Chris Huhne

80% Of Hospitals Failing To Help Police Fight Knife Crime – Huhne

80% of NHS hospitals in England are failing to provide local police forces with information that has been proven to significantly cut knife crime, according to research by the Liberal Democrats.

The ‘Cardiff Model’, established in 2002, collects data from Accident and Emergency wards about the precise locations and times of violent incidents and shares them anonymously with the police. This new approach has led to a 40% drop in knife crime in some areas.

The figures, contained in replies to Freedom of Information requests, shows that:

· Only 25 of the 123 NHS trusts which responded to Freedom of Information requests are following the Cardiff Model

· The situation is no better in the nine areas in England taking part in the Tackling Knives Action Programme, where only 10 out of 58 trusts (17.2%) are following the Cardiff Model

· Three areas had no trusts using the model – Essex, Lancashire and Nottinghamshire

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Huhne said:

“Posturing on tougher punishments by Labour and the Tories is irrelevant if you do not catch more criminals. The Government is failing to deliver on a proven method that cuts knife crime by nearly half.

“With 43 young people killed through knife crime last year alone, it beggars belief that the National Health Service is not pulling its weight in tackling the problem.

“If the police are to catch more knife carriers, they need to intensively patrol knife crime hot-spots. They are best identified from anonymous hospital data, which is free from the meddling hand of Whitehall.

“Heads at the Department of Health and the Home Office must be knocked together to ensure that the Cardiff Model is used in every emergency ward in the country.”