Knife Violence
The next item of business is a members' business debate on motion S2M-5117, in the name of Andrew Welsh, on respect your life, not a knife. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament notes that 27 November 2006 is the sixth anniversary of the tragic death of 10-year-old Damilola Taylor, a young immigrant from Nigeria who moved to the United Kingdom with his sister and his mother, while his father stayed behind, in order to make better lives for themselves, and who three months later was murdered in London, England, on his way home from his local library; conveys its deepest sympathies to his surviving family and congratulates them on ensuring that this young man's legacy lives on in the Damilola Taylor Trust, a not-for-profit organisation that has launched a campaign to reduce knife violence by getting secondary schools to encourage students to sign a pledge wall stating that they will not carry weapons; agrees that the goals of the campaign, namely to commit young people not to carry weapons and to demonstrate to those who do that the majority of young people do not want to carry weapons, are both laudable and practical; congratulates local organisations in Scotland, such as the Community Alcohol Free Environment (CAFE Project) initiative in Angus and other local organisations that are trying to bring the campaign to Scotland, and considers that the Scottish Executive should offer its full assistance and support to encouraging the spread of this community-led initiative to schools throughout Scotland to spread the "Respect your Life, Not a Knife" message.
The purpose of my all-party motion on respect your life, not a knife is to highlight the co-operation between the Damilola Taylor Trust and the Angus community alcohol-free environment project in raising awareness of knife crime and encouraging active participation in schools and youth organisations. As Westminster member of Parliament for Angus, I remember meeting Damilola Taylor's parents in the House of Commons and their determination to ensure that good would come of this tragedy.
In memory of Damilola, we are asking every young person to sign a pledge promising not to carry a weapon. In a letter to headmasters, Richard Taylor said:
"My son died needlessly and painfully on a Peckham stairwell … I could not save my son, but my aim, with your support, is to save other young people's lives by asking them to join our pledge campaign.
I am asking all secondary schools to encourage their pupils to sign up to pledge walls stating that, in memory of Damilola, they will not carry a weapon (especially a knife).
A pledge wall achieves two aims:
Committing young people to their promise.
Showing the minority that the majority of young people will not carry weapons, especially knives, therefore it is safer to be in the majority."
In encouraging ownership by young people of their lives and actions, the Arbroath-based CAFE project is working closely with this Home Office-sponsored England and Wales campaign and bringing it to Scotland. Last month, the CAFE project team leaders and young people attended a special event in London to commemorate Damilola's life, which included presentations by convicted armed robbers and drug dealers warning young people against carrying knives as well as a four-hour exhibition session showcasing the CAFE project's own street games and special fair play rules.
I commend to members the pioneering work that is being done by the Angus CAFE project in partnership with integrated community schools, those working on the safe Angus for everyone initiative, Angus College and other local organisations. The street games pitch has been out five to six times a week, and every Angus town is covered—indeed, villages in Angus are now being reached. In the past five months, 1,249 boys and 233 girls, ranging from five-year-olds to 18-year-olds, have participated; local volunteers and community groups have also been involved. The CAFE project is a well-matched partner for the Damilola Taylor Trust work in encouraging young people to own their lives and actions.
The CAFE project seeks approval from Scottish local authorities to distribute anti-knife posters and brochures and a letter from Richard Taylor that encourages head teachers to make those materials available to all primary 6 and primary 7 classes and every secondary school. Under the supervision of school staff, young persons can add their signatures to classroom or school pledge walls, as well as their comments on why they are opposed to knife crimes. The posters and leaflets also support young people by telling them how to react to bullying, how to get out of being a member of a violent gang and how to contact the police confidentially for help. Two Scottish local authorities have already signed up to the campaign. I hope that the minister and all members of the Scottish Parliament will encourage their councils to play their part in making Scotland a safer place for our young people.
The initiative does not seek in any way to rival or replace other efforts; rather, it adds another positive dimension to those efforts. The campaign aims to encourage parliamentary and local initiatives. That aim dovetails perfectly with the Government's stated objective of tackling knife violence throughout Scotland. Recently, in announcing the knives: let's not scar another generation initiative, the Minister for Justice stated:
"We need to challenge the idea that knife carrying is acceptable or a normal."
That is the purpose of the respect life, not a knife campaign.
Violence and knife crimes are not a new phenomenon, nor are they a problem only in Scotland. Such problems exist throughout the world. Therefore, we can learn from best practice wherever we find it and—I hope—provide pioneering, positive projects that can inspire others.
Knife violence cannot be divorced from other problems that our society faces. We all know that there is a correlation between crime and poverty and a lack of opportunities. The battle to stop knife crime is part of the wider necessity to improve the lifestyles and life prospects of everyone in our society. We must succeed in that battle; the dangers of not doing so can be seen in cities such as Manchester, where there has already been an escalation from knives to guns. Urgent action is required in Scotland to ensure that that escalation never happens here. We must all share that task.
We must be open to ideas that can inform action in Scotland. The existence of the Scottish Parliament allows us to seek out developments from other jurisdictions, determine their worth and adapt them to Scottish needs. In that context, I congratulate the Angus CAFE project, which is run by, for and with Scotland's young people, on doing just that, with its street football, good conduct and alcohol and drug-free environment. The project is a perfect example of adapting best practice and a model that others can follow. It is still more than willing to learn from and adopt practices from other organisations.
I hope that the minister and all my parliamentary colleagues will help. We can make a real difference to young lives by implementing Government and local initiatives and through organisations working with Scotland's young people to give them hope for the future. We can offer them alternatives and positive lifestyles—that is what this debate is about. By working together, we can ensure that good comes out of the evil that was done to young Damilola Taylor.
Many of us can now take great heart from the circumstances surrounding the life and, ultimately and sadly, the death of Damilola Taylor. It is a great pity that a life had to be lost before so many ideas could be reconsidered and refocused. The Damilola Taylor Trust is doing a great deal of good in London and many other cities across England and Wales. It is important for the Parliament to welcome the fact that the CAFE project in Arbroath has taken the opportunity to align itself with the trust, take up its work and attempt to spread it throughout Scotland.
The CAFE project has been the subject of debates that Andrew Welsh has brought to the chamber in the past. It is important that I take the opportunity to praise the work that the project continues to do in a number of areas. In particular, I praise the devoted efforts of Norrie Stein, the chairman of the project, who continues to do unrivalled work in encouraging its development.
By taking up the respect your life, not a knife campaign, the CAFE project is serving the important function of making a campaign that was originally targeted at England and Wales a United Kingdom-wide campaign. As I have said in previous debates on the subject, every one of us has to accept responsibility for dealing with the issue. It is the responsibility of every individual to do what they can; whether we are parents, youth workers or people who work on a daily basis with young people in a school or project setting, we must always have at the front of our mind the need to deal with the potential issue of knife crime and the ways in which young people may, mistakenly, become involved in it.
As we all know, many young people in Scotland carry a knife for the wrong reason. Although we know—both statistically and anecdotally—that a young person is more likely to become a victim of knife crime if they carry a knife, for whatever reason, than if they do not carry one, many of them believe that carrying a knife gives them some kind of protection.
I commend the work of the CAFE project and the Damilola Taylor Trust. I hope that the debate will add to the campaign that must build across Scotland—among its politicians, parents and people alike—to fight the scourge of knife crime and ensure that such crime becomes a shrinking problem in Scotland's society.
I commend Andrew Welsh on bringing the debate to the chamber. Today marks the last debating day of 2006. Indeed, this time of the year is a relevant time at which to debate knife crime and crimes of violence. Tomorrow, I will visit the Borders general hospital to meet the staff of the accident and emergency department. Regrettably, when it comes to knife crime and crimes of violence, this time of year is one of their busiest.
There is no doubt that there is support across the chamber for the aims of the respect your life, not a knife campaign. Just a glance at the Damilola Taylor Trust website is enough to highlight the scale of the problem. The trust says:
"A knife crime is committed EVERY 25 MINUTES with four in five offenders aged between 12 and 20 and a third of victims aged between 10 and 17."
It goes on to say:
"A MORI survey for the Youth Justice Board found that 29% of secondary school children and 57% of excluded young people admitted that they had carried knives."
It asks why young people carry knives—that is a question that is also asked by Strathclyde police's violence reduction unit; I welcome the Scottish Executive's decision to make the unit a national body. In their responses, young people said that they carry knives as a way of acquiring status or respect; for self-protection; as a result of peer pressure; because knives are a fashion accessory; or in order to steal, harass or intimidate. The responses show the fundamental misconception among young people that knife wounds are not fatal; that it is not extremely dangerous to carry a knife; or that carrying a knife is in some way socially acceptable.
In Scotland, the picture is similar. For example, knife crime levels in pockets of Strathclyde are extremely alarming. Although it is fair to say that levels of violent crime and knife crime are stagnating and it is welcome that recent statistics for this year reveal that levels are lower than they were, on average, over the past five years, statistics that were released in March this year show that youngsters as young as eight years old have been caught with an offensive weapon by Scottish police. In the past year, more than 1,000 youngsters under the age of 15 have been reported to the children's panel for carrying knives, 150 of whom were under the age of 12.
Inspector Tom Halbert of the violence reduction unit said:
"it is a sad fact of life that in some areas, young people think it's acceptable to carry a knife or other offensive weapon."
The reasons that he gave for why they do so are similar to those provided by the research that was done for the Damilola Taylor Trust and include the social acceptability of the practice.
The issue is what can be done, both in criminal justice and in education. In that regard, the work that the trust is doing, as well as the work of the violence reduction unit, is extremely important. Neither body can be effective in isolation; both must be effective. The Parliament is working to change the law. We must do more in our schools and neighbourhoods, especially by involving young people directly in policy decisions.
I congratulate Andrew Welsh on securing the debate. I want to pick up on the general thread of the argument that was made by Andrew Welsh and Jeremy Purvis, which was that the help that the Damilola Taylor Trust is providing is part of the solution.
I begin by quoting from a study by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies. I admit that it was carried out in England and Wales, but the situation there is not so different from that in Scotland. The study says:
"Since it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to limit the availability of knives and knives are merely a tool used in violent crime, success in fighting knife usage will only come with success in dealing with the underlying causes of violence, fear and insecurity."
That issue has, in part, been addressed by the three members who have already spoken in the debate.
I turn to school bullying. The anti-bullying network has now been absorbed into the work of Scotland's commissioner for children and young people. I urge the Executive to provide extra funding to SCCYP for the explicit purpose of rolling out the anti-bullying strategies throughout Scotland, if that is possible. One of the causes of crime and violence among children is a feeling of insecurity, to which bullying is central. There is a surprising and unacceptable level of bullying in all schools in Scotland and it must be tackled.
Youth clubs throughout Scotland and initiatives such as the CAFE project that Andrew Welsh has mentioned still need more support for the work that they do. In addition, we must acknowledge that there have been enormous successes. For example, 1,600 young people were nominated for YoungEdinburgh awards. Only 2 per cent of young people get involved in crime and violent crime.
The increase in knife crime is probably the least acceptable and most worrying development that we face. We still need to examine the design of housing estates and the general availability of amenities. The worse the design of our buildings and streets and the fewer amenities there are, the greater the likelihood that there will be violence.
I will conclude by picking up on what Jeremy Purvis said about excluded young people being twice as likely to be involved in knife crime or to carry knives. There needs to be early intervention with young people who show obvious signs of being excluded at nursery school and primary school. The help and support that they need should be made available as soon as possible.
I thank Andrew Welsh for securing the debate, which I welcome. This is a good time of year to highlight the problem of knife violence, as Jeremy Purvis said. We should also consider the good practice that is going on. The Damilola Taylor Trust is a testament to Damilola Taylor's family and the campaign to reduce knife violence by working with pupils in schools is excellent.
Education is the key. However, we need to ensure that we do not preach to children and young people but instead convey the message about knife crime in a way to which they can relate. The respect your life, not a knife campaign and the pledge wall initiative give children and young people a meaningful role in the education process, which will help to gain their commitment. Such an approach could be incorporated into anti-bullying strategies. I agree with Robin Harper that there needs to be more investment and we need to up the ante on funding for the anti-bullying network.
Local councils have an important role to play. It is interesting that when Scotland's commissioner for children and young people consulted young people about issues that concern them, having things to do was top of the list. I received a letter from the CAFE project in Arbroath, in Andrew Welsh's area, which described the good activities and games in which it involves young people. The CAFE project provides an example of the good practice that we should encourage.
Peer-group pressure is part of the problem of knife carrying. As Jeremy Purvis said, another issue is that some young people think that they must carry a knife for their own protection. However, two lives are often ruined when someone is injured or loses their life, as a result of a person's naivety and lack of understanding of the implications of carrying a knife. I have said again and again that the key to ensuring that our children and young people can withstand peer pressure is to build up their self-confidence, self-esteem and sense of achievement. As I have said in many debates, we need more youth projects like the excellent CAFE project. We need more youth workers and more hands-on work with young people in our communities.
It is time to listen to young people. The children's commissioner is doing an excellent job to ascertain young people's feelings and views and we must take her findings on board. We need to provide much more funding to local authorities, to ensure that there are plenty of things to do—as the young people put it—so that we can engage young people in the education process, involve them in projects and ensure that their self-esteem, confidence and sense of achievement are high.
I congratulate Andrew Welsh on securing this important debate and on his powerful arguments on the key issues that have been identified in the debate. I thank him and other members for their speeches on a subject that concerns all members and people in communities throughout Scotland, who want peace and security for their families and neighbourhoods.
I join other members in expressing our deepest sympathies to the family of young Damilola Taylor, whose loss was a tragic waste of a young life. Those of us who are parents cannot begin to imagine the pain and grief that his parents feel. We admire them and congratulate them on their efforts to continue their son's legacy through the work of the Damilola Taylor Trust and the recently launched respect your life, not a knife campaign. This is not the first time that I have been struck by how families who suffer tragedies find the strength not only to determine the truth about and causes of the tragedy but to ensure that what happened to them will not happen to others—that is a phrase that families often use and one that I know that Damilola's family has used. I am in awe of the courage of Damilola's parents and of families throughout Scotland who, when touched by tragedy, decide that their experience will shape and improve the lives of everyone in Scotland.
We all know that knife crime has no place in our society. It is imperative that we all work together to tackle this blight on some of our communities. The Minister for Justice and I welcome members' continued support for the efforts that are being made to reduce knife crime in Scotland. We are under no illusions—real change will take time—but we have made significant progress in the past year and we will continue to take direct and effective action to tackle the problem head on. Serious violent crime is now at its lowest level since devolution. Recently published homicide figures for Scotland showed a substantial reduction in the number of people killed with a sharp instrument. We must not become complacent, although we have taken important steps in the continuing fight against knife crime and violence.
Members have identified issues that require action. A combination of approaches is required. It is essential to understand, as we do in talking about bullying that, although we have to deal with the causes and what motivates people to take such actions, we must also ensure that the young people who are victims have the confidence to come forward. Therefore, enforcement is important, although we also need to think about education and diversion activities. From talking to the children's commissioner, we know that young people identified having things to do as important, but they also identified safe streets as important. We cannot have good places for young people to go to in our communities if behaviour that involves facilities being trashed is not addressed.
Young people need their self-esteem bolstered, but one difficulty in some communities is that carrying a knife bolsters young people's self-esteem. We must challenge them to acknowledge that that is not an appropriate way in which to feel good about themselves. I was a schoolteacher in a previous life and I remember telling young boys that they faced the prospect of losing their lives over a territorial battle in an area that nobody furth of their very small part of Glasgow even knew anything about. I challenged them on the importance of such battles to them.
Together with the national violence reduction unit, we have made tackling knife crime a priority. Through the unit's safer Scotland anti-violence campaign, more than 12,500 weapons were surrendered during the first national knife amnesty. That was followed by two enforcement campaigns in July and November, which removed a further 1,500 weapons from our streets. Through the Police, Public Order and Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2006, we have taken steps to strengthen the law: we have doubled the maximum sentence for anyone who is caught carrying a knife, removed restrictions on police powers of arrest when someone is suspected of carrying a weapon and increased to 18 the minimum age for buying non-domestic knives.
As members will know, further steps will be taken through the Custodial Sentences and Weapons (Scotland) Bill, which is going through the Parliament. The bill will introduce tough new restrictions on the sale of non-domestic knives, so that they can be sold only through licensed dealers, which should help to weed out unscrupulous traders and help legitimate traders to take steps to avoid dangerous weapons falling into the wrong hands. Again, those measures will be backed up with strong enforcement. Trading standards officers will have new powers to search premises and seize items. The bill will also introduce a ban on the general sale of swords, with exceptions for legitimate religious, cultural and sporting purposes.
Those enforcement efforts are extremely important and, I hope, reassure communities that we are serious about tackling the so-called blade culture. However, to achieve change in the long term, we need to challenge attitudes and behaviours. Reducing knife crime should not be seen as the sole responsibility of the Executive and the police, although we will continue to do all that we can. The respect your life, not a knife campaign acknowledges that we need to talk to family, friends and communities about what people expect of themselves, which is an important and powerful message from the Damilola Taylor Trust. In that context, the Minister for Justice last month launched our new hard-hitting anti-violence campaign, which has been mentioned and which focuses on knife carrying. I hope that members have seen or heard the campaign, which carries the powerful slogan, "Knives: let's not scar another generation". The campaign alone will not solve the problem, but we hope that its message will be understood and that, working together, we can make violence in Scotland the stuff of history lessons, not an everyday reality.
We acknowledge that if we are to achieve change in the next generation, it is important to engage with young people. The respect your life, not a knife campaign seems to have done that successfully, so we need to take encouragement and lessons from it. We have taken steps to engage with young people through the education phase of the safer Scotland campaign, which seeks, through a range of school-led activities, to highlight to schoolchildren the dangers of carrying a weapon. We intend to build on that in the new year and take further steps to engage directly with young people in schools and communities.
I congratulate the CAFE project in Angus. As has been said, it has been doing important work. I am pleased that the youth cafes have become a positive alternative in many areas by offering not only a safe environment but a range of activities for young people to enjoy. They also provide accessible advice and information about lifestyle issues such as sexual health, drugs and alcohol and ensure that there is a focus on giving young people a greater sense of freedom and responsibility while keeping them safe within a secure environment. That is good news not only for young people but for the wider community. There are now youth cafes in all alcohol and drug action team areas across Scotland and we are committed to continuing our support of those facilities and other alcohol-free environments for young people. I know that the Minister for Justice has been invited to visit the CAFE project in Arbroath and I understand that she hopes to visit it at some point in the near future.
We are working hard with our partners to break the link between alcohol and violence. Earlier this year, the violence reduction unit conducted a month-long enforcement campaign to tackle underage and street drinking, which resulted in more than 5,000 litres of alcohol being seized. Licensed premises were also targeted, with more than two thirds of all licensed premises in Scotland being visited and their staff being questioned on current legislation.
All the steps that I have mentioned form part of the package of measures that we are taking forward to help to provide a viable way of reducing knife crime. The package includes short and longer-term measures and initiatives, recognising that such a deep-seated problem cannot be solved overnight. We will continue to work closely with the violence reduction unit and support a range of innovative and sustainable diversionary projects that provide education, training and meaningful opportunities to young people. I have asked my officials to consider what can be learned from the respect your life, not a knife campaign and to continue examining ways of engaging with our young people.
Although inner London inevitably has its own complex set of community problems and cultural issues, Scotland has much to learn from aspects of good initiatives south of the border. I am mindful of Andrew Welsh's comments about the importance of learning from good practice. It is in all of our interests to work together on these matters.
All forms of violence are, ultimately, preventable, not inevitable. In that common realisation, we have a shared outlook with the rest of the United Kingdom. It is important that we continue to drive forward the anti-violence strategy with energy and help to instil a proactive rather than a reactive approach towards cultural attitudes to violence.
I welcome this debate and recognise the longstanding commitment of people throughout Scotland to addressing the issues that we have discussed. I look forward to working with members on these important matters.
Meeting suspended until 14:15.
On resuming—