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Knives
6. Hugh Bayley (City of York): If he will make a statement on what action the Government are taking to deter the use of knives in street crime, with special reference to knife-point robbery. [119016]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Caroline Flint): It is important to deter the use of knives and other offensive weapons in any type of crime, and the Government do so by providing legislation and police powers to prevent the possession or use of knives and other offensive weapons. For instance, it is an offence for any person to have an offensive weapon in a public place or on school premises, punishable by a prison sentence of up to two years, or for any person to sell knives to people under the age of 16.
The street crime initiative was launched in March 2002 to reduce all street crime, irrespective of whether a weapon is used in committing the crime. I am pleased to report that, in the first six months of that ongoing initiative, street crime fell by 16 per cent. in the areas covered.
Hugh Bayley: I, too, congratulate my hon. Friend on her appointment to the Front Bench. York is one of the safest cities in the country, which is one reason that it attracts so many visitors. Nevertheless, there has been a significant increase in robbery—a threefold increase over the last three years—which, in a few cases, has involved the use of knives, particularly by young children. What are the Government doing to help police forces, such as North Yorkshire police and other law enforcement agencies, to get on top of this problem?
Caroline Flint: I thank my hon. Friend for his good wishes and for raising an important problem, especially when children are using weapons for violent activities. Although North Yorkshire is not in the street crime initiative area, I hope that his local area, and the wider area of North Yorkshire, will benefit from the lessons
learned from the initiative through the spread of best practice. At 30 September 2002, there were 131,548 police officers in England and Wales, and 1,404 police officers in North Yorkshire, compared with 1,305 the previous year. Those are record numbers, but we need to look at sharing best practice and initiatives across the whole of England and Wales.
Mr. George Osborne (Tatton): The Minister said that in the first six months of the street crime initiative street crime had fallen. Given that we have had nine months since the end of that first six-month period, what has happened since then?
Caroline Flint: I am pleased to report to the hon. Gentleman that street crime has continued to fall. The most recent figures on robbery were published on 4 April 2003 as part of the quarterly crime update. Recorded robbery fell by an estimated 23 per cent. in the period from October to December 2002 compared with the same period in 2001.
Geraint Davies (Croydon, Central): In congratulating my hon. Friend on her recent appointment, may I ask her to welcome initiatives in Croydon in combating offensive weapons, in particular, charging without a caution anyone with a knife and, from today, banning street drinking in the centre of Croydon so that people who carry bottles, which can be used as offensive weapons, face fixed penalty notices from our new band of police community officers? Will she reassure the House that investment in those front-line services will continue? Will she also talk to other Home Office Ministers, including the Secretary of State, about the possibility of hypothecating the income from these fines on drunken yobs for front-line services to keep crime going down? In Croydon, it is down 6 per cent. in the last year.
Caroline Flint: I thank my hon. Friend for bringing the initiative in Croydon to my attention. I am pleased to hear of these local initiatives, especially when they seem to be working. The Metropolitan police safer streets initiative has had considerable success and he will be aware that we are looking at extending fixed penalty notices under the Anti-social Behaviour Bill, which is currently proceeding through Parliament. I am sure that my colleagues on the Front Bench will have heard his latter remarks.
Mr. Boris Johnson (Henley): Given that beat policemen are the best deterrent against street crime, and given the extreme difficulty of recruiting beat policemen in South Oxfordshire, what does the Minister have to say to Simon Dixon, a constituent of mine who recently applied to join the police, passed all the tests with flying colours, but was turned down on the ground that he had three tattoos on his upper arms: one of a man waving a flag, one of a dog, and one of a mouse sitting on a toadstool smoking a hubble-bubble pipe? None of those tattoos was visible when he was wearing a short-sleeved shirt, yet he was told that they might cause
offence to hospital staff were he to be involved in an accident. What can she do to rectify that senseless rejection?
Mr. Speaker: Order. Unless the gentleman was carrying a knife, the Minister cannot answer that question.
John Cryer (Hornchurch): I welcome my hon. Friend to the Front Bench. I appreciate everything that she said about the action that has been taken, but should we not also consider banning such weapons? There are shops in the borough that I represent—the London borough of Havering—in which large and dangerous knives, swords, asps and clubs are openly sold and displayed. They attract younger people in particular, and a series of related crimes have been committed in the borough. Recently, in the constituency of Romford, a man had his right hand removed with a samurai sword. Clearly, and understandably, such crime provokes a great deal of widespread fear. Should not we consider banning the sale of those weapons and certainly banning their display?
Caroline Flint: I thank my hon. Friend for welcoming me to the Front Bench. A number of offensive weapons are already banned, but I would be willing to listen to what he has to say, for him to come to see me about the weapons that he mentioned today and to consider whether further measures need to be taken both on display and on whether such weapons should be sold in the first place.
Asylum Seekers
7. Mr. Peter Viggers (Gosport): What progress he is making with his plans to screen applicants for political asylum outside the United Kingdom. [119017]
The Minister for Citizenship and Immigration (Beverley Hughes): We have made steady progress in Europe with our proposals for zones of protection. In particular, we welcome contributions from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the European Commission, which recently published a positive communication about our proposals. We are working with a number of our EU partners to develop aspects of our ideas on zones of protection, but the proposals will not obviate the need for continued action to bear down on abuse of the asylum system here, which is why we will continue with our package of robust measures, including introducing new measures where necessary to ensure that our system works effectively.
Mr. Viggers : May I commiserate with the hon. Lady on the continuation of her extremely difficult duties? In view of the vehement and near unanimous hostility to the concept of open accommodation centres in the areas in which they may be located and of the fact that the overwhelming majority of immigrants stay here, regardless of the merit of their case, is there not a case for accelerating consideration of the policy of screening political asylum seekers outside the United Kingdom, as proposed by the Conservative party?
Beverley Hughes: When I have more time to respond I would like to engage the hon. Gentleman in discussion on why I think that the Tories' proposals are full of holes. Interestingly, Tory Front Benchers have commissioned Mr. Timothy Kirkhope—a former Minister with responsibility for immigration who was criticised by the Public Accounts Committee—to help them to fill the holes.
We need a broad strategy. We need immediate action to secure our borders, which we have done, and to transform our asylum system, which will include pilots for accommodation centres, because we need a system that can cope robustly with claims. We also need sustainable international solutions to the problems of global migration. We are discussing proposals with our EU partners. They have been generally warmly received and we want to make progress.
Jeremy Corbyn (Islington, North): As screening posts will be outside this country and, indeed, outside countries that signed up to the 1951 Geneva convention, will the Minister confirm that convention standards will apply and that if people applied for asylum at a centre but were not accepted they could still make an in-country application if they arrived in this country and could make a genuine case?
Beverley Hughes: We currently have no plans to process asylum seekers on the borders of the EU, which several newspapers have reported. There is no prospect of any camps—Sangatte-style or otherwise. We want to take forward ideas for regional protection processing, which has the support of the UNHCR. I assure my hon. Friend that those arrangements will conform to our obligations under international conventions. We are making progress on ideas that are important to develop international co-operative responses, but we have never said that those proposals would obviate the need for a robust and comprehensive system in this country, as I said in my first answer. We anticipate that when people claim here, we will have to continue to process some of their claims here.
Simon Hughes (Southwark, North and Bermondsey): On behalf of all my party colleagues, will the Minister pass on our congratulations and welcome to her colleagues, with whom we look forward to working, and her best wishes to those who have moved on?
Does the Minister agree that Her Majesty's Government should adopt a twin-track approach on asylum seekers? First, we should encourage asylum seekers to seek asylum at the nearest possible place to the country from which they come, and the UK Government should assist those countries, which are often poor, to deal with asylum seekers who want to come to Europe, often in ever greater numbers. Secondly, we should honour proudly our commitment to uphold the 1951 convention for those who come to Europe and give asylum to those who need it. Does she agree that we should share responsibility and not shirk it, and that all people who apply in an EU country should be processed there and be dealt with fairly and justly at all times by that country?
Beverley Hughes: I thank the hon. Gentleman for his welcome to my colleagues. I am extremely happy to be
carrying on with my responsibilities, which are very important for this country and internationally. He and I have discussed that and I know he understands what an important and interesting area it is.We agree that the important issue, which has always been our priority in such international discussions, is to improve regional protection for people. His point about the importance of enabling people to claim as close as possible to the areas from which they are fleeing is an important priority. In relation to claims within EU countries, as I have said throughout my responses to such questions, it is very important both that EU countries act together and that we continue to have a robust, clear and appropriate system within our countries. We have always envisaged that that would need to continue because claims would be made in individual countries. Here in the UK we need to be able to process those claims quickly and efficiently.
Mr. Bob Blizzard (Waveney): My hon. Friend will be aware that Australia uses another country—the island of Nauru—to process its asylum applications. Since that system was introduced, has there not been a dramatic reduction in the amount of people trafficking into that country?
Beverley Hughes: I understand that that is so, and perhaps it is one of the consequences of that aspect of the Australian system. It is more straightforward for Australia to do that. It may also be a response to other aspects of the Australian system. However, my hon. Friend is right to highlight that every country, irrespective of its system, needs to have robust measures, including international co-operation, to tackle illegal trafficking and the activities of criminal gangs, which fuel illegal immigration and the rise in asylum claims. We are doing that substantially both with France and other European countries, not only in those close to home but in source countries and those with the transit routes, which criminal gangs use to bring people into this country.
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