A knife crime education campaign which has seen knife carrying reduce by 35 per cent during a pilot in Inverclyde is to be rolled out to six new areas in Scotland, the SNP’s Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill has announced….
Earlier this year, Mr MacAskill announced a doubling of funding for the No Knives, Better Lives campaign after new figures showed a second area supported by the initiative – Renfrewshire – had reported a 29 per cent fall in knife carrying during the period of the scheme.
Mr MacAskill has now announced that the initiative will be rolled out to six new areas in Scotland – South Lanarkshire, North Lanarkshire, South-East Glasgow, West Edinburgh, East Ayrshire and North Ayrshire – in an effort to replicate similar success in these key areas in the ongoing fight against knife crime.
The No Knives, Better Lives initiative was launched in 2009 and has been working with a range of local partners to educate young people about the dangers and consequences of carrying knives.
The Justice Secretary also announced today that a fresh push of activity will begin in existing areas of Inverclyde, North Edinburgh, Clackmannanshire, Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire.
Mr MacAskill said: "There is a culture of knife crime in parts of Scotland which stretches back decades and too many communities continue to be blighted by the scourge of knives.
"The Scottish Government, our police forces, local law enforcement agencies and community organisations are united in a shared aim of tackling knife crime wherever and whenever it occurs.
"The key to tackling knife crime is a combination of tough enforcement on the streets, backed by early intervention and education.
"Latest statistics show this approach is working with the number of people caught carrying an offensive weapon down to its lowest level in a decade, the number of people killed as a result of a knife down 39 per cent this year, and those caught carrying a knife in Scotland now being punished through the longest prison sentences in a decade.
"However, there will be no let up in our efforts as every knife incident is one too many.
"There are no easy solutions but if we are to make a difference we need to tackle the root causes of knife crime as well as punish the offenders, and education is absolutely key. We need to get the message across to young people about the dangers and consequences of knives.
"The No Knives, Better Lives education campaign has been a real success during a pilot in Inverclyde with significant drops in the number of people carrying knives in the area.
"It is that combination of tough enforcement, backed by education, which is having a real impact on the ground and that is why I’ve doubled the funding of this important education initiative to allow us to roll out the tactics used to six new key areas and fund a fresh push of activity in existing areas.
"No Knives, Better Lives is achieving impressive results, and more young people are getting the message that carrying a knife is not worth the risk."
The No Knives, Better Lives initiative was launched in 2009 and in partnership with the national Violence Reduction Unit, Young Scot, YouthLink Scotland, and the Scottish Youth Parliament, has been working to educate young people about the dangers and consequences of carrying knives.
A range of tactics such as hard-hitting talks in schools, targeted advertising in areas where young people are known to congregrate, diversionary activities, youth work interventions, and most recently the beaming of anti-knife messages on to the mobile phones owned of young people have led to significant reductions in knife carrying.
The Scottish Government spent £500,000 on the No Knives, Better Lives initiative over two years between April 2009 and March 2011. The Justice Secretary announced that a further £500,000 funding will be spent this year (2011-12) to continue the momentum in each of the six existing NKBL areas as well as rolling the initiative out to new areas.
Latest figures from Strathclyde police suggest there has been a 29 per cent reduction of knife carrying in the Renfrewshire area between April 2010 and January 2011. The same period has also seen a record high for stop and search procedures carried out by Strathclyde Police with over 21,000 searches conducted in Renfrewshire.
