The Home Office reports more than 14,500 knives and other weapons have been surrendered at amnesty bins since July 2024, with 45 bins now in place after eight new additions in South and West Yorkshire. Official figures show knife crime is down 11% since the July 2024 general election, knife-enabled robberies down 16% and knife-linked homicides down 26%. Static bins, run by Word 4 Weapons, and a Fazamnesty mobile van (which collected 783 items) operate on a no questions asked basis to allow anonymous surrender. Campaigner Pooja Kanda — who successfully pushed for Ronan's Law banning certain ninja swords — welcomed the scheme as a step to prevent further harm.
Nearly 15,000 Weapons Surrendered as UK Amnesty Bins Expand — Knife Crime Falls, Officials Say
FILE PHOTO - Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley (L) and then UK prime minister Rishi Sunak look at knives and machetes seized from knife attacks during a visit to Kilburn police station, north-west London. (is associated with: «Almost 15,000 knives and weapons handed in at UK surrender bins») Justin Tallis/PA Wire/dpa
More than 14,500 knives and other weapons have been surrendered at government-backed amnesty bins across the UK since July 2024, the Home Office says. Items handed in have ranged from kitchen knives and machetes to novelty 'zombie-style' blades and banned ninja swords.
The Home Office initially supported 37 static surrender bins across London, Greater Manchester and the West Midlands. It has now added eight further bins in South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire — including locations in Barnsley, Sheffield, Leeds and Wakefield — bringing the total to 45.
Policing Minister Sarah Jones said the scheme makes communities safer each time a weapon is turned in. "Every dangerous weapon that has been surrendered so far is a weapon off our streets and a community made that little bit safer," she said, adding that the government remains committed to halving knife crime within a decade.
Official Figures
Home Office statistics show overall knife crime is down 11% since the July 2024 general election. Knife-enabled robberies have fallen by 16%, while knife-linked homicides are reported to have decreased by 26% in the same period.
How the Surrender Scheme Operates
The static bins are managed by the charity Word 4 Weapons, while a mobile surrender van run by the charity Fazamnesty has collected a further 783 weapons. Both the bins and the van operate on a "no questions asked" basis so people can hand in blades anonymously and without fear of repercussions.
"That's why we're going further and making it easier for more people in more places to do the right thing and hand over their knives," Jones said.
Voices Affected by Knife Crime
Pooja Kanda, whose 16-year-old son Ronan was killed with a ninja sword near his home in Wolverhampton in 2022, welcomed the milestone. She said: "I lost my 16-year-old son, Ronan, in a mistaken-identity knife attack. He paid the ultimate price because someone else chose to carry a knife. There are no winners in knife crime."
Kanda campaigned for Ronan's Law, legislation that included a ban on certain ninja swords defined as weapons with a primary straight cutting edge between 35.5 and 61 centimetres and a tanto or reverse-tanto style point. She described the surrender scheme as "another important step" in preventing dangerous weapons from causing further harm and said it gives people a safe, anonymous way to hand in weapons.
The Home Office and the charities involved say the combination of fixed collection points and a mobile van is intended to make surrendering weapons easier and more widely accessible, supporting broader efforts to reduce knife crime across affected communities.
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