Police bosses in the West Midlands welcome national ninja sword ban
From today, a national ninja sword ban will be implemented across the UK
Last updated 1st Aug 2025
Police bosses in the West Midlands say they welcome the ninja sword ban that is coming into effect across the UK.
From today, owning or selling the ninja swords will be illegal, with jail terms of up to six months - rising to two years under new crime laws.
The ban comes after a month long knife amnesty that has taken place in Coventry.
West Midlands Police have been encouraging people to dispose of their weapons anonymously, ahead of the ban, at surrender bins at the junction of Grafton Street and Binley Road.
West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner, Simon Foster, says the amnesty has helped reduce crime across the region.
PCC Foster said: "We've already seen thousands of knives and dangerous weapons off our streets and our disposal bins play a key role in preventing violence before it happens.
"The ban today sends a clear message, dangerous weapons like ninja swords have no place on our streets in the West Midlands.
"I have long supported the removal of these weapons from circulation to prevent further harm."
Meanwhile, knife robberies in the West Midlands have seen an annual drop of 25% following targeted police action.
After seeing a stark rise in knife-enabled robbery in the year to June 2024, driven by a 14% increase across seven police forces, the Home Secretary set up a dedicated police taskforce last October and after just nine months of activity, there has been a 6% overall annual reduction compared with the previous year across those highest risk areas – with places like West Midlands seeing a substantial annual drop of 25%.
The reduction has been driven by intense police efforts and a range of tactics, including upping visible patrols, using drones, knife arches and detection dogs to support police on the ground, and deploying plain clothes officers.
Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper said: “Since day one we have acted with urgency to turn the tide on knife crime, which destroys lives and devastates communities.
“When we came to office, knife-enabled robbery was increasing at a concerning rate, but we have now started to drive numbers of those offences down through the work of our dedicated taskforces, and as a result, we have also seen the first small reduction in overall knife crime for four years.
“The drop in knife enabled robbery in key problem areas shows the impact that our strong new action on knife crime is having, but we now need to supercharge these efforts through more smart and targeted interventions.
Anyone can be a victim of knife crime, but new ‘hex mapping’ technology shows that the vast majority of knife crime is concentrated in a relatively small, hyper-concentrated number of areas.
“As part of the Plan for Change, we will use that new technology to support our mission to halve knife crime over the next decade.
In the 2020s, the way to be tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime is also to be smart on crime, using the latest technology to target criminals and problem areas, and keep the country safe.”