KNIFE CRIME SOARS WITH 28 STABBINGS A WEEK ACROSS THE NORTH WEST

11.28.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 10th Aug 2009

Mark Alcock, Parliamentary Spokesperson for Oldham West & Royton inc Chadderton today warned of an "epidemic" of knife crime in the North West after new figures showed a substantial increase in arrests, prosecutions and hospital admissions for knife-related incidents.

The new figures show:

914 people were convicted in the North West for carrying a knife in 2007 (the last year figures were available), almost double the 511 people convicted in 2000.

7,198 people have been stabbed in the North West in the last five years.

2,529 people were treated for stab wounds caused by a knife, sword or dagger, including 367 children.

4,669 people were treated for injuries caused by assault with a sharp object.

On average there are 28 stabbings per week across the region.

There has been a 52.8% increase in the number of children treated for stab wounds since 2002.

Only Greater London has a higher rate of hospital admissions for stab wounds than the North West.

The annual number of arrests made by Police Officers in the North West for possession of an offensive weapon*, had shot up by more than 600, to 1,730 from 1,118 five years ago. A third of these arrests took place in Greater Manchester. Now Mark is calling for action to tackle this escalating problem. Now Mark is calling for more visible policing and early intervention in schools to tackle this escalating problem.

Mark Alcock said:

"Ministers have been telling us that crime is falling, yet their own figures show that more people are being arrested for carrying knives, and more people are ending up in hospital having been attacked with knives.

"We are locked in a vicious circle where teenagers don't feel safe on our streets, so more of them carry a knife, which just fuels the spiral of knife crime.

"One of the keys to stopping knife crime is to increase the chance of getting caught. The best way of achieving this is through intelligence-led stop and search, more intensive and visible policing of hotspots - and by putting more police officers on our streets. The government should scrap the pointless ID cards scheme and use the money to put more Bobbies on the beat across Oldham Borough and Greater Manchester.

"But that won't solve the problem entirely. We need to teach children from an early age that carrying a knife is wrong, and actually makes you less safe. Talking about the risks of knife crime should be on the school curriculum the same as talking about the dangers of drugs, or the problem of bullying - and it should start in primary school.

"Labour and the Tories need to understand that we have to start doing what works to get the job done, not knee jerk headline grabbing tabloid headlines."