offensive weapon on school premises records.

Q2+Q3

Q3b) Please note there is no information held by Dyfed Powys Police as all the above incidents, none of the weapons possessed were used in further crimes, i.e to assault a pupil/teacher, as there are no linked crimes and they were seized at that time.

It should be noted that as a result of the systems adopted by Dyfed-Powys Police in relation to the recording of such information that the information released may or may not be accurate.

Furthermore, it should also be noted that Police forces in the United Kingdom are routinely required to provide crime statistics to government bodies and the recording criteria is set nationally. However, the systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the crime data. It should be noted that for these reasons this force's response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other response you may receive.

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 29/02/2024)