Miscellaneous

9 Offences by bodies corporate.

(1)

If an offence under this Act committed by a body corporate is proved—

(a)

to have been committed with the consent or connivance of an officer, or

(b)

to be attributable to any neglect on his part,

he as well as the body corporate is guilty of the offence and liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

(2)

In subsection (1) “officer”, in relation to a body corporate, means a director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body, or a person purporting to act in any such capacity.

(3)

If the affairs of a body corporate are managed by its members, subsection (1) applies in relation to the acts and defaults of a member in connection with his functions of management as if he were a director of the body corporate.

(4)

If an offence under this Act committed by a partnership in Scotland is proved—

(a)

to have been committed with the consent or connivance of a partner, or

(b)

to be attributable to any neglect on his part,

he as well as the partnership is guilty of the offence and liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

10 Interpretation.

In this Act—

“the court” means—

(a)

in relation to England and Wales or Northern Ireland, the Crown Court or a magistrate’s court;

(b)

in relation to Scotland, the sheriff;

“knife” means an instrument which has a blade or is sharply pointed;

“marketing” and related expressions are to be read with section 1(4);

“publication” includes a publication in electronic form and, in the case of a publication which is, or may be, produced from electronic data, any medium on which the data are stored;

“suitable for combat” means suitable for use as a weapon for inflicting injury on a person or causing a person to fear injury;

“violent behaviour” means an unlawful act inflicting injury on a person or causing a person to fear injury.

11 Short title, commencement, extent etc.

(1)

This Act may be cited as the Knives Act 1997.

(2)

This section comes into force on the passing of this Act.

(3)

The other provisions of this Act come into force on such date as may be appointed by order made by the Secretary of State; but different dates may be appointed for different provisions and for different purposes.

(4)

Any such order may include such transitional provisions or savings as the Secretary of State considers appropriate.

(5)

The power—

(a)

to make regulations under section 3 or 7, or

(b)

to make an order under this section,

is exercisable by statutory instrument.

(6)

A statutory instrument made under section 3 or 7 shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.

(7)

Except for section 8, this Act extends to Northern Ireland.

F1(8)

In its application to Northern Ireland, this Act has effect with the following modifications—

(a)

any reference in section 3 or 7 to the Secretary of State must be read as a reference to the Department of Justice in Northern Ireland;

(b)

any power of the Department of Justice to make regulations under section 3 or 7 is exercisable by statutory rule for the purposes of the Statutory Rules (Northern Ireland) Order 1979 (and not by statutory instrument); and

(c)

regulations made by the Department of Justice under section 3 or 7 shall be subject to negative resolution (within the meaning of section 41(6) of the Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954).