NEW ANALYSIS: Knife Crime in Northumberland Up 185% since 2010/11 – as Labour introduces major crackdown

New analysis from Northumberland Labour reveals knife crime has soared a staggering 185% in Northumberland since the first year of the Conservative’s came to power.

But Labour is taking action – on knife crime, anti-social behaviour and a combatting a raft of crimes that will help Government deliver on its landmark mission to secure Safer Streets. The new Crime and Policing Bill, introduced today will:

•   Tougher action on knife crime, including creating a power to seize, retain and destroy bladed articles found on private property; increasing the maximum penalty for sale of dangerous weapons to under-18s; creating a new criminal offence of possessing a bladed article with the intent to cause harm

•   Tackling antisocial behaviour by giving the police and others stronger powers to tackle antisocial behaviour by introducing Respect Orders; removing the need for police to issue a warning before seizing vehicles, such as off-road bikes being used antisocially strengthening the use of existing antisocial behaviour powers. The bill also gives ministers the power to issue statutory guidance to councils in England on the enforcement of fly-tipping

•   Protecting retail workers by introducing a new offence of assaulting a retail worker, giving workers in shops up and down the country the protection they need

•   Protecting vulnerable children and adults by introducing a new offence of child criminal exploitation, alongside a civil preventative order designed to stop the abhorrent exploitation of children by criminals

•   Tackling child sexual abuse, including implementing recommendations from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

•   Tackling violence against women and girls by creating new offences criminalising the taking or recording of intimate images or videos without consent or a reasonable belief in consent

•   Giving police the powers they need, including creating a new targeted power for the police to enter premises to search for and seize electronically tracked stolen goods, ranging from mobile phones to stolen vehicles and agricultural machinery

Publishing the analysis, Northumberland Labour’s Leader Scott Dickinson MBE said,

“We all know that knife-crime, anti-social behaviour, theft, and a host of crimes Labour is cracking down on today blight communities and ruin lives.

“Here in Northumberland, knife crime has been allowed to rise too far and too fast – but Labour is taking action. Make no mistake – this is a major blitz on the crime and criminals that Labour was elected to take on.

“From today’s Crime and Policing Bill, to Labour’s plans to bring back neighbourhood policing, this country once again has a government that is serious about taking back out streets and town centres, restoring respect for law and order and giving the police the tools they need to do their jobs.”