A plastic bag-style tax on kitchen knives could be used to take potential weapons off the streets and tackle the “alarming” rise in teen stabbings, a judge has said.

Nic Madge believes a £5 levy on the sale of kitchen knives with pointed blades will be enough to dramatically reduce the numbers in circulation.

The judge, a regular at Inner London crown court before he retired in May, said the 5p tax on single-use plastic bags can be used as an inspiration, as the number being used in the UK has plummeted since its introduction in 2015.

Judge Madge has already proposed grinding down the sharp point of knives, and now believes a tax would help combat the stabbing epidemic he dubbed a “public health emergency”.

He told the Evening Standard that although some stabbings are with so-called ‘Rambo’ or ‘Zombie’ knives, the majority of weapons used come from the kitchen drawer.

“Every kitchen contains long pointed knives which are potential murder weapons, and any boy can take a lethal knife from a drawer in his mother’s kitchen or that of a friend,” he said.

“So although there is no single, simple solution to knife crime, there are basic steps which could be taken.”

Judge Madge said eight or 10-inch knives with a pointed blade — which a butcher, fishmonger, or chef may occasionally but “rarely” use — are the weapons that can cause the most damage. He added: “Why can’t all those with any role — manufacturers, shops, police, local authorities, the Government — act together to reduce the sale of long pointed knives and provide an alternative of knives with rounded ends?

“The discount shop Poundland​ has already stopped selling kitchen knives. It might be that an agreed pricing differential — say increasing the price of long pointed knives by £5, in comparison with rounded knives, would reduce the number of lethal knives sold. After all, a 5p charge for plastic shopping bags dramatically reduced their use.”

Judge Madge said he believes this could have a similar effect to that reducing the number of Paracetamol in a packet had on suicide rates in 1998.

“Such costs would be minimal when compared with the cost of investigating any major crime,” he added. “There will always be stabbings, but too many young lives are being lost needlessly. Urgent steps must be taken to reduce the number of knives being carried.”

One of the most senior Old Bailey judges, Judge Richard Marks QC, the Common Serjeant of London, said last week that London is suffering from an “epidemic” of youth knife crime , as he ordered a 17-year-old to be named and shamed for his role in a stabbing with a six-inch kitchen blade.