Part 3: Sale and delivery of knives Section 35: Defence to sale of bladed articles to persons under 18: England and Wales
Section 141A(1) of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 ("the CJA") provides that it is an offence in England and Wales to sell knives and certain articles with a blade or sharp point to persons under the age of 18. Section 141A(4) provides a defence to that offence where the person charged can prove they took all reasonable precautions and exercised all due diligence to avoid committing the offence.
	Section 35 inserts a new section 141B into the CJA which modifies the operation of this defence where the sale is carried out remotely. A remote sale is any sale where the seller or a person acting on the seller’s behalf was not in the presence of the buyer at the point of sale. This includes, for example, when the sale was made online, by mail order or over the telephone, and applies to both individuals and companies.
	In order to be able to rely on this defence, the accused must meet all of the conditions set out below:
Condition A is that, at the time the offence is alleged to have been committed (the sale) the seller had a system in place to check that the buyer was not under the age of 18 and that the system in place would be likely to prevent anyone under the age of 18 from purchasing bladed articles.
Condition B is that, when the package containing the article was dispatched by the seller, the package was clearly marked in a way that indicated it contained a bladed article and, that, when finally delivered, it should only be delivered into the hands of a person aged 18 or over.
Condition C is that the seller took all reasonable precautions and exercised all due diligence to ensure that, when finally delivered, the package would be delivered into the hands of a person aged 18 or over.
Condition D is that the seller did not deliver the package, or arrange for its delivery, to a locker. A "locker" is defined in subsection (9).
	This section forms part of the law of England and Wales.