Child Refugees: Age Checks

Angela Crawley Excerpts

Friday 21st October 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Goodwill]

We are working very closely with the French Government, and where resources are needed we are ensuring that we can help wherever we can. My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary has met her opposite number on a number of occasions. We are working very closely with the French. It is in our common interests to ensure that the camp is cleared—not just because of the people there, but because of the pull factor that it has for people who may be thinking about making the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean.

[Angela Crawley (Lanark and Hamilton East) (SNP)]

I welcome the measured approach that the Minister has taken in his response and seriously question the integrity of the hon. Member on the Back Benches who had the audacity to question the statistically—

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

Order. The hon. Lady should not question the hon. Gentleman’s integrity. We all have integrity in this House, and we are not going to change that. Minister, do you want to pick something out of that?

Rights of EU Nationals

Angela Crawley Excerpts

Wednesday 19th October 2016 Commons Chamber

[Joanna Cherry]

I could not have put it better or more succinctly. I am very grateful to the right hon. Gentleman.

I mentioned earlier the phenomenon of the rise in hate crime across England and Wales since the referendum. Home Office statistics published just over a week ago show that hate crimes have soared by 41% in England and Wales. I suggest that this is a symptom of the negative and xenophobic rhetoric used by some—not all—in the lead-up to the referendum. This has had a major effect in legitimising hate crime on the part of a small but violent and vocal minority.

Many of us were very concerned about some of the rhetoric that came out of the Conservative and Unionist party conference in Birmingham the other week. This is not just a concern of the SNP. Concern has also been raised by other Members and by international human rights bodies. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights and the Council of Europe’s European Commission against Racism and Intolerance have all expressed concern about the spike in hate crime in England and Wales.

[Angela Crawley (Lanark and Hamilton East) (SNP)]

Does my hon. and learned Friend agree that this situation requires leadership and a Prime Minister who will advocate in the best interests of every single individual in this country, EU national or otherwise? Will she share with me support for the First Minister’s statement on inclusivity and the need for leadership in this debate?

Online Child Abuse

Angela Crawley Excerpts

Wednesday 20th July 2016 Westminster Hall

[Angela Crawley (Lanark and Hamilton East) (SNP)]

I welcome you to your post, Mrs Moon, and I welcome the Minister and the shadow Minister to theirs. It is excellent to see strong and confident women in those positions and I am sure they will take their challenges and responsibilities seriously. I congratulate the hon. Member for Rotherham (Sarah Champion) on securing the debate on an issue that she has worked and campaigned tirelessly on, not least through her work on Dare2Care. It is fair to say she has gone above and beyond her public duty to tackle this issue. She takes it incredibly seriously, which I am sure all hon. Members in the Chamber also do.

This is a broad debate. Online abuse covers any type that happens on the web. We have already heard about the role of social networks, messenger services, chatrooms, playing online and mobile phones. Anecdotally, as one of the younger Members in the Chamber, I received my first mobile phone at the age of 13. It was a Nokia 2210, on which someone could play snake or push their luck by texting home and asking if they could stay out late.

That was what mobiles meant to me and my generation but times have certainly changed, with 24/7 social media online. I cannot even keep up with the current trend of Pokémon Go, and I am obviously too busy to play it. Through social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, online abuse is a new and growing phenomenon. With the increasing use of the internet across the UK and the world, and with the advent of smartphones, our young people are now more vulnerable than ever before, and traditional understanding of child abuse has been deepened and compounded by that fact.

At this point, it is important to recall the words of the hon. Member for Rotherham and many others who have contributed to the debate highlighting the instances of bullying, in particular of the LGBT community; the rates of suicide and self-harm, which cannot and must not be ignored; the influences of apps, games and other online devices; and the role and increasing accessibility of online pornography. It is fair to say that this is a very different world from the one I started in, and future generations will come into a very different world still, so our resilience, understanding and approach are absolutely vital.

The right hon. Member for Basingstoke (Mrs Miller) —I have the honour of serving on the Committee of which she is the Chairwoman—highlighted the need for protections in the design and build of apps. The hon. Member for Dwyfor Meirionnydd (Liz Saville Roberts)—I hope she forgives me for terribly pronouncing the name of her constituency—highlighted the need for databases, but how many instances go unrecorded? The hon. Member for Sheffield, Heeley (Louise Haigh) highlighted the role of dating apps and the potential for fake profiles. The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) recognised with his always measured and reasonable approach the need to strike a balance, and the need for all of us to work collaboratively across devolved nations and reserved competencies to ensure we tackle the issues head on, and that we do not underestimate the challenges we face.

Children, as we have heard, experience cyberbullying, grooming, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation and emotional abuse through devices and services that have become integral parts of their social lives. We need to look only at the Channel 4 documentary “Cyberbully”. “Game of Thrones” star Maisie Williams highlighted to me and to many parents out there the challenges and difficulties that young people face simply by sitting in front of a PC, laptop or mobile phone. In this day and age, the internet gives abusers unprecedented access to children and the ability to contact them at any time, day or night. It erodes traditional safe spaces. Children can be at risk of online abuse from both strangers and people they know.

The NSPCC has outlined some of the difficulties for children facing online abuse. Children will often not tell anyone about online abuse because they feel guilty or ashamed. When they would like to tell someone, they often do not know who to go to, and many will not even realise they are being abused. According to Ofcom, one in five eight to 11-year-olds and seven in 10 12 to 15-year-olds have social media profiles. The number of children who are at risk is increasing and we must do more to safeguard them.

The scale of the problem has not been pinned down by any definitive or official figures. The fact is that we simply do not know the scale of the problem, but that does not mean we cannot put protections in place to tackle it. In 2014, studies found that one in four children between the ages of 11 and 16 had experienced upsetting or abusive language online while on social networks, and one in three children had been the victim of cyberbullying. Youth engagement organisations such as DoSomething.org suggest that nearly 43% of children have been bullied online. More worryingly, in 2015 the Internet Watch Foundation identified 68,000 websites containing child abuse images.

If we dispense with the statistics for a moment, it is fair to say that we do not yet know the full scale of this issue, but we know we must do more to tackle it. It is hard to underestimate the work that must be done and is already being done by many charitable organisations to tackle child abuse. The information and statistics supplied by the NSPCC and other charities and organisations are up to date and highly informative in dealing with abuse.

I want to highlight the work of the Scottish Government—I say this not to be political, but simply to enhance the debate. Since 2009, online safety has been monitored by the Scottish Government-led stakeholder group on child internet safety, which has made a number of recommendations. In recent years—as early as 2014—those recommendations resulted in a refresh of national guidance and child protection policies. Recent developments such as the national action plan for tackling sexual exploitation and the cyber-resilience strategy outline that Scotland takes this issue incredibly seriously. The Scottish National party condemns all instances of online abuse and welcomes any efforts to strengthen legislation in order to tackle it. The Scottish Government firmly believe that online abuse is unacceptable. Scotland’s anti-bullying services—

[Mrs Madeleine Moon (in the Chair)]

Order. The hon. Lady is eating into the Minister’s time. Can she bring her remarks to a conclusion? She has had more than her allotted five minutes.

[Angela Crawley]

Forgive me, Mrs Moon. I will close by simply saying that, to tackle this problem and the scale of it, we must collaborate and co-operate with one another.

Hate Crime

Angela Crawley Excerpts

Wednesday 29th June 2016 Commons Chamber

[Angela Crawley (Lanark and Hamilton East) (SNP)]

May I associate myself with the comments of hon. Members across the House, and offer my sincere condolences to those affected by the tragic incident in Istanbul?

Reports of a huge increase in racist abuse since the EU referendum are concerning, abhorrent and unacceptable, and we have witnessed a 57% rise in xenophobic attacks in the past week. In the wake of the particularly vicious and anti-immigrant rhetoric of the EU referendum, it has been forgotten that those people are our friends and neighbours, and positive contributors to our society. Refugees are people who have come here simply to make better of their lives and those of their children. Depictions of “swarms” or “waves” of immigrants are dangerous, incorrect, and wrong. The SNP rejects the tone and rhetoric of the debate on immigration during the lead-up to the referendum. Instead, we believe that immigration is essential for the strength of our economy and our cultural fabric.

Tolerance, respect and inclusion are the values and principles that we must foster in a modern and inclusive society, and we are working towards encouraging those values in Scotland. Will the UK Government get a grip and show some leadership, follow the example of the First Minister of Scotland and the Mayor of London, and make a statement that speaks directly to citizens of other European countries who are living here, to tell them that they remain welcome, that the UK is their home, and that their contributions are valued?

[Karen Bradley]

I truly believe that the vast majority of people who voted last week, no matter which way they voted, did so for the right reasons, and I am sure that that majority will be horrified by the deeds of some who claim that they are acting in their name—they simply are not; it is abhorrent and despicable. The Government will do everything we can to ensure that hate crime reporting increases and that hate crimes are properly and appropriately investigated, so that victims get the support they need. The hon. Lady asked about people living in this country, and I will repeat my earlier point: there is no change to the immigration status of anybody in this country, and I for one welcome people who are here to contribute to and be part of our society, and who share my values and want to be part of this country.

Independent Advocates for Trafficked Children

Angela Crawley Excerpts

Tuesday 28th June 2016 Westminster Hall

[Angela Crawley (Lanark and Hamilton East) (SNP)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Streeter. I congratulate the right hon. Member for Slough (Fiona Mactaggart), who has been an advocate of this issue for many years. This important issue is vital to children, so I do not intend to be political in my contribution today. I intend to enhance the debate and contribute some of the thoughts from Scotland. I want to make it clear that this issue affects vulnerable children and young people.

The issue is fundamentally important because children are at immediate risk of further harm and exploitation. The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children highlights several reasons why children are recruited, moved or transported. These include benefit fraud; forced marriage; domestic servitude such as cleaning, childcare or cooking; forced labour in factories or agriculture; and criminal activity such as pickpocketing, begging, transporting drugs, working in cannabis farms, selling pirated DVDs and petty bag theft. In this range of small, medium and large crimes, children are exploited. They have no advocate to make a case for them and the exploitation that they suffer on a daily basis is absolutely the reason why we must have this debate today.

Trafficked children experience multiple forms of abuse and neglect, including physical, sexual and emotional violence, which is often used to control trafficked children. We are therefore today giving a voice to those children who have been silenced in this process through the absence of the necessary advocacy that is vital to their needs. The right hon. Member for Slough has done a great deal of work on this issue already through her work on the all-party parliamentary group, and I commend her for that.

As the right hon. Lady has highlighted, the National Crime Agency has already identified 982 cases of child trafficking in 2015, as I am sure the Minister is well aware. That is an increase of 46% from 2014. We could on the one hand link this to the refugee crisis, but that would be too crude. The simple fact is that we know this issue is escalating and ultimately we know that we must respond to it. That picture of child trafficking should surely be enough to convince the Minister that victims are desperately in need of independent advocates—people whose role it is to understand what is going on and to represent and support children believed to be the victims of trafficking. That gives those vulnerable children a voice through the care, immigration and criminal justice systems. We understand all too well that, even for adults, those are bureaucratic and lengthy processes and not something that any child should ever have to contend with.

The need for those vital services has already been recognised by Parliament in the Modern Slavery Act 2015 in a section that received widespread cross-party support, so I am sure I am not telling the Minister anything that she does not already know. That led to the child trafficking advocates pilot project, which is provided by Barnardo’s and funded by the Home Office. However, following an independent evaluation of the pilot scheme, the Government have not acted to make independent child trafficking advocates available across England and Wales. That must be done to ensure that young people and children receive the support that they vitally need. I support the calls from various charities, including Barnardo’s, Christian Aid, UNICEF and many others, which were outlined in a letter to The Guardian.

The EU directive on preventing and combating trafficking in human beings highlights the necessity for England and Wales to extend the pilot, which is especially important now. I do not want to labour the current situation around the EU referendum, but we must ultimately accept that we continue to have a responsibility and that these measures to ensure independent advocates for unaccompanied victims of trafficking have come on the back of an EU directive. The failure to appoint an independent guardian with sufficient legal powers means that the UK is currently non-compliant with the EU directive. Again, I do not say that to be political. I say it simply to state the case: measures to stop trafficking cannot be allowed to fail or fall short of international standards. It is therefore important that the Minister ensures that future revisions of the scheme will adhere to international best practice and guidelines. I urge the Government to commence section 48 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and establish a permanent independent advocacy provision as soon as possible.

Turning to Scotland, on which I like to think I have something to contribute, I highlight the work that has been done in Scotland as one model that could be followed by England and Wales. The Scottish Government have made a solid commitment to make provision for independent child trafficking guardians for eligible children. That is part of a wider project to make Scotland a hostile place to trafficking, where it is very clear that child trafficking is not welcome, and to better identify and support potential and confirmed victims. As a result, needless to say, Scotland’s provisions outstrip England and Wales at this time, but that does not mean that England and Wales cannot catch up, and I urge them to do so.

New legislation introduced by the Scottish Government last year—the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015—will protect those subjected to these terrible crimes while punishing those who commit them. The maximum penalty for trafficking was increased from 14 years, as it is in England and Wales, to life imprisonment—a statement of how seriously Scotland takes this.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Karen Bradley)]

The Modern Slavery Act, when it was introduced and commenced in July last year, increased the maximum sentence to life imprisonment for all trafficking offences.

[Angela Crawley]

I thank the Minister for that intervention. I should have added “as it is in England and Wales” after “life imprisonment”, just to be absolutely clear. Scotland has sent out a message that trafficking will not be tolerated under any circumstances and I urge the UK to do that also. That legislation also underpins the need for independent advocates. It places a duty to ensure protections by making independent child trafficking guardians available and requiring statutory referrals to be made by people who are in a position to do so. Scotland’s law enforcement agencies therefore have greater powers to bring those responsible to justice.

I mentioned previously how abhorrent child trafficking is and I think we all share that thought. That approach must be considered for application across the UK to end those practices. I am sure the Minister shares our collective concerns. She has proven always to be reasoned and thorough in her responses, so I therefore simply urge her not to delay further on section 48 of the Modern Slavery Act and to establish a permanent independent advocate without further delay. Lastly, to echo the beautiful words of the right hon. Member for Slough, “every child needs their person”.

Orlando Attack: UK Security Measures

Angela Crawley Excerpts

Monday 13th June 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

I can give the reassurance again that the police will, of course, be making very careful assessments of security issues relating to events in particular, but also venues, for people from the LGBT community. Obviously, if any specific action is necessary, they will take that action.

The Secretary of State for Education was present earlier, and will have heard some of the questions that have been asked. She is also the Minister for Women and Equalities and I know that she takes her responsibility for equalities very seriously. I used to have that responsibility myself, and I can assure the hon. Lady that in considering issues relating to those who wish to divide our communities and sow hatred, we work very closely with the Department for Education.

[Angela Crawley (Lanark and Hamilton East) (SNP)]

May I associate myself with the Home Secretary’s comments and those of other Members? As an out and proud gay woman, I know that the atrocities in Orlando were directed at members of the LGBT community—my community; our communities. This act of clear homophobic hate crime in Orlando must be challenged. It is a stark reminder of the prejudice and discrimination that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people continue to face. It serves to remind us how far we have come, and how far we still have to go. Does the Home Secretary agree that we must make every effort to challenge all forms of homophobic hate crime, and must agree that #loveislove?

[Mrs May]

I entirely agree with the comments that the hon. Lady has put on the record. I think it important for all of us to take that message out and about, and for the whole House to make it clear that, as she has said, we absolutely condemn this sort of hatred.

Oral Answers to Questions

Angela Crawley Excerpts

Monday 13th June 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Mark Garnier. Not here. [Interruption.] I have no idea about the whereabouts of the chappie, but we must move on.

[Angela Crawley (Lanark and Hamilton East) (SNP)]

6. What steps her Department is taking to accelerate the family reunification process for unaccompanied children in Europe with family in the UK.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Refugees (Richard Harrington)]

Ministers and senior officials have formally opened consultations with Greece, Italy and France to identify and transfer to the UK unaccompanied refugee children where it is in their best interests. We are also consulting local authorities, non-governmental organisations and UNHCR. In addition, we have worked with France to improve the operation of the Dublin family reunification process.

[Angela Crawley]

May I associate myself with the comments of the Home Secretary and other hon. Members on the homophobic, hate-based atrocity that has taken place in Orlando this week?

International Red Cross has stated its concern for children in Dunkirk. It has highlighted the length of the asylum process, the lack of official information and the domination of smugglers as factors that prevent the Dublin system from even getting off the ground. What progress is being made in overcoming these challenges to ensure that children are swiftly reunited with family in the UK?

[Richard Harrington]

I can assure the hon. Lady that we are doing all we can to get children in the asylum system and, once they are in the system, to make sure the procedure happens as quickly as possible. We are having regular meetings with the relevant NGOs, including quite a big one on Thursday, to find out how we can speed this up. The records show that the system is operating much faster and with many more numbers than in 2015, and we are doing our absolute best to speed it up as much as we can.

Unaccompanied Children

Angela Crawley Excerpts

Tuesday 19th April 2016 Westminster Hall

[Angela Crawley (Lanark and Hamilton East) (SNP)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Vaz. I thank the hon. Member for Enfield, Southgate (Mr Burrowes) for securing this important debate. Given the dramatic rise in the number of children travelling through Europe in recent years, it is impossible to remove emotion from the debate. Too often, too many children are left unaccounted for and unrecognised in a system that focuses on bureaucracy, timing and filling in forms, and fails to remember that these are children and they are our responsibility. As a result of the ongoing crisis in Syria—sadly, in no way unique or the first of its kind—too many children are facing perilous journeys. Last month, while I was in Calais, I spoke to volunteers from Help Refugees. Both Annie and Maddie spoke of the utterly horrifying fact that too many children aged as young as nine are climbing into trucks, trying to get to the border and being sent back. One child, Hasan, had taken 15 perilous journeys. He had attempted to cross the border and been sent back. However, today he will reach the UK and he will be reunited with his family. That is a good story, but that is only one good story in the face of so many stories of children who may or may not make it.

I spoke to a mother who had put her two young children aged two and seven on the back of a truck in the hope that they would make it to the UK. I do not know whether they did. She will never know where those children are. This is the emotion of the debate and the reality. We do not know where those children are and that is the reality that we must face.

Save the Children, living up to its name, has put pressure on the Government to resettle the 3,000 unaccompanied children already in Europe. That is a responsibility that we in the UK must take seriously, and we must step up to the plate. However, as the hon. Member for Bury St Edmunds (Jo Churchill) said, in order to protect children we need to know where they are. That is vital. If I drive one point home in this debate, it is that there are too many children whose whereabouts we do not know; we do not know where they are going and we do not know where they will end up. That is not good enough.

The standard of care that we know they will receive when they get to the UK will be exceptional. It will be top class and delivered by some of the best local authorities across the UK in Scotland, England, Wales and elsewhere. Funding local government to deliver the services is absolutely vital. The stark reality is that three times more teenagers are deported than the Home Office previously admitted, which highlights that this bureaucratic process is still penalising people and creating an arbitrary line in the sand between what is a child and what is not a child. This is not good enough.

I will leave this point with the Government. I echo the sentiments of timeliness and the need to protect. The Government are failing children. We can always do more, so let us step up to the plate and do that.

Policing and Crime Bill

Angela Crawley Excerpts

Monday 7th March 2016 Commons Chamber

[Angela Crawley (Lanark and Hamilton East) (SNP)]

I welcome the opportunity to speak in today’s debate and share the sentiments of the Secretary of State in recognising the 10-year anniversary of the events in Dunblane.

In Scotland, we have seen a record reduction in the number of crimes committed in the past 40 years, and violent crime is down by almost 50%. Crime risk is lower in Scotland than in the rest of the UK and the police budget will be protected in real terms, despite a 9% cut to Scotland’s budget. That has allowed additional support for a wide range of services, including community policing, specialist support for forensics services, tackling serious and organised crime, drug enforcement and counter-terrorism work. I will not be able to vote on much of what is contained in the Bill, yet it will have some impact on my constituents. In those parts that affect Scotland, the Government must do all they can to provide assurances and clarity.

Specifically, concerns have been raised about the immigration powers in the Bill. Article 33 of the refugee convention states:

“No Contracting State shall expel or return…a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened”.

That fundamental duty is one of the central pillars, if not the central pillar, of the refugee convention and the Government are bound by that duty as a matter of domestic and international law. It is therefore concerning that clauses 62 and 66 appear to give the Secretary of State power to require ships intercepted in UK water to be detained and sent to a port outside the UK. The charity Liberty is worried that that purports to give the Secretary of State powers to refoule refugees on any such boats by returning them to foreign ports.

Nothing in the proposals requires the Secretary of State or her enforcement officers to use those powers in a way that is compatible with the refugee convention and the work of the European Court of Human Rights. They must lawfully process and assess those people’s claims to asylum and determine whether they can be lawfully removed according to the Dublin regime. Nor can the Government use their enforcement powers to identify alleged breaches of the UK’s immigration law to impose penalties or bar refugees from making asylum claims on that basis. I therefore ask the Minister to say unambiguously today that he intends to comply with the refugee convention and the European Court of Human Rights.

The SNP is supportive of the provisions in the Bill on firearms, but a number of elements may extend the competences of the Scottish Parliament and I ask the Minister to assure the House that he will work closely with the Scottish Government to ensure the problems do not arise and that consent motions are sought when required. In particular, I seek assurances from the Government that the provisions about lethal barrelled weapons do not impact on the Air Weapons and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2015. On that note, the provision in the Bill on fees could potentially extend the executive competence of Scottish Ministers and would therefore require a legislative consent motion.

Giving police the power to require arrested persons to state their nationality, applying to arrests for all offences, seems to go beyond the purpose of immigration. It will affect devolved powers on policing and the investigation of crime and therefore the UK Government must continue to engage with the Scottish Government on those powers. In Scotland, our police forces can already ask any person who is detained to provide details of their nationality, and those powers will be replicated in the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2016.

If passed, the Bill would represent a real change to the law in Scotland on police questioning on arrest and in custody. Currently, those arrested or detained must, when required, provide information about their nationality. Failure to do so constitutes an offence, the maximum penalty for which, as the law stands, is a fine. The Bill, however, would increase the maximum sentence in Scotland for failure to state nationality on arrest to both a 12-month term of imprisonment and a fine. It also introduces, again in Scotland, a power to require such a person to produce a nationality document, with the failure to do so constituted a new offence with the same maximum sentence. Such changes represent an important increase in the significance of such powers to any individual whose nationality is called into question on arrest. They could also implicate the devolution settlement and the Sewel convention since they concern devolved matters. I therefore urge the UK Government to engage with the Scottish Government on these provisions and to ensure that the powers will not undermine the wider police powers to ask questions on nationality.

Finally, it is imperative that any implications for Scotland of this legislation are scrutinised closely. Again, I urge the Minister to work closely with the Scottish Government to monitor any impact the Bill could have on the devolved Parliament.

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

I call James Morris.

Gangs and Serious Youth Violence

Angela Crawley Excerpts

Thursday 3rd March 2016 Commons Chamber

[Angela Crawley (Lanark and Hamilton East) (SNP)]

I thank the hon. Member for Streatham (Mr Umunna) for securing a debate on such an important subject, one that is rarely debated in this House.

The reality is that this problem is not specifically about gangs or young people. It is about violence and how we deal with that violence. Violence has a devastating impact on families, communities and young people. It does not affect young people exclusively, but it is their futures and their lives that hang in the balance and change absolutely while we debate this subject.

Despite the difficulty that comes with legislating to tackle the problem, it is through legislating and a variety of other measures that we can deal with this issue. Scotland recognised the need to tackle this issue and to take serious measures, in particular in areas of Glasgow where there were incidents of violence that were recurring, serious and in many cases severe.

[Natalie McGarry (Glasgow East) (Ind)]

The east end of Glasgow was once almost a byword for gang violence. Significant work, education and a cohesive approach has reduced violent crime, gang membership and weapons possession. I am sure my hon. Friend will join me in congratulating the Scottish Government and the Violence Reduction Unit, who have done sterling work to reduce gang violence in Glasgow. Does she agree that Members across the House could learn some valuable lessons from the work that has been done in Glasgow over the past decade?

[Angela Crawley]

I thank my hon. Friend for her point. I was intending to come on to Glasgow East later, but the project that took place there in 2008 was a response to the worst instance of gang violence that had ever occurred, which made Scotland, and particularly Glasgow, one of the worst places in western Europe for violence. The more than 600 gang members involved were presented with a choice—to use their experience to educate and train others, or face a zero-tolerance approach and possibly a prison sentence. Through this work and the ongoing commitment and support they received, remarkable results were witnessed. Violence was halved; weapon possession was down by 85%; and this group went on to establish a charity to create employment for other young people. So there are examples of where positive work can be done to reframe and re-approach the problem not just through legislation, but by working with young people to provide the support they require.

[Bob Stewart]

What was actually done to reduce the violence there? What happened on the streets to reduce it?

[Angela Crawley]

There are a number of projects, but this particular one focused on bringing the young people in, engaging them and providing them with opportunities to go on to further education or training. They continued to be supported throughout that process so that they could reach sustainable employment and other routes outwith the confines of the environment in which they had grown up and themselves experienced violence or been party to it.

This Government must recognise that where legislation is proving ineffective, they must consider changing course. Lessons must be learned from where we have been successful. I share the sentiments of the hon. Member for Streatham that young people have been given a bad name in this discussion and that more often than not we tarnish them with this reputation that makes them the perpetrators, without seeking to address the root causes of the problem, which many Members of all parties have addressed in their speeches.

I have listened to Members who have spoken of their constituents’ experience of violence and its impact on their lives, and of heart-breaking accounts from loved ones of lost years and lost lives. The hon. Member for Streatham spoke about the level of violence in London, but as has been repeated in the debate, the problem is not unique to one particular area or one particular city, so we must do more to address the problem as a matter of policy. Factors such as poverty, violence and drugs, and the rising incidence of violence against women in ghettos must be looked at in a far more holistic way to address some of those root problems.

Let me acknowledge that it was only 10 years ago, as I mentioned earlier, that Glasgow was named the murder capital of western Europe—something that the then Scottish Executive could not ignore. Despite the number of convictions, there remained a need to tackle the root of these serious problems. Scotland has been successful in reducing the number of incidents. The campaign “No Knives Better Lives” raises awareness and seeks to educate young people about the consequences of knife crime. This is one example of a measure that has contributed to success in reducing violence.

In my constituency in south Lanarkshire, a local community group established a drama workshop known as “The Street”, which has a real-life setting. It is produced by young people, many of whom have been involved in violence themselves, and it tackles issues of violence, knife crime and drug and alcohol abuse, as well as sexual violence. This message can be delivered by young people to young people in a hard-hitting way with a powerful impact, addressing the serious ramifications and consequences of actions occurring on a daily basis on the streets.

Under the stewardship of the former Scottish Justice Secretary, Kenny MacAskill, we focused on early intervention, improving life chances and the integration of the police within the community, working with young people. This resulted in a significant reduction of crime and violence. Let me declare that the incidence of violence continues on a daily basis, but we must continue to tackle these issues, which I hope the Government will take into consideration.