Knife Crime
Debate between Dawn Butler and Will Stone(3 days, 13 hours ago)
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Will Stone
I thank my hon. Friend for sharing a personal part of his life. I absolutely agree that that measure will help. It is the first step, but we need to go further. As I have said, knife crime is devastating. Although I agree that the Government can always do more, I will praise their Crime and Policing Bill for providing new powers to seize and destroy weapons; introducing tougher sentences for online sales; getting zombie knives off our streets; and introducing new offences of possessing weapons with intent to use. Once again, I thank the hon. Member for Ashfield for bringing forward this debate.
Dawn Butler (Brent East) (Lab)
We all have stories. In my constituency, we used to have quite a number of knife crimes, but the early intervention and violent crime reduction unit that the Mayor has put in place has helped to reduce that and young people in pupil referral units are also mentored and looked after. Does my hon. Friend agree that we cannot just look at the end stage? As people did in Scotland, we have to look at a public health approach to how we combat knife crime in our country.
Will Stone
I absolutely agree. I know that my hon. Friend is an active supporter of trying to reduce knife crime and has done fantastic work in her constituency.
I am incredibly proud of what the Government are doing, but we need to do more. I want to give one more shout-out to Owen’s World for the fantastic work that it does and to Change Lives No to Knives. I look forward to hearing the Minister’s response and hearing from everyone else in the Chamber.