A government edict to get tough on knife offenders is being ignored by police forces throughout the country, despite mounting public concern and a spate of killings.

Figures obtained by The Times show that in some areas as many as half of all adults caught carrying a blade receive a caution instead of being prosecuted.

The figures show huge disparities in prosecution rates across England. Police forces said that they would keep handing out cautions, regardless of the Government’s hard line.

Gordon Brown has ordered police forces to stop giving second chances to people who carry knives. Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, said in February that there would be a presumption that knife offenders aged over 18 would be prosecuted rather than receive a reprimand.

The latest figures, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, revealed that many police forces were not doing so.

In Bedfordshire, between March and June this year, 50 per cent of people aged 18 and over who were caught with a knife were given a caution when police took action, rather than being prosecuted.

In Essex and Norfolk, more than a third of adult offenders were cautioned rather than appearing before the courts. Cumbria police reprimanded more than 30 per cent of offenders, while more than a quarter escaped prosecution in Gloucestershire.

In Cheshire during the same period, 94 per cent of adult offenders were charged.

Amid a crackdown on knife crime and a huge operation to target offenders and seize weapons, London’s Metropolitan Police had a charge rate of 90 per cent.

The lenient treatment of many knife offenders is revealed just days after the British Crime Survey showed that more than 350 knife-crime offences were being committed every day. In London, 21 teenagers have been killed this year – the majority of whom were victims of stabbings.

The wave of violence continued over the weekend when a young father was fatally stabbed in North London. A 27-year-old Devon man, Elliot Guy, was found in Tufnell Park with a stab wound to his neck shortly after he left a party. He had been visiting London to help to decorate his mother’s house. Three people were arrested in connection with his death.

Another man, in his early 20s, was in a critical condition in hospital last night after he was found with stab wounds in Feltham, West London. Police also confirmed that a 16-year-old boy arrested in connection with the latest teenage killing had been released on bail. Frederick Moody, 18, died just yards from his home in Stockwell, South London, when he was attacked on Thursday night.

The Conservative Party expressed concern that offenders were being cautioned and said that the presumption to prosecute was a key measure to effectively tackle knife crime. David Cameron, the Tory leader, recently announced plans for a presumption of imprisonment for anyone convicted of knife crime.

The Ministry of Justice said yesterday that the Government took tackling knife crime very seriously. Ministers have recently reemphasised the presumption to prosecute, which was extended to 16-year-olds last month.

However, police forces said that they would continue to give out cautions where they believed it was warranted. They pointed out that in some areas knife crime was relatively low and that cautions were an effective means of dealing with the issue. In Cumbria, there were 29 incidents during the three-month period. A spokesman said that each case was treated on its merits. “If we feel a caution will act as a sufficient deterrent to that individual, then we will consider that as an option,” he said.

A Bedfordshire police spokeswoman said that giving someone a caution did not mean that they were being let off, as it was a recordable conviction. “Sometimes this proves the best way forward to ensure a person is reprimanded and given educational advice in order that they do not continue to offend.”

The latest figures do not include people found in possession of a knife who also committed other offences at the same time.

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