Ninja swords banned under Ronan's Law named after murdered Wolverhampton teen

Ronan Kanda was killed yards away from his home

Ninja swords will be banned and sold in the final part of anti-knife crime measures introduced under "Ronan's Law".

It will also be illegal to possess, sell, make or import the weapon, which comes into effect on August 1.

The move to ban the blades will be put to Parliament on Thursday and will come into force in the summer pending approval in Parliament.

It follows a campaign by the loved ones of 16-year-old Ronan Kanda, who was murdered with a ninja sword yards away from his Wolverhampton home in 2022.

His mother, Pooja Kanda, has campaigned for a law change.

Anyone caught with a ninja sword in private could face six months in prison, set to increase to two years under plans in the Crime and Policing Bill.

The weapons can be handed over in knife-surrender bins or local police stations as part of a surrender scheme running in July.

No ninja swords bought after Thursday will be eligible for compensation as part of efforts to stop exploitation of the scheme, the Home Office said.

The Government is also planning to consult on introducing a licensing scheme for retailers who want to sell knives in the spring.

As part of the measures, which were announced in December, retailers will be required to report bulk or suspicious sales to police, and the jail sentence for selling weapons to children, or illegal blades such as zombie knives, will increase to two years.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: "We are acting with urgency to bring forward measures to prevent deadly weapons from getting into the wrong hands and will continue to do whatever is needed to prevent young people being killed on our streets as part of our mission to halve knife crime over the next decade.

"These weapons, with no practical purpose beyond violence, are simply instruments of war and have absolutely no place in our society or on our streets," said Patrick Green, chief executive of Ben Kinsella Trust.