Whilst the shadow policing minister welcomes the government’s pledge to remove zombie-style weapons from streets, he says that combatting knife crime is not just a matter for the police. Instead, Alex Norris says Labour would focus on building a youth programme to support young people at risk of being drawn into violence. Report by Covellm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00 Well, we welcome the crackdown on zombie knives.
00:03 I mean, it's been announced 16 times previously,
00:06 so we actually want to see it happen this time.
00:08 We have concerns that beyond what the government have said
00:11 they're going to do, there are gaps in it, for particular knives
00:13 with certain serrations and for particular weapons
00:16 of certain lengths.
00:17 So we will be trying to improve them,
00:19 but of course we want to see this happen.
00:21 We know that those who sell and create these weapons change
00:25 what they do in order to get around the law,
00:26 in order to be attractive products to buy.
00:28 We have to keep up with that pace.
00:30 At the moment, we're not doing that.
00:31 So we'll be pushing the government hard
00:33 to include the things that seem to have been missed out
00:36 from that legislation.
00:37 This isn't solely a police matter.
00:39 We know the police have a really important role in terms
00:41 of detecting those who are carrying knives.
00:43 I think people would be really surprised to hear
00:46 that in 50% of cases where someone is caught carrying
00:48 a knife, no further action is taken.
00:51 What we want to see and what our commitment is,
00:53 is that every young person who's caught carrying a knife
00:55 will be referred to the youth offending team.
00:57 So that's separate for the police, who are there
00:59 to help young people change their behaviours
01:01 and change their lives.
01:02 We want to see that happen for everyone
01:03 so that there can be those proper plans and support
01:05 in place to change their lives and behaviours.
01:07 And there'll be less demand on the police in the future.
01:10 So we think that's the right kind of multi-agency way