By Ben Kerrigan-
Sadiq Khan has criticised UK ministers for starving critical youth services of necessary funds, as knife crimes eat away the lives of Britain’s young people. He also called for more knife detectors in school.
Mr. Khan said real-terms funding cuts to youth services, community groups, education, probation and the police since the 2010 general election had “reversed decades of progress in tackling the root causes of violent offending”
“I am doing everything I can to tackle this scourge in our communities. Keeping the country safe should be the Government’s priority too, and it is time ministers stopped shirking this responsibility,” he said.
The number of teenagers murdered in 2017 was the highest since 2008. with stabbings and a spike and acid attacks on the rise too.
Violent offenses have risen by 19 percent in England and Wales in the past year, and by 3 percent in London.
Khan also slammed the “botched” partial privatization of probation services, the ongoing prisons crisis, and “scandalous” re-offending rates.
The Labour Mayor called on ministers to prioritize youth services, community work, mental health, probation and prisons to address the causes of crime
Knife Wands
The London Mayor also encouraged more London schools to accept his offer of receiving a ‘knife wand’ paid for by City Hall.
The London Mayor ‘s proposal is in response to the spate of knife crimes in the capital that has seen the lives of several teenagers snuffed away over knife crime. Four murders between new year’s eve and new year’s day underlined the seriousness of knife crime in London.
A letter has been sent by Sophie Linden, deputy mayor for policing and crime, offering schools a wand if they want one to prevent students from bringing knives into class.
Khan also slammed the “botched” partial privatization of probation services, the ongoing prisons crisis, and “scandalous” re-offending rates.
The Labour Mayor called on ministers to prioritize youth services, community work, mental health, probation and prisons to address the causes of crime.
“On this Government’s watch, these critical services have been allowed to deteriorate and starved of funding and we are now paying a heavy price,” Mr. Khan said.
“I am doing everything I can to tackle this scourge in our communities. Keeping the country safe should be the Government’s priority too, and it is time ministers stopped shirking this responsibility.”
KNIFE STRATEGY
Khan launched a new knife crime strategy in June, with an extra £625,000 injected into knife and gang crime projects taking. In total £7 million has been put into anti-knife projects. Sadiq Khan has also increased the number of safer schools officers, who are police officers who are a regular presence on school premises.
He has also made £250,000 of seed funding available to local communities to fund work with young people preventing and protecting them from knife crime.