The number of crimes related to knives and other offensive weapons dealt with by the courts reached its highest level for nine years last year, figures show.
The criminal justice system dealt with 21,484 cases in 2018, the highest number since 2009 – a 45.7% increase.
One in five of the culprits were aged under 18, and the average jail sentence for minors increased from 5.8 months in 2016 to 8 months last year.
The new figures come out the day after Phillip Hammond announced £100m to tackle an increase in knife crime, as pressure mounts on the government to tackle the growing crisis.
But opponents of the government were quick to point out the new money would barely scratch the surface, after years of shrinking police budgets and reduced officer numbers.
The Liberal Demoract home affairs spokesman, Sir Ed Davey, called the extra £100m “shockingly inadequate”.
There have been 39 fatal knife attacks in Britain since the beginning of the year, with London has been at the centre of the crisis. The capital’s mayor Sadiq Khan was lukewarm about the extra money from the treasury.
He said it was “a drop in the ocean” and wouldn’t give the Metropolitan police the money it needed to recruit new officers.
The new figures from the Ministry of Justice also showed the average sentence for all offenders rose from 7.1 months in 2016, when new laws were introduced, to 7.8 in 2018.
The percentage of people who were going to jail for knife offences has also increased, in 2008 only 20% of people convicted of possessing an offensive weapon went to jail, in 2018 that had risen to 37%.