Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what control measures they are considering to monitor and curtail the movements and violent behaviour of some young men in large UK cities; and whether these measures include the introduction of identity cards.

On 9 April 2018, the Government published a new Serious Violence Strategy to take action to address serious violence and in particular the recent increases in knife crime, gun crime and homicide. The strategy outlines an ambitious programme of over 60 commitments and actions to tackle this issue. It establishes a new balance between prevention and the rigorous law enforcement activity. The strategy will shift our approach towards steering young people away from crime in the first place and put in place measures to tackle the root causes.

In 2010 the then Government decided to scrap the identity card scheme and the associated National Identity Register because it was expensive and represented a substantial erosion of civil liberties. This Government has no plans to revisit that decision.