Clayman Review: Key Findings on Online Knife Sales
Summary of Commander Stephen Clayman's independent review into online knife sales, commissioned following the Southport attack. The review examines age verification failures, grey market sales, delivery loopholes, and makes eight recommendations for reform including a knife retailer licensing scheme.
Background
In January 2025, Commander Stephen Clayman published his independent end-to-end review of online knife sales, commissioned by the Home Secretary following the Southport attack in summer 2024. As the National Police Chiefs' Council lead for knife crime, Clayman examined the complete journey of how knives are sold online and delivered within England and Wales, covering both UK-based retailers and overseas sellers.
The review gathered evidence through surveys of law enforcement, prosecutors, retailers, and couriers, supplemented by consultations with social media platforms, Border Force, Trading Standards, and Ofcom. The goal was to identify gaps, deficiencies, and examples of best practice, ultimately making recommendations to prevent knives reaching under-18s and prohibited persons.
Key Findings
1. Rising knife crime and data gaps
Knife crime recorded by the Office for National Statistics has risen between 2020 and 2024, approaching pre-pandemic levels. While new legislation has restricted larger and more dangerous knives, technological advances and globalisation have created new online markets that make knives instantly available. Critically, police recording does not capture the type of knife used in offences—this limits understanding of which weapons are most commonly used in crimes and hampers targeted interventions.
2. Grey market sellers on social media
The review identifies two categories of online seller: legitimate retailers operating through their own websites, and grey market peer-to-peer sellers who operate through social media platforms.
The grey market enables anonymous knife purchases with no age verification, often facilitating both legal and illegal sales. Police have identified at least fifteen grey market sellers who, between them, have sold an estimated 2,000 weapons with no effort to check who they were selling to. These sellers use coded language and move buyers to encrypted messaging platforms to complete transactions. Unlike regulated industries, knife sales require no licence, registration, or background checks on sellers.
3. Age verification failures at point of sale
Section 141A of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 prohibits selling knives to under-18s. However, legislation relies on the vague term "likely" to prevent underage purchases, with no defined standard for sellers to meet. Trading Standards test purchases show only 3% failures, but these tests do not cover use of false ID or test accounts with prior verified purchases (which may be exploited by under-18s).
Best practice identified in the review involves buyer verification rather than simple age verification—requiring identification documents and confirmation of identity before agreeing a sale. However, this is not mandated and most retailers use weaker systems that remain vulnerable to abuse.
4. Delivery loopholes
The Offensive Weapons Act 2019 requires packages containing bladed articles to be clearly marked and age-verified on delivery. In practice, enforcement is inconsistent. Knives are delivered to lockers and residential premises without proper checks. Couriers struggle to identify knife packages from customer declarations. Grey market sellers avoid compliant shipping entirely, using face-to-face handovers, unmarked parcels, or lockers.
A critical gap exists: there is no link between the verified buyer at checkout and the person who actually receives the parcel.
5. International sales and border issues
Overseas sellers should follow UK rules when selling to UK customers, but enforcement is difficult where laws differ. Border Force faces huge parcel volumes and limited scanning capacity. When prohibited weapons are intercepted, police responses vary by force and intelligence is not consistently prioritised or actioned. As domestic regulation tightens, the review anticipates overseas sellers may become more significant, increasing pressure on import controls.
6. Social media and harmful knife content
Social media enables grey market sales via posts and videos showcasing knives. Many platforms formally ban knife sales in marketplaces, but sellers use euphemisms (e.g. "cosplay", "tool") and exploit algorithms that show more knife-related content to interested users, including retailer adverts. Platforms have sophisticated tools for drugs and other illegal content but show little equivalent focus on knife-related content. Global policies often ignore UK-specific knife laws, complicating content removal and enforcement.
7. Regulatory and enforcement gaps
Trading Standards and police have powers over prohibited weapon sales, knife marketing offences, and sales to under-18s. However, these offences are rarely identified and even more rarely prosecuted—CPS prosecutors consulted had never run such a case.
A significant sentencing disparity exists: possession of a prohibited weapon carries up to 4 years' imprisonment, while supply is a summary-only offence with a maximum of 12 months. This is the reverse of the drugs framework, where supply is treated more seriously than possession.
The Eight Recommendations
1. Improved data recording
Police and criminal justice agencies should record knife types used in offences and track outcomes for offences relating to sales, marketing and prohibited weapons. This will build an evidence base to target the most harmful weapons and practices.
2. Buyer verification
Replace simple age checks with buyer verification at both point of sale and point of delivery. This requires use of identity documents and confirmation that the person receiving the knife is the verified buyer or demonstrably connected to them. The objective is to close the gap between checkout and delivery.
3. Courier requirements
All parcels containing bladed items should be clearly labelled and subject to robust age/ID verification on delivery. The review suggests exploring data-sharing agreements with law enforcement and verification PIN systems similar to those used by food delivery apps, linking the parcel to a verified individual.
4. Social media platform requirements
Platforms should be required to remove knife-related content within 48 hours of police notification where it breaches UK law, provide comprehensive information on individuals unlawfully offering weapons online, and operate UK-specific policies that explicitly reflect UK knife legislation.
5. Knife retailer registration scheme
Create a mandatory registration/licensing scheme for online knife retailers with conditions including: mandatory reporting of suspicious or bulk purchases; recording buyer details and making them available to law enforcement when required; banning "mystery boxes" and reduced-price add-on knives; and background checks on registrants. New offences would criminalise selling knives without being registered, with unregistered selling treated more seriously than possession offences.
6. Creation of a "prohibited person" category
Define a prohibited person who cannot register as a knife seller, is barred from owning certain knife types, and is unable to purchase specified knives. Police would have additional powers in relation to prohibited persons. A new offence would criminalise purchasing knives on behalf of a prohibited person (straw purchasing).
7. Importation controls
Introduce an import licensing scheme so that unlicensed importation of knives is prohibited. Review knife import tax arrangements to ensure knives are clearly identifiable in customs data. Explore standardising entry routes for knife imports and enhanced Border Force training on identifying prohibited knives.
8. Enhanced enforcement capability
Establish a central national function to coordinate law enforcement, Border Force, Trading Standards, and other key stakeholders. Increase capability to identify prohibited online sales and disrupt grey market activity. Improve information-sharing between Border Force, Trading Standards and police. Adjust sentencing guidelines so relevant offences are triable either way, allowing more serious cases to go to the Crown Court.
Ronan's Law and Licensing Consultation
The review is dedicated to victims including Ronan Kanda, killed in June 2022 with ninja swords ordered online by two 16-year-olds. The weapons were purchased using a parent's bank details and ID, with no age verification at any stage.
In response, the Home Secretary proposed "Ronan's Law", centred on a knife seller licensing scheme. A public consultation (December 2025 – February 2026) sought views on the scope of the licensing scheme, conditions on licensees, and how to operationalise the Clayman recommendations in practice.
Significance for Practitioners
For practitioners across policing, prosecution, Trading Standards, youth justice, safeguarding, and policy, the Clayman Review signals a move from a narrow focus on possession and simple age checks towards a system-wide, supply-chain-oriented model: licensing sellers, verifying buyers, regulating platforms and couriers, and tightening import controls—all underpinned by better data and coordinated enforcement.
Understand the grey market. Knife sales via social media and encrypted apps largely sit outside current regulatory and enforcement frameworks. Intelligence-gathering, covert online capability, and partnership with platforms will be central to tackling this space.
Prepare for stronger verification duties. Expect a shift from basic age checks to buyer verification linking identity at purchase and delivery. Retailers, platforms and couriers will likely face clearer statutory standards and audit expectations.
Improve recording and evidence use. Start building local practice to record knife types in offences and outcomes of sales-related investigations. This will support future compliance with national standards and better risk profiling.
Anticipate licensing and registration requirements. Online knife sellers are likely to require registration/licensing with fit-and-proper person tests, record-keeping and reporting duties, and clear sanctions for non-compliance.
Focus on cross-agency working. Border Force, Trading Standards and police will need shared intelligence pathways on importation patterns, high-risk sellers and buyers, and emerging overseas supply routes. Practitioners should map local contacts and escalation routes now.
Expect sentencing and offence reforms. Supply-side offences (unregistered selling, unlawful online marketing, importation) are likely to attract higher penalties and either-way trial. Case building should reflect the seriousness of supply, mirroring approaches used in drug trafficking.