Gangs and Youth Violence

Steve McCabe Excerpts

Tuesday 1st November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

I think I have answered the point about resources several times now.

[Steve McCabe (Birmingham, Selly Oak) (Lab)]

The Met has said that gang association is one of the most difficult things to prove evidentially. How will the Home Secretary be confident that those who benefit from all the incentives that she is offering people to give up gang membership are genuinely gang members and not just the dispossessed who have had all other avenues closed down and have to claim to be gang members to get some help?

[Mrs May]

As I said, we are working with ACPO in particular to map incidence of gangs and gang memberships. Obviously at local level that will rely on information that is available to the police and other agencies. We are focusing not just on gang membership but on gang and youth violence. So in some areas work will be undertaken on a broader remit than simply looking at gang members.