Knife crime threat prompts employers to order stab vests following corporate manslaughter fears

The threat of knife crime is persuading increasing numbers of employers to provide staff with stab vests to protect them if they are attacked with a knife.

Stab vest supplier the Body Armour Company said it had received about 10,000 orders for protective vests from local government, with front-line NHS staff accounting for most of them, reports The Observer.

The firm said it had also received orders for body armour from teachers. A spate of stabbings this year has seen 18 teenagers killed in London and knife injuries rocket.

Company spokesman Peter Warren said: “Councils are becoming aware of the need for armour and protecting their staff. We have had many private enquiries from teachers and the rate is going up. Headteachers are aware that teachers are at risk and knife crime is getting worse.”

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Councils are thought to be responding to the Corporate Manslaughter Act, under which organisations failing to adequately protect employees may be prosecuted.

Warren added: “If a schoolteacher can sue for £300,000 for stress, what price a school that failed to protect its staff from knives?”