Barnardo's has responded to today’s Ministry of Justice knife and offensive weapon sentencing statistics for England and Wales for the year ending March 2022.
The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Child Criminal Exploitation and Knife Crime is a group of over 70 MPs and Peers, set up to tackle knife crime and child criminal exploitation across the UK.
The secretariat of the APPG is supported jointly by Redthread and Barnardo’s.
In response to today's statistics, Barnardo’s Chief Executive Lynn Perry MBE, said:
“Yet another rise in the number of knife and offensive weapon offences is incredibly concerning. Behind these figures are young people who have been criminally exploited, and who have suffered as a result of knife crime.
“Too often vulnerable young people are missing out on support and in some cases they are being treated as criminals.
“To change this, we are calling on the next Prime Minister to introduce a legal definition of child criminal exploitation to make it easier for police forces and other agencies to identify and support victims and to keep children safe from harm.”