The number with knives doubles in a decade

5.40.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 23rd Oct 2008

Paul Burstow is calling on the government to do more to tackle knife crime in the light of a report released today by the Public Accounts Committee. It shows that the number of 15-17 year olds convicted of carrying a knife in public has doubled in the last ten years.

The report reveals a lack of coordination between the Home Office and the bodies it set up to deal with serious violence and gang-related activity. These Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships do not have sufficient resources to understand and therefore combat the violence in their local communities. As a result there is a lack of information on the issue of violent crime, especially about why young people join gangs and what can be done to deter them.

Local MP Paul Burstow, who is a member of the Committee that produced the report, is frustrated by the findings:

'Today's report uncovers a bureaucratic mess which is hampering not helping the efforts to make our streets safer. The Home Office established up these Partnerships in order to tackle violence in local communities, but the reality is that they do not have the resources to carry this out, so we have a huge rise in knife possession.

'One of the aims of the Home Office was to spread good practice about curbing violent crime, but only half of the Partnerships thought the Home Office were doing this successfully. It is time that the Home Office got their house in order.'