I welcome you to the chair, Mr. O’Hara. This debate is critical for Parliament because knife crime is on the increase up and down the country. I am sure that many Members in the House can give us their direct experience of what is happening in their constituencies. However, there has been a double impact for me. Over the past three months, five teenagers have been murdered on the streets in my constituency, which is totally unprecedented. Not only were there no teenage murders last year, but when we compare our recent figures with the overall figures for London—11 murders this year—we have faced an almost indescribable situation. A combination of fear and incomprehension has traumatised the community—whether it be the family, neighbours, or people who never knew any of the victims. Although we have been making steady progress in reducing the fear of crime in my community, recent events have changed that markedly and we are beginning to see real concerns expressed locally.

The hon. Gentleman is right to bring this important debate to the House. However, the debate is not new; the Government have been aware of the problem for some time. Although they have taken some excellent measures in law and order, this matter is one on which they have been found wanting. Did the hon. Gentleman see the 20,000-plus “knives or lives” petition that I took to No. 10 Downing street last year? Does he agree with the tougher penalties and honest sentencing policy of Gerard Batten, the London mayoral candidate for the UK Independence party?

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that. I will outline some of the proposals that have been made by my constituents and the ones that I will be recommending to the Government. I know that there has been a constant debate in Parliament, and I hope that by continuing the dialogue we can get the Government to do more. The essential message that has to go out from today’s debate is that we must do more to address the problems.

I thank the hon. Gentleman for introducing this debate. Does he share my concern that knife crime and its consequences are spreading to virtually every constituency in this country? One of my constituents was killed in a knife attack just before Christmas. There have been other such attacks in areas that have been described as “leafy suburbs”. The problem is spreading across the whole country and the trend is very worrying.

I agree that the trend is very worrying. It is important that Parliament takes note of that and that hon. Members bring their experiences to the Government so that they can be addressed. That is what I hope to do this morning.

It is important that we state that the vast majority of young people are good, law-abiding citizens. In most cases, young people are the victims of violent crime and not the perpetrators. It is important to put the issue in context before we go on.

The nightmare in my constituency began in the early hours of 1 January when Henry Bolombi, a young man aged 17, died in a knife attack. He was returning from seeing in the new year at Trafalgar square when a row broke out between two groups of youths at a bus stop. Currently, a 20-year-old and a 14-year-old have been bailed in connection with that murder.

On 21 January, Louis Boduka, again 18 years of age, was stabbed to death in my constituency following a daytime street brawl. A 17-year-old who vehemently denies the charges is likely to go on trial sometime later this year. On 15 February, Ofiyke Nmezu, who was only 16 years old, was struck on the head during a street attack in Ponders End in my constituency. A week later, he died in hospital from a fractured skull. A youth from Essex, aged 18, has been charged and will appear at the Old Bailey in June.

I continue. On 13 March, Michael Jones, aged 18, was found with fatal head injuries following an horrific attack in the flat that he shared with his mother. A 45-year-old local man has been arrested and charged. That crime was quite distinct from the others. Finally, Rastafarian Bakari Bernard-Davis was stabbed to death in the street on the evening of 31 March. Two black youths were seen running from the scene of the crime, but, as yet, no arrests have been made.

What we have here is four street attacks in my constituency. Three involved knives and the fourth involved a young man being hit on the head with a blunt weapon. Three of the attacks may be gang related, one possibly has a drug intention behind it, and one may have been racially motivated.

As a consequence of recent events, I undertook an impromptu postal petition, which managed to gain 750-plus returned signatures—unlike that of the 20,000 of the hon. Member for Castle Point (Bob Spink). The petition, which was put together as a matter of urgency because of the developing situation, said:

“The residents of Edmonton demand action to reduce the guns/knives on our streets and stiffer penalties for those caught in possession of a lethal weapon.”

I then followed that up with a crime survey, which elicited from my constituents a number of letters, expressing concerns about what had happened. Miss. M. from South Mall in my constituency said:

“Five young lives taken away, it saddens all residents and there is so little that we can do.”

That is a challenge to us all. Miss. B. from Osward place in my constituency said:

“I’m a 16-year-old girl and I find it disturbing to hear about all the deaths recently. I have to travel to and from college and I get scared knowing it’s not safe…Being a teenager, I don’t think I need to feel this way. I hope no one else has to get killed.”

The events are doubly shocking and, as I mentioned earlier, unprecedented. According to all the figures, crime is falling both locally and across London. For example, Enfield is the 11th safest of 32 London boroughs. In 2006-07, in terms of crimes perpetrated by 1,000 residents, Enfield had a figure of 95.6 compared with 122 for London. Even the figure for England and Wales, at just over 100, was higher than that for my borough. There was a 10 per cent. fall in the number of offences committed in the London borough of Enfield between 2003 and 2007. Violence against the person in the year to October 2007 fell by 19 per cent. in Enfield, compared with just over 7 per cent. across London. The fall was 21 per cent in my constituency. Therefore, we had a higher fall in the number of crimes of violence against the person in the year immediately before these events.

Fear of crime, which is almost as important as crime itself, has also shown a downward trend. In my borough, 60 per cent. of people believed that it was not safe to go out at night in 2003. By 2007, that figure had dropped to 47 per cent. The percentage of people who are scared of going out during the day has fallen from 18 per cent. to 8 per cent. Again, those are positive figures. The position is similar across London. Murder reduced by 18 per cent. between 2002 and 2007 and knife crimes of all types, from the smallest use of a weapon through to the most serious crimes, went down by 30 per cent. in that period.

A number of London initiatives that I would like to see in place in my borough have had a dramatic impact. For example, Operation Blunt introduced a knife amnesty. I know that there are some concerns about knife amnesties, but they have made progress in reducing the number of weapons on the streets. A lot of the operation is intelligence-based enforcement—getting into the gangs, finding out what young people are doing and being there when there is likely to be a confrontation between young people. That is the essence of the operation, and it has been successful.

Operation Shield makes great use of portable metal detectors, the so-called arches and wands, and the initiative has been successful. It is used sometimes in schools, although I understand that there are concerns about the use of the detectors in schools, and certainly in train stations, bus termini and shopping centres. That is a helpful development. Of course, the Mayor’s gangs, guns and weapons reduction board, which co-ordinates activity on youth crime, is important and does essential work in spreading best practice to address the problem.

I know that detection rates are always a matter of controversy, but the Metropolitan police has had considerable success. It increased the crime detection rate in general from 17 per cent. to 25 per cent. in the two years from 2005 to 2007, and the detection rate of street murders is more than 90 per cent. It looks likely that people will be brought to justice for most, if not all, of the relevant crimes that have been committed in my constituency.

It is important to examine some of the research that has been carried out on gang culture and the violent use of weapons. I have come across two recent studies that throw that into sharp relief. The first was by a charity called the City Bridge Trust, which carried out a comprehensive research project including a literature review, a survey of schools in its local area and a discussion with people involved in the issues of young people, gangs and the violent use of weapons. It found, first, what we would expect: that knife crime affects young people, mainly those from black and ethnic minority communities and deprived areas. I do not think that there was any surprise in that. I found it more surprising that knife crime is four times more prevalent than gun crime. The most shocking statistic that I came across was that one in four of the 16-year-olds surveyed carried a knife, and one in five claimed to have used it at some point.

The hon. Gentleman has explained eloquently that knives can kill just as easily as guns. In fact, more young people are murdered with knives than with guns. Knife crime and the carrying of knives is often dealt with in magistrates courts, where the maximum sentence is only six months, which in reality means serving only three months because of dishonest sentencing. That is simply inadequate to provide the necessary deterrent. Will he encourage his Front-Bench colleagues to do something about that?

The hon. Gentleman is in a great hurry. If he will allow me, I would much rather state my case. It is important that any judgments that we make are evidence-based, and I should like to set out some of the evidence before I draw conclusions. However, I have some sympathy with his points.

I mentioned the shocking number of young people who both carry and claim to use knives. Numerous studies have suggested that knives hold a great fascination for young people. Whether that is because it gives them status, because they think that they are a fashion accessory, as many people have claimed, or because it is simply a matter of street cred, that is clearly true. That places an onus on our education and youth services to address those issues.

The research also shows that the motivation for carrying knives is primarily fear. Many of the young people carrying knives do so because they have been threatened with a knife at some time. We must address that spiral. We must also examine the impact of gangs, drugs and alcohol as a motivator that fuels the aggression that is shown in some instances. That was one of the themes that emerged when NCH, the children’s charity, surveyed young people. It interviewed roughly 100 young people up and down the country about their attitude to violent weapons. Its findings accorded with the other study that I have mentioned, because 63 per cent. said that image and peer pressure led to young people carrying weapons. Some 41 per cent. said that they knew someone who had been affected by knife or gun crime. NCH’s position on its study is that it is important for young people themselves to be involved in the design of services aimed at them and in how we address the motivating factors that lead them to carry knives and guns. I shall return to that theme. What have the authorities done to respond? I shall start by addressing the point that the hon. Member for Castle Point raised.

As this is a Chamber of the British Parliament, it is worth saying that Glasgow is the city in this country that has the highest level of knife crime, and has had it for a very long time. Until quite recently, knives, rather than guns, were the weapon of choice for Glasgow’s gangs. That shows that the demography of knife crime is more complex than one might think from reading the Evening Standard.

I agree entirely. We can learn a great deal from the long experience in Glasgow, especially about the interaction between different gangs and geographical locations. We appear to be repeating some of the experiences there, so we need to examine Glasgow carefully, especially in relation to gangs and knives and in relation to drugs and alcohol as a fuel for the activities in question.

I return to what the authorities are doing. We have set up safer neighbourhood teams, which have been warmly welcomed across the House and contributed significantly to reassuring the public and reducing crime levels. In my area, there have been increased patrols by safer neighbourhood teams, and the police in general have been much more visible and on the streets. That is clearly an attempt to reassure the public that there is a response to the increase in violence that we have seen locally.

Since this Monday, local resources have been reinforced by the Metropolitan police in an operation that is intended to prevent, deter and disrupt gang, criminal and violent activity in the communities in my constituency and, I hope, lead to the arrest of some of those responsible. Again, these measures have the dual purpose of getting to where the violent crimes are perpetrated and reassuring the community about what is being done.

There has been a significant increase in the use of portable metal detectors. Last week, at one of the busiest stations in my constituency, such detectors were on show and my understanding is that they were very successful in detecting a number of weapons that were being carried and, it must be said, not just by young people. Those detectors are having some success.

We have safer schools teams in Enfield and one of the largest safer schools projects in London. Those teams have been going out to schools and redoubling their efforts to try to get some of these messages across to young people. I will return to that critical activity at a later stage.

My local authority has also set up a commission that is very much based on the one set up by Lambeth for very similar reasons: to look into the causes and effects of the significant increase in violent crime locally and also the policies that are necessary to try to address it. Furthermore, my local authority is co-ordinating a summit to discuss the relationship between crimes and drugs. We are acutely aware that drugs fuel criminal activity and there is some evidence to suggest that they also increase the level of aggression that is shown in some of these instances of knife crime.

I now to come to some of the areas that the Minister may be able to look at in addressing the crime issue. NCH, the children’s charity, says that it is quite important that, in future, the under-16s should be included in the crime survey work that is carried out nationwide, so that we can have a better handle on the figures and also a better understanding of what is happening out there in the community. Is that idea something that the Minister has looked at?

Many people also believe that there should be a lower criminal age for the possession of violent weapons. I know that that issue has been discussed in the House and it is an issue that we need to address. If we look at the ages of the people affected and, indeed, the ages of the people carrying out these crimes, we see that some children under the age of 16 are involved, so we need to get a handle on what is happening to very young people in our community.

I refer again to my petition. I did not want to mention the mayoral election at the moment, but all the major candidates are suggesting that we need tougher sentences for the possession and use of knives; indeed, in the debates that we have had in the House recently similar recommendations have been made by individual Members. Could the Minister comment on the balance of judgment required, in relation to whether we need to send out a signal about the seriousness of the crimes that are being committed?

I want to see even more arches and wands used in our community. Shopping centres, railway stations and similar areas need to be targeted. If we are to believe the statistics, many people carry weapons. According to the statistics, 40 per cent. of young people carry weapons at some point during the day or in the evening and we need to take some action on that.

There is also a great need for more research on alcohol and drugs, and their role in violent crime. A phenomenon in my constituency would not be found everywhere, because it is located mainly in the Somalian community, and that is the use of a mild drug called khat. The police in my area report to me that the combination of khat and alcohol is leading to much greater levels of aggression among Somalian youth than they have seen in the past. That is a subject where more research could be carried out. The Minister may be able to comment on the fact that the Government have funded 15 local authorities to conduct research into gang culture in their communities.

I thank my hon. Friend for giving way on this point, and he is making a very significant speech on this issue. Does he agree that it is also important not to allow the media or anyone else to characterise the Somalian community and Somalian youths as intrinsically violent or drug-obsessed? Often, Somalian youths have suffered very bad discrimination and many of their families have suffered in war-torn Somalia. The Somalian community needs to be recognised and supported and, in particularly, we should recognise the role of the very strong Somalian community organisations that are doing their best to ensure that young Somalian people achieve something in their lives.

I endorse what my hon. Friend says about the strengths of the Somalian community organisations and about their work; that has certainly been my experience in my constituency. Also, I certainly agree that many young Somalians have been traumatised by their experiences back in Somalia, where there is a vicious, ongoing civil war.

I know that khat is not yet an illegal substance and that it is relatively new in this community. By itself, khat really is relatively harmless, but in combination with alcohol there is cause for concern. I hope that the Minister will look at that issue.

Fifteen local authorities have been funded to conduct research into gang culture. The one plea that I make to the Minister today is that that research programme should be extended to include other local authorities. Certainly, I make a strong case for my local authority to be included, as it needs to look at the gang culture locally and it requires the research materials to address that problem in the future.

We also need to take stronger preventive measures. I will not go into those measures as time is moving on, but we need to do more in our schools, pupil referral units and in the criminal justice system itself to divert our young people away from gangs and the gang culture that lead to the levels of violence that we now see.

We also need more comprehensive youth services and I shall touch on this issue briefly. I am not sure that the Minister will be able to respond to this point, but it is important to put it on the record. This process is not just about banging down on young people; we have a responsibility to them, too. In my view, in the past, we have not exercised that responsibility effectively and we need to look at what we are doing in terms of providing youth services. Since 2000, local authorities have certainly been spending a lot more on dedicated youth services than they did before. However, the question still must be asked; are they doing anything like enough?

I could point to many examples of very good practice in my local area. The Edmonton Eagles boxing club is one example, but its work is repeated in karate, judo and other such clubs up and down the country. They do excellent work in diverting young people into sports activity. That activity gives them self-confidence and the ability to gain from the sport they undertake, and I hope that it will have a positive impact on their life.

Community theatre is another example of youth services. In my area, there is a local community theatre group called Ghetto Youth theatre. In fact, it has written, produced and performed a play about knife and gun culture in our community, and that play is taken out to schools and community centres across Enfield. It does a great job in getting the right messages across.

Of course, the Government have put a high priority on youth activities. I could go into detail about the £150 million that the Government have set aside related to their “Youth Matters” Green Paper. That money will be spent this year and next year, and much of it will go directly to young people to give them a voice in their local communities, which is all to the good.

In 2006, the Government laid a duty on local authorities to secure access for young people to “positive activities”. We are yet to see that programme bed down, but I must say that “positive activities” is a rather nebulous form of words in relation to the responsibilities of local authorities. The term should be better defined.

The Government have also recently introduced their 10-year youth strategy. Again sums of money are attached to that strategy, and I think it will be some £180 million in the next three years.

One could go on and on. Various sums have been provided. Indeed, even the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families announced an initiative on children’s play areas. I mention that because my local authority was fortunate enough to receive funding for that. We will get £2 million and some revenue support to provide play activities in the most deprived communities in my constituency. They will focus particularly on eight to 13-year-olds, but, of course, that is an important group. They will be coming up to the danger zone, if I can call it that, in which the attractions of gang and youth culture begin to take them away from the positive activities that we are trying to engender.

Many other funding schemes are available up and down the country. What we lack, and what I would like to lay on the table for discussion, is a comprehensive local youth service that reaches all the community, not one that involves our saying, as I often do when young people ask, “Where are the youth facilities?”, that there is a community centre two, three or four miles down the road. That is not an adequate response. I recognise that there would be a cost in delivering such a service, but it should be a Government aspiration. I shall quickly suggest some ways in which it could be provided.

First, the local authority should have a duty to draw up a youth strategy. Some years ago, the Government suggested a duty to draw up a homeless strategy. It has been successful, and most local authorities could have similar success if they were to draw up a youth strategy and try to deliver it to local young people.

Local authorities should also have a duty to engage with representatives of young people. We have set up various youth parliaments and organisations. They all exist on a shoestring, and three or four interested young people usually get involved. We need to be much more serious about hearing young people’s voices in all of this. We should be providing small grants for youth organisations. Rather than giving money to adults, professionals or the local authority, let us start giving some limited finance to young people themselves.

We need more community organisations, such as boxing clubs, judo clubs and community arts groups. They will engage young people on territory on which they can be engaged, and would deliver value for money for the Government. I hope that we would begin to see signs of reduced friction and tension in local communities and a reduction in violent crime as a consequence.

The appeal I make to the Minister is that we need the stick, but let us also have the carrot. In the long term, the carrot is much more important, although I understand the need to reassure communities that action is being taken. I hope that he will engage with the debate that is about to take place, and that Parliament and the Government working together can begin to address the real concerns up and down the country about violent crime in our communities.

rose—

Order. Before we continue, I wish to make two brief statements. I remind Members that the winding-up speeches must start no later than 10.30. Secondly, I compliment the hon. Member for Edmonton (Mr. Love) on refraining from straying into issues that are sub judice. It is important to observe the sub judice rule and not discuss matters that are before the courts.

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Edmonton (Mr. Love) on securing this debate, on the careful, thoughtful and intelligent way in which he introduced it, and on the positive messages in his contribution.

It is right that we should discuss knife crime and particularly its effect on young people. It is horrendous and awful, and disfigures communities. However, it is important to remember that young people are not all violent. They do not all carry knives or commit crimes. As my hon. Friend pointed out, they are actually more likely than older people or anyone else in society to be the victims of crime. Young people walking around often have a far greater sense of fear than adults do. I know young people in my constituency who are simply not prepared at night to walk down certain roads or even to cross certain roads because they feel that they would be in an area that is controlled by someone else. They feel that they are at risk. That is something within youth culture of which older people are almost oblivious—they simply do not notice that kind of thing. Many young people growing up in our big cities experience real fear, and we should have some consideration for that and concern about it.

We should also recognise that many young people, particularly teenagers, socialise on the streets. They hang around on the streets and chat to each other. Every teenager for ever has done that. There is nothing wrong with it; it is part of growing up, part of life. How many adults, when they see a group of teenagers standing around on a street corner, immediately have photo images running through their mind about knives, guns, drugs, violence and so on, and cross the road and walk away in fear? In reality, the danger to them is minimal. They ought to just walk by and say, “Hello, how are you doing?” The general approach should be to talk to people. It is a form of human interaction that goes a long way and has been around for a long time. It is possible for adults and teenagers to interact. I know that some people think that that is difficult, but it can actually be achieved. There needs to be a much more positive approach in society towards young people and their concerns, fears and hopes.

My hon. Friend described very well the tragedy of the five deaths from knife crimes in his constituency. Fortunately, I have not had as many in mine, but two young people have died from knife crime in the past year. I want to say a little about them. Their lives should be remembered, and the community response should be remembered and understood.

Last summer, a young boy, Martin Dinnegan, was walking home from a youth club. He came across a group of people and was stabbed to death on the street within five minutes’ walk of his home and within three minutes’ walk of the youth club that he had just left. An awful situation: a 14-year-old boy who was doing well at school, and who had a supportive family, great hopes for the future and a great life ahead of him.

Several things were interesting. First, because we now have safer neighbourhoods teams in London and the relationship between the local community and the police is much better than it used to be, a great deal of evidence was provided very quickly. That assisted the police in making arrests. I compare that case, which is before the courts and therefore sub judice, with the stabbing of a young Somali boy in my constituency five years ago. There was much less co-operation with the police because there was not the same relationship with them. That is an important thing to remember.

The response of the community was also interesting. There were two church services. One was a service of peace at St. Mellitus church, led by Father David Ardagh-Walter, which was about peace in the community. It was followed by a peace march attended by 2,000 people. They marched down the road, and, after a period of silence, messages were given by the local police commander, the Mayor and myself to the assembled crowd.

The response in the community was good, and we have had a series of meetings since then to talk about knife crime, punishment, understanding, and building and providing a much better youth service. The role of Martin Dinnegan’s family and his parents, Jim and Lorraine Dinnegan, has been fantastic in trying to build good community relations, even though it is unbearable to think of losing a 14-year-old son in those or any other circumstances.

An even more recent tragic stabbing was that of a young man called Nassirudeen Osawe, who was walking through the Angel in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Islington, South and Finsbury (Emily Thornberry), although he and his family lived in mine, when he was stabbed to death for no apparent reason or motive. The case is now before the courts and various people have been apprehended as a result. Nassirudeen, a young boy who lost his life, was, tragically and ironically, from the same school as Martin Dinnegan, St Aloysius college in my constituency. He was a very promising and artistic youngster. This was yet another death. Another family is totally bereft, bereaved and uncomprehending of what has happened around them.

I attended the funeral of Nassirudeen, which was held at the East London mosque, and a large number of young people were there. Something poignant happened when they filed past the open coffin of Nassirudeen Osawe: they saw the reality of what happens when young people carry knives and are incapable of communicating with somebody else other than by the use of violence. The result was the tragic loss of this brilliant young man. It is an appalling tragedy. My heart goes out to his family. However, again, they are making a great contribution to the community and are doing their best to bring people together to try to create some sense of understanding of the dangers of violence in our society.

The activities that have happened locally as a result of those two deaths have, in some ways, been positive. There is increased co-operation with the police through the safer neighbourhoods team. I thank Commander Bob Carr of Islington police and his colleagues in particular for the work that they have done supporting all the community organisations and initiatives. I want Islington council to understand the need to invest more money in youth services and to welcome the initiative by the Mayor of London to improve and increase youth provisions and services all across London.

Young people growing up in our society are subject to many pressures, including the pressure to conform, and to the glamour of violence, knives and guns. They feel that a knife gives them protection. If young people are asked, “Why do you carry a knife?”—and many of them do—they say, “It is for my protection.” It should be pointed out to them that it is more likely that they will be killed by their own knife if they get involved in a fight: somebody will take it from them and they might well end up being the victim of their own knife. We have to get a message across to them that carrying a knife is dangerous and is going to result in somebody getting hurt and possibly dying as a result of that.

The debate is also about the degree of violence that young people in particular are subjected to through television and in the media all the time. Violence is glamourised; the idea is that someone is big, powerful and strong if they kill somebody in war, a fight or a gang brawl. We need to promote the idea of community, peace, understanding and reconciliation between people.

We must also look at the way in which people live in inner-city areas. My hon. Friend the Member for Edmonton mentioned the perceptions of gang culture around the place. In some ways, a gang can be quite benign: it can be a group of young people, who do not necessarily mean violence or harm, getting together and simply calling themselves a gang. There are plenty of hooray Henrys in Oxford and the public schools who form gangs of all sorts, but they are not seen as threatening. [Interruption.] I do not wish to name names on this occasion, because this is an important debate.

Some people might call the Bullingdon club a gang.

They might, indeed. It is a small gang—

An affluent gang.

Yes.

We have to say to young people that there is no harm in socialisation. As youngsters, I am sure that all hon. Members hung around with a crowd of people that would, these days, be called a gang—it was just a crowd of people we hung around with and went out with or whatever else. We have to recognise that. However, we must also recognise that in the inner-city areas represented by those of us contributing to this debate—four of the hon. Members speaking today have adjoining constituencies in north London—housing is part of the problem. A teenager growing up in my constituency, or those of my neighbours and colleagues, who is sharing a small, crowded flat and has to share his bedroom with one or two siblings of a similar age or even much older does not have space to socialise. They cannot bring their friends home or have them stay over; they cannot do any of things that everyone wants young people to be able to do, because there is simply no space. So they are forced to socialise outside whether they want to or not. Obviously, I do not want to stop people socialising outside, but we need to recognise that housing is part of the problem.

I agree with the hon. Gentleman. I have raised that issue often in evidence to planning committees. Does he think that there is a need to look at the minimum requirement for space standards, which are impossible and build in problems for the future?

I agree; they do build in space problems for the future. In a former life I was councillor in the hon. Lady’s constituency and chaired various committees. I recall doing a study on Chettle Court—she will know the place well—which is a large block of flats built in the late 1960s, early ‘70s. We studied the costs of not providing community space and of providing small flats, and the additional costs over the next 30 years in relation to social work, special youth provision and special centres, and so on. We are building problems for the future by not building good quality homes today. It is so important that we improve the space standards and that, instead of every planning decision revolving around one and two-bedroomed flats, particularly in inner London, we consider the need for family sized accommodation and family homes.

My hon. Friend the Member for Edmonton and I were Haringey councillors in the 1970s and ‘80s. I recall with great pride that we finally achieved the point at which no families were being housed in tower blocks and every new property was a home with a garden. That did not last long because the Tory Government came along and took the money away. However, we achieved a huge amount there. We should work towards that aspiration.

I shall conclude because I want to ensure that my hon. Friend the Member for Hackney, North and Stoke Newington (Ms Abbott) gets to speak. This is an important debate and an important subject. I say yes to youth provisions, yes to understanding young people and yes to punishment for those who knowingly carry knives with intent and who use them with intent, because I have no sympathy whatsoever for those people. But when we put young people into detention, whether it is Feltham or any other institution, I do not want them to come out in four, five or however many years later—having committed some horrendous crime—as brutal people ready to commit another crime. We must have a criminal justice system that arrests, apprehends, prosecutes and, if necessary, imprisons people, but we should encourage them to come out as better people than when they went in, rather than create the universities of crime that so many of our penal institutions have become. There is a huge debate and a huge issue here. Avoiding the debate will not solve the problem. Having the debate and meeting the needs of young people will do some good in that direction.

I am glad to have the opportunity to contribute to a debate on teenage knife crime, because it is such a huge issue for my constituents in Hackney.

Knife crime in England and Wales is, in some ways, young persons’ crime. It is an issue in Hackney because Hackney is a young borough. Under-18s comprise a quarter of our population and we have all the indices of poverty and deprivation: 60 per cent. of my people live in social housing and we are consistently in the top 10 in the country in respect of the unemployment rate. Unemployment hits young people particularly.

One of the characteristics of inner London is that terrible poverty and often shockingly high levels of deprivation, as some colleagues from outside London would acknowledge, go cheek by jowl with great wealth. It is not unusual in Hackney for Victorian or Georgian squares with houses worth £1 million to be next to estates that are still sinks of grim poverty, despite the money that the Government have spent on refurbishing them. When I see some of the savagery of the crime on London’s streets, there is a sense—this is not an excuse—of two nations living side by side in mutual incomprehension.

The other issue in Hackney relating to teenage knife and gun crime is the number of young people who fall through the education net. A former director general of the prison service, Martin Narey, said that on the day that a child is expelled from school, we might as well give them a date and time to turn up at prison. The route from educational failure and exclusion to life on the streets, gang culture, knives, crime and prison is direct. I do not expect the Minister to respond to the education and youth service issues that I want to raise, but provision for that must be interlinked with a long-term strategy to deal with the problem of knives and guns.

In Hackney in 2007-08, knife crime fell by 23 per cent., but my constituents do not believe that, particularly at election time. One issue with knife and gun crime is that the perception of crime is as much a problem as the level of crime. I could not walk through Stoke Newington and convince people that knife crime has fallen by 23 per cent., but it has. However, no matter how low the level of knife crime, it is still too high, particularly because it is a young person’s crime. We have had two fatal stabbings in Hackney so far this year.

Although 10 to 17-year-olds make up only 11 per cent. of Hackney’s population, they are responsible for 28 per cent. of reported crime. Why are young people carrying knives? I have been to schools and youth clubs and asked them why, and have tried to counsel individual young people who are brought to see me by their mothers, and they say that they carry knives to protect themselves. One simple thing that we could do is to go into schools and make them understand that carrying a knife does not protect them, but puts them more at risk, not least because it is a random weapon. A slip of the wrist or of the weapon and what was intended to frighten someone can end in murder.

Politicians have a tendency, and the media more so, to demonise young people involved in street culture, but we must remember that some—I am the parent of a 16-year-old— if not all of them, are quite frightened. They may look scary strutting along with their hoods and glaring menacingly, but they are frightened, and as much as we want to relieve the middle-aged, middle-class electorate from fear, we should consider how we can relieve young people from the fear that causes them to cling to their gangs. For many of them, the gang is their family because of family breakdown in inner cities. Young people who would once have found role models as apprentices in manufacturing industry now find their role models in street gangs. It is no coincidence that some of the centres of gang and gun crime—Brent, Hackney and parts of south London—were centres of manufacturing industry 20 years ago. As manufacturing industry and the possibility of employment for unskilled and semi-skilled males has declined, we have seen the rise of criminality almost filling that vacuum.

I want to stress that some young people, scary as they may look to us, are frightened. I had occasion to take issue with the Home Secretary, who is a wonderful Home Secretary in many ways, for saying that she would be frightened to walk the streets of London. I insisted that middle-aged ladies like me and the Home Secretary are perfectly safe on London’s streets. The people who are genuinely at risk are people of my son’s age.

I live on a street in Dalston in Hackney. At one end is the London Fields gang and at the other is the Holly street gang. I remember some young people at the Holly street end saying that there is nothing to do and when I said that there is a sports centre and a new lido at London Fields park, they replied that they did not dare to walk to that end of the street because it would take them into another gang’s territory. Those areas are less than quarter of a mile apart, and those young people live in fear.

I congratulate the Government on their legislative programme covering gun and knife crime. The Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006 raised the legal age for buying a knife from 16 to 18. That was important. It made it illegal to use others to hide or carry a knife intended for unlawful use. It increased the maximum sentence for carrying a weapon in public from two to four years. It allowed teachers to search pupils if they thought that they might be carrying weapons. The Knives Act 1997 prohibited the marketing of knives in a way that suggests that they could be used for combat. It is illegal to carry a knife in public without good reason or lawful excuse, and the stop and search laws mean that the police can stop people if they believe that they are likely to be carrying knives.

I welcome the Government’s legislative changes, and I am not against increased sentencing, which is what people called for, but ultimately it is not legislation, or even doubling or tripling sentences that will make a difference. One thing that will make a difference for both knife and gun crime is certainty of prosecution, so for some time I have tried to stress to Ministers not just the sentencing framework, but the protection that we give to witnesses and the extent to which we build confidence in the community. In many ways, knife crime is like gun crime. In those small networks of young people, it is no secret who has committed the offence, but they are often too terrified to come forward and to be witnesses.

Like my hon. Friend the Member for Edmonton (Mr. Love), I believe that although legislation and law enforcement must be the short-term answer, particularly because we want to build confidence in our communities, we must consider youth services. I have been an MP long enough to have seen during the 1990s the collapse of the youth service as local authorities such as mine came under financial pressure. It was a non-statutory service, so it was easy to cut. A project here and a project there, however lovely, with short-term funding that has to spend the first 12 months setting itself up and the final 12 months looking for other funding to replace its term-limited funding, is no substitute for a stable youth service that knows its community and whose youth workers are out on estates and streets engaging with young people and bringing them to the services and facilities.

Does my hon. Friend agree that it would be helpful if there were a statutory requirement for a youth service which was clearly defined with ring-fenced funding accordingly?

If we are talking about joined-up government and are concerned about knife and gun crime, the Government should consider making a youth service a statutory provision. It is precisely because it was not statutory that it collapsed in Hackney. It was replaced with many different little projects, but a patchwork of projects with time-limited funding is not the same as a stable youth service that can offer continuity and personal relationships with young people and communities going forward.

As with so many things, education is at the heart of the matter. Young people who become involved in knife and gun crime have almost invariably fallen through the education net. We must focus on educational underachievement, especially of young black men and Asian men. The idea has always been that a colour-blind approach is helpful when talking about deprivation and so on, but what has happened is that despite the money that has been pumped into schools in London and so on, young black men and some recent young male asylum seekers remain at the bottom of the education pile. Starved of any opportunity for self-esteem and pride in themselves within formal education, they look for that self-esteem and pride in the negative culture of the world of gangs.

This is a serious problem. Sadly, people’s fear and perception of the prevalence of the problem is greater than the figures, but that does not mean that we do not have to deal with people’s fears and reassure them. The Government have done a lot through legislation and there may be more that they can do. We need to consider the long-term strategic issues on the provision of youth service and education.

I congratulate the hon. Member for Edmonton (Mr. Love) on securing such an important debate. So far, I have not disagreed with anything that has been said—there is a lot of sense in this room.

Like all MPs, I dread getting a phone call from the police; one knows that it will be bad news and that there will have been an incident. In December 2006, I received a call—not one of the worst that I have received—about 60 to 80 youths rampaging up Lordship lane, which resulted in a number of stabbings. Mercifully, none of the stabbings was serious in the sense that none was fatal, but the fact that that is happening must be of concern to hon. Members from all parties. Such violence has spread way beyond the areas where one would traditionally expect there to be trouble; the problem goes right across my constituency of Hornsey and Wood Green, from the wealthy, leafy side to wards with some of the highest levels of deprivation in the country. The fear is the same across all of those areas and some of the incidents are the same, too.

As a Liberal Democrat, I believe that our approach should be the three Ps: prevent, protect and punish. I agree with the hon. Member for Hackney, North and Stoke Newington (Ms Abbott) that education should be at the highest end of the spectrum of issues. Some good initiatives are taking place. For example, during anti-crime week, I visited Woodside high school, which is a big secondary that faces many challenges. Everyone worked together: the police, the young people, and a theatre group—the Comedy Store, which did a role model play. Once young people talk openly, it becomes clear that they are petrified. The event at Woodside was a bit difficult at first and the first half hour went a bit slowly because having police in the room is not necessarily the natural environment for people to express openly who is carrying and who is not. Nevertheless, as the morning progressed, the fears came out and, above all, young people said, “Well, I carry because I’m scared not to. If I knew that there were not knives on the streets, I would not need to carry a knife.” I think that that set the task that we faced.

Other hon. Members have also mentioned that it is helpful to communicate about the issue through drama, and in the case I mentioned that was done through the Comedy Store. Police and politicians talking to people is good and engaging, but the role model play made it clear—I watched the performance and thought it was fantastic—that if someone carries a knife, there are two outcomes. The first outcome is that the person carrying a knife may end up injured or dead, and as the hon. Member for Islington, North (Jeremy Corbyn) said, that could be a result of their own knife. The second outcome is that they will end up with a custodial sentence, which will ruin their life just as surely as anything else. The role model play was a good way of getting that message across.

Having a police officer in each school can be a good measure—we certainly have experience of that in Haringey—but it can depend on the police officer and how far they engage with the young people. At Woodside, the police did a lot of good work. I am concerned, and perhaps the Minister will address this, that the Government are not doing enough in terms of funding. The Connected fund supports community-based work to tackle gun, gang and knife crime and has been providing grants. In the Home Office’s most recent report the fund is feted as a flagship of Government effort to educate, engage, and dissuade young people from carrying knives. However, the last round of grant application finished in May 2007 and I do not know what further work is being done or what is happening in relation to that. Will the Minister elaborate on the current state of the fund and say when and if the next round of grants will come forward?

As hon. Members have said, prevention is definitely about investing in youth services. In Haringey, our youth service has been decimated, and those involved have almost an impossible task. Yet it is crucial to get into the communities and work with the young people who need that kind of attention. In autumn 2007, a MORI survey on youth crime commissioned by the Youth Justice Board showed that 43 per cent. of young people think that their peers commit crime because of boredom. We should listen to young people and to do that we need to invest in them. The issue is not just about banning violent computer games or censorship; it is about giving people pathways, aspiration, hope, and care and attention. Banning things often makes them more glamorous.

We need modern heroes who are both cool and positive for young people to aspire to—the role models who go around the schools have not always been that. Sports facilities and somewhere for young people to hang out are also important, as hon. Members have said. However, that does mean the yesteryear thing of a church hall with a table tennis table, which has limited attraction.

Probably zero attraction.

Or, as the hon. Gentleman said, zero attraction. Young people need somewhere to hang out; in fact, a commercial enterprise has opened a non-alcoholic pub that is incredibly successful. I do not know where that is, so if anyone knows, I would appreciate it if they could tell me. When I visit schools, the sixth formers all say that they want somewhere to hang out so they can be warm. They do not particularly like being out on the street when it is freezing, and there are ideas to deal with that that could be utilised, such as having non-alcoholic pubs.

Sports facilities are important, but unfortunately even in Haringey, £32,000 to develop youth sport will not go a very long way. We need to devote the funding to the need. In terms of prevention, most of all, young people need someone who cares about them when they come home, and when they are at school. Young people also need someone who cares about their achievements and what they are doing and someone who knows when they are getting into trouble. Ideally, of course, that should be a parent, but it can be any adult. Quite often the sports coaches at New River sports centre take on youngsters and encourage them to become coaches. They take an interest in an individual young person and that makes the young person want to do well and to achieve. Such schemes turn lives around and many of the volunteer coaches from that sports centre go on to have careers. Such things are really important.

As has been said, protection relates to the issue of fear. When I met Haringey youth council and youth parliament, young people said that fear of crime is their number one issue and that they are afraid because they are vulnerable to others carrying knives. Young people also think that carrying a knife gives them status. As the hon. Member for Islington, North said, if someone comes from a deprived area they might not have much, but with a knife they feel like a big guy and can say to themselves, “If I can show that I’m a man, who’s going to diss me now?” We have to show that that is not the case. Some kids do not even realise that plunging a knife into someone’s leg can be fatal; they do not necessarily know that there is an artery there that can kill someone because they think the leg area is not the same as the chest.

On action to get knives off the street, yes, random arches are good at stations, but I worry that they are of limited use in schools where there is a real problem because the knives would not be taken into school. But, random use outside nightclubs is good. Intelligent stop and search should be used because at the moment it does not target carrying and barely picks up on knives. As the hon. Member for Hackney, North and Stoke Newington said, we need information from the community. The community knows who carries a knife and if it trusts, it will share that information. The police can then stop the relevant person. If we can remove knives from the streets, kids will not feel the need to carry them, and if that confidence is there, the intelligence will be forthcoming. The knife amnesties that bring in 90,000 knives are great, but there is not a corresponding drop in knife crime. We need to think about how those things are working.

Will the Minister give the prosecution rate for young people carrying knives? In the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006 I argued for longer sentences—the third of the three-piece punishments—and we have to send out a message on that. However, I have been unable to obtain the figures on how many young people who carry knives are prosecuted and what sentences they receive. More to the point, just arresting people, particularly young people, and putting them in prison will not help to change behaviour, and changing behaviour must be the goal of any punishment, penal system or messages that we send. We are here to help young people on to good pathways and into good lives, not to harm them permanently. We owe it to our young people to ensure that we keep the focus on all those strategies.

I congratulate the hon. Member for Edmonton (Mr. Love) on securing the debate, as it is very timely. His contribution was serious, sober and touched on a number of extremely important points that lie behind not only knife crime, but the crimes of violence that affect too many of our communities.

It is telling that the hon. Gentleman highlighted the five victims in his constituency, the hon. Member for Islington, North (Jeremy Corbyn) highlighted the two victims that there have been in his area in the past year and the hon. Member for Hackney, North and Stoke Newington (Ms Abbott) highlighted the two fatal stabbings in her community. These crimes touch many different people. Let us not forget that all the people involved were brothers, sisters, sons, daughters and friends. They have all left loved ones behind, and that loss has a continuing impact on the close relations and friends who are touched by these appalling incidents. The hon. Member for Edmonton summarised very clearly the sense of trauma that the incidents have engendered in his area. When we read the record of the debate, we will read the testimony that he offered from two of his constituents on their experiences, feelings and real sense of fear. That was extremely moving and highlighted extremely well the personal impact that these crimes have on so many people.

It is important to stress that although all the contributions thus far in the debate have centred on London—apart from the Minister, all those present are London Members—the issue does not only touch London. Many other cities, communities and areas are touched by the impact of knife crime and crimes of violence.

The hon. Member for Islington, North highlighted some of the intergenerational aspects of the issue, which I believe are very important. Young and old do not necessarily mix as well as they should do. Research bears that out: young people in this country spend more time with their peers as opposed to their families than young people in any other country in Europe. That is a fundamental issue. The fragmentation that we see in our communities and societies lies behind some of the factors and features that are, sadly, displayed on our streets in the violence that takes place.

Another issue is housing and people having a sense of space. We need to ensure that people have decent homes. High-rise living has an impact, in that it does not engender a sense of belonging, of community, of ownership. I fear that the mistakes of the 1960s are likely to be made all over again as a result of some of the applications that have been continuing to come through in recent months.

The hon. Member for Hackney, North and Stoke Newington highlighted education. Education provides hope, aspiration, self-worth, confidence and a deliberate career plan. One of the problems with the gang culture is that some organised criminal gangs target the most vulnerable members of society. They use lack of opportunity as a means to take young people down an alternative career path involving drugs and violence. They actively try to undermine the social pressures and social norms of family that usually take people down a very different path to a very different life outcome. We need to focus on education in trying to combat some of the themes underlying the debate.

The hon. Member for Hornsey and Wood Green (Lynne Featherstone) talked about listening to the voices of young people. I could not agree more. It is extremely important to restate that young people are most likely to be the victims of crime, rather than the perpetrators. We must ensure that we listen to their voices and their fears, hopes and aspirations because, sadly, too many of them are falling victim to these pernicious offences and live in fear of going out into their communities. We have heard many such stories this morning.

The number of homicides in which sharp instruments such as a knife are used has increased by 40 per cent. since 1997, with 185 killings in 2006-07. More than 230 violent crimes involving a knife are committed every day. One of the most disturbing aspects of that rise, and the reason why today’s debate is so prescient, is that both the victims and the perpetrators of these appalling crimes are becoming younger and younger. In a study conducted for Hampshire police, one in five 15-year-olds said that they had carried a knife at some point.

According to research on the views of young people conducted recently by the children’s charity NCH, which was referred to, 63 per cent. of respondents said that a main reason why they thought that young people got involved in gun and knife crime was to protect themselves. The NCH report notes that

“becoming a victim of crime, particularly violent crime, is a real fear for children and young people growing up in the UK today.”

Should that be surprising when infants, toddlers and children are exposed to violence at an extremely young age? I am very disturbed by research coming out about the number of very young children—children under the age of 10—who are exposed to violence. A study by Cardiff university showed that the number of under-10s attending accident and emergency departments as a result of crimes involving a violent attack had almost doubled in the past year. What path are we setting young people on if, at the very start of their lives, rather than receiving support, nurturing and protection, they are becoming victims of violent offending?

The risk is that, for some young people, that desensitisation to violence can lead to the use of extreme violence becoming an accepted social behaviour. That risk is heightened by social and economic deprivation, family breakdown, lack of values and structures, under-achievement in schools and poor job prospects, leading to involvement in the drugs trade, with territorial rivalries between gangs seeking to exercise control over their areas through the use of violence.

In evidence to the Select Committee on Home Affairs, Superintendent Leroy Logan, deputy borough commander of Hackney police, warned of an increase in “postcode violence” driven by the “paranoid misguided loyalties” of young people who feel threatened by the presence of strangers in their area.

Prevention through education, which has been advocated, will work only if young people’s experience of being in their communities is not one of risk and danger. That is why policing and enforcement are an essential element in combating this serious problem, and that is where the Government have failed by not providing any deterrent, with just two people out of 6,000 convicted of carrying a blade in a public place receiving the maximum sentence. Detection is not leading to meaningful detention and sanction. Also important is the continued failure by the Government even to recognise that crimes against young people exist, with under-16s excluded from the British crime survey. Just thinking about change in that respect is not good enough—the Government need to make the change.

However, even when the Government do implement measures, they are not monitored properly. For example, new powers were introduced to screen pupils randomly using metal detectors in October 2006, with a right for schools to carry out searches of pupils suspected of carrying a weapon since May 2007. A parliamentary answer that I received on 17 March shows that there is no monitoring and no collection of information on screening, searches or the number of weapons recovered. That is despite the fact that having a bladed article on school premises is an offence under the Criminal Justice Act 1988 and despite the fact that the Government are supposed to be collecting information to inform policy making in this important area.

Knife crime among teenagers is a complex issue, and time does not allow me to deal with a number of the causes or solutions. The key, however, is its impact on our communities. The Government are often quick to legislate but slow to enforce. We do not have that luxury on this most serious of issues. Too many young lives are being blighted by knife crime. Too many young people continue to carry weapons—and too many people continue to get away with it.

Taking action is different from talking about action. Cutting crime means curbing the causes of crime, and delivering change involves more than delivering plans. The question is whether the Government recognise that, and whether they really will bear down on this appalling crime, which affects too many people every year.

It is a pleasure, Mr. O’Hara, to serve under your chairmanship. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Edmonton (Mr. Love) on securing this debate, and on setting the tone of our discussions. He has obviously done a lot of work on the subject. I know that knife crime greatly affects his constituency. Indeed, it has affected him not only as a constituency Member but as an individual. Knife crime affects us all.

The important thing to have come out of this debate is the realisation that too often debates on crime are a caricature; one is either a hanger and flogger, or one is a wishy-washy liberal. I thought that most contributions to the debate showed the futility of that argument and its ridiculous nature. Clearly, if someone is running around stabbing people, we need others to stop it. We need the police to respond in an appropriate way, as they do, and to bring it to an end.

Tough enforcement of the law in our communities is essential; it is part of what is going on. I have not heard anyone suggest otherwise today, but the debate is often caricatured by whether or not one is a tough enforcer. Frankly, no one with a half-decent sense of the issue would say that enforcement does not play an important role. However, enforcement alone will not solve the problem. Alongside it, we need other things to happen—diverting young people, preventing crime, tackling poverty and inequality, and the other issues mentioned today.

Let us lay the matter to rest. We should try, once and for all, to lay aside that sterile debate. As far as I can see, we have a sense of unity today; it is about putting all those things together. One without the other will fail. The important thing is how to bring those factors together. That is the first important point of principle.

The second is this. We all meet large numbers of young people. Last week I met a lot of young people from NCH—the charity recently published a report on tackling violent crime—and I discussed the problem with them and dealt with a series of questions. They and all the other young people that I meet in my constituency and across the country do not believe us when we say this, so I say it again and hope that it will be picked up: the vast majority of our young people are decent and law-abiding, growing up in difficult times. They do not break the law, they do not go around stabbing people, they do not commit violence, and they do not threaten elderly people. In fact, huge numbers of them help others in caring roles and in many other voluntary ways.

We should say so and be proud of the fact. There should be as much publicity and comment about them as there is about the small number who cause such immense problems in our communities—and not to those who are most scared, namely the elderly, but to young people. It is they who demand that we do more to tackle the problem because, by and large, it is they who are the victims of such crime. I say that with some passion because although it has been said here this morning and it is repeated in many other forums in Parliament, it is rarely commented upon. That almost creates a sense of despair among our young people.

I turn to some of the specific points raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Edmonton. He and the hon. Member for Hornchurch (James Brokenshire) spoke about including under-16s in the British crime survey. We are considering whether to take that forward. I understand that under-16s can be charged with possession offences, an issue raised by my hon. Friend, the hon. Member for Hornchurch and others.

I met Assistant Commissioner Alf Hitchcock, the spokesman on knife crime for the Association of Chief Police Officers, and discussed the need to ensure that the courts have the right guidelines. Guidelines on possession offences may not be necessary for first offences if there are no aggravating factors, but they need to be sufficiently clear for the courts to know that we regard possession as a serious offence and that they should deal with it appropriately. As my hon. Friend knows, we have increased the maximum sentence available to the courts, which they can use if they wish.

On the question of arches and wands, we made a statement a few weeks ago in which we outlined a starting point of 350 wands, 8 arches, but we hope to extend and expand the number. On CAT scanners, my hon. Friend will know from the drugs strategy that we are considering that question. We want to do some research on the matter because there are differing views about the way forward. We want to know whether there is a particular problem that needs to be addressed through CAT. If it appears that we need to take matters forward, we will, but a comment in the drugs strategy document says that we recently considered the subject.

My hon. Friend the Member for Islington, North (Jeremy Corbyn) spoke not only about neighbourhood policing but about broader social issues. I agree with him. As I said earlier, tackling the problem is not only about enforcement. There are housing issues, and we need to ensure that every young person has opportunity. We should not concentrate only on the bright academic young people in our communities; we need to ensure that all young people have opportunity. I am encouraged by some of the statements that the Government are now making on the importance of vocational education, and ensuring that those who can do with their hands are regarded as being equally important as those who do with their brains. That would be an important step forward.

I also agree with what my hon. Friend said about rehabilitation in prison. People sometimes have to be locked up, but the idea that we should throw away the key is not appropriate in a civilised society. We need to ensure that, as far as possible, people do not re-offend after leaving prison.

I agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Hackney, North and Stoke Newington (Ms Abbott) about the importance of schools.

I thank my hon. Friend for dealing with specific issues. One of the common themes that has come out in the debate is the need for a comprehensive youth service. I know that that is not my hon. Friend’s responsibility, but I ask him for two things. First, the subject goes across all Departments, so we need joined-up government for youth provision at a local level. Secondly, will my hon. Friend take what has been said here to those Ministers responsible for youth provision, and ensure that they understand what we mean?

My notes say that I should next respond generally to the fact that the hon. Members for Hornchurch and for Hornsey and Wood Green (Lynne Featherstone) and my hon. Friends all spoke about the importance of schools and of youth services.

I shall do what my hon. Friend the Member for Edmonton asks. I know that the Department for Children, Schools and Families is investing significant sums in youth services. We need to work in a joined-up way. I will talk to ministerial colleagues and write to my hon. Friend about our discussions, and I shall copy that response to the other Members here today.

We are going to take tough enforcement action. We are taking action on prevention and diversion. We are also considering communication. In a few weeks’s time, there will be a new advertising campaign. The hon. Members for Hornsey and Wood Green and for Hornchurch and others spoke of listening to young people. We developed our advertising campaign with young people; it is about getting across the message that carrying a knife can increase the chance of being a victim of knife crime. It will be launched in a few weeks’ time.

The weekend before last, a group of young people came together to develop the work needed in that respect. We hope that it continues make a difference, alongside the other things that are being done.