28 STAB VICTIMS EACH WEEK IN THE NORTH WEST

10.30.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 19th May 2009

28 stab victims end up in hospital across the North West each week, figures released by Hazel Grove MP Andrew Stunell show. Now the Lib Dems are calling for action to tackle Britain's knife crime culture.

Research carried out by the Liberal Democrats has shown that:

• 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, amounting to 10 stabbings per week.

• 4,669 people were treated for injuries caused by assault with a sharp object, amounting to 18 per week.

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

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

Last month, Andrew Stunell revealed that the annual number of arrests made by Greater Manchester Police for possession of an offensive weapon had shot up by more than 600, to 1,730 from 1,118 five years ago, an increase of just over half, underlining the extent of the knife crime problem in the region.

Commenting, Andrew Stunell said:

"These figures are dreadful, and the appalling fact that over 7,000 people have been stabbed in the last five years demonstrates the scale of the Britain's knife crime culture.

"A succession of Home Secretaries has talked about being tough on crime, and tough on the causes of crime. In reality, they've been weak on both, and their approach to dealing with knife crime in particular has been a spectacular failure.

"Ministers tell us that crime is falling, but these figures show that in the North West, serious attacks using weapons and requiring hospital treatment are on the rise.

"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.

"The way ahead has to be more targeted stop and search in crime hot spots, a sustained campaign in schools, and an increase in the likelihood of being caught. Instead of spending billions on unworkable and unnecessary ID cards, the government should spend the money on actually making people safer by putting more police on our streets."

ENDS