Criminals caught with knives are escaping with fines as little as a £1, it has emerged today.

        And the alarming fact is that only around a dozen offenders are jailed each year despite thousands being caught with a blade, following government promises to cut down on knife crime – the menace that has swept the country. 

So far this year 28 teenagers have died violently in London alone, 22 of them killed with a knife.

 But figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats show one in ten people caught with a knife are fined. 

On occasion they have been told to pay as little as £1 although the average penalty in 2006, the most recent statistics, was £57 for those under 16, £123 for 16 to 18-year-olds and £153 for adults. 

Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Huhne said: “The Government claims to be tough on knife crime while at the same time dishing out penalties to knife carriers of less than twenty quid. Judges must have discretion, but these penalties are ridiculously lenient when you can get four years in jail for possessing a knife. 

“If we are to tackle knife crime, a strong message must be sent to those who carry knives. These pitiful fines do not do that. 

“Ministerial posturing on penalties is pointless if people feel they can carry knives and get away with a slap on the wrist. 

“The best way to tackle knife crime is to ensure that more people are caught carrying knives through intelligence led stop and search, hot-spot policing and firm but fair penalties.”

There are two stories doing the rounds this evening about the Government’s discredited ID cards; it is becoming a total fiasco.

Firstly, the British Airline Pilots Association, which represents most of the country’s commercial pilots, said the Government’s “early warning system should be flashing” over its opposition to plans to force aviation workers to be the first Britons to carry ID cards.

There general secretary, said his members resented being treated as guinea pigs and added: “It may come to an industrial dispute.

The Government however is determined to fast-track ID cards to all airport staff due to the importance of high security in their workplaces.

A further development shows that less than 30 percent of the UK public wants to enrol for ID cards at private-sector retailers, despite the home secretary’s promotion of such locations.

Only 25 percent of more than 2,000 people questioned for the government’s Central Office of Information would consider having their fingerprints, photo and signature recorded for an ID card in a supermarket, according to research commissioned by the Identity and Passport Service (IPS). This increased to just 26 percent for a petrol station, 28 percent for a department store and 29 percent for a local shop.

People responded more positively towards post offices, which would be considered by 53 percent, local authorities (63 percent) and banks (66 percent). But the preferred locations for ID-card enrolment were passport offices and police stations, with results of 84 percent and 85 percent respectively.

Despite the findings, however, two weeks ago home secretary Jacqui Smith indicated her intention to press ahead with high-street enrolment. “Enrolment should be able to happen at the convenience of the customer, on the high street, at the nearest post   office, or at the local shopping centre,” she said.

   Liberal Democrats Home Affairs Spokesperson, Tom Brake said: “Signing up for an ID card isn’t like buying a lottery ticket. It’s clear ministers are desperate to find any means to get people to sign up for an ID card. This is just their latest half-baked attempt.” 

Commenting on the National Association of Probation Officers’ warning that plans to cut the probation service’s budget by 20% could lead to an extra 300,000 crimes being committed a year, Liberal Democrat Justice Spokesperson, David Howarth said: “These alarming figures show that the Government is losing the plot on crime.”

“The main point of any sentence must be to reduce crime in the future, but the Government is doing the opposite.

“It is making it harder for the probation service to use sentences that have some effect and forcing it to do little more than supervise offenders.

“It is amazing that a Government that claims to be tough on crime is actually planning to make crime worse.”

North East Lincolnshire Council will receive £790,000 to tackle youth crime over the next three years thanks to a new government support scheme across England and Wales.

The funding is a major milestone in the youth crime action plan, which launched in July. It aims to tackle youth crime through a comprehensive strategy involving early prevention, non-negotiable support and tough enforcement.

All parts of England will be offered the funding to boost the drive to tackle youth crime, but each of 69 areas - including North East Lincolnshire - are being offered £700,000 for intensive action over the next three years, with an immediate cash injection of £90,000 available to each local authority this year.

Key measures include:

Ø       Using safeguarding laws to remove young people at risk from the streets at night

Ø       Building street-based teams of youth workers and ex-gang members to tackle groups of young people involved in crime and disorder

Ø       Increasing visible police patrols during after-school hours

Ø       Expanding family intervention projects to respond more effectively to families at risk

Ø       Providing positive activities for young people

Ø       Placing youth offending team workers in police stations so that young offenders can be dealt with and directed to the most appropriate service at the earliest opportunity  

Councillor Steve Beasant, portfolio holder for communities and neighbourhoods, said: “This cash will build upon the excellent work already being carried out by the council’s community care team and Safer Communities to engage youngsters and give them the empowerment to make positive choices that will improve their prospects and confidence.

“Whether it’s working with the youngsters who sometimes fall between the cracks through our excellent family intervention project or by providing diversionary activities, this cash reflects our drive and desire to achieve excellence within North East Lincolnshire, and leave a positive legacy for future generations.“

Tony Hunter, chief executive of North East Lincolnshire Council, said: “The council is determined to tackle youth crime and improve the quality of life for young people, families and communities. This money will help tackle youth crime by addressing both the causes of offending and offering the right support to help young people get their lives back on track.”

    Commenting on the Home Affairs Select Committee report on Policing in the 21st Century, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Huhne said: “This report is right to highlight how mistaken the Government has been to try to run policing through Whitehall targets, which have proved an expensive disaster.”

Chris Huhne went on to say: “The result has been a priority for trivial offences, the abandonment of local concerns and the swamping of officers in red tape.

“The best thing ministers could do for policing in this century would be to scrap the ID cards scheme and put 10,000 more police on our streets.”

    I totally agree with the comments made by the Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg it is now to tackle alcohol misuse, at long last politicians are beginning to wake up to damage and harm that alcohol causes. For too long our country has gained a bad name because of the problems certain individuals have caused in this country and abroad; we need to take urgent action. It’s time now, the government listened; booze is costing our society millions of pounds, family breakdown, and other social problems. 

The Liberal Democrats today launched bold new proposals to tackle the growing problem of binge drinking. The party said that the implementation of their plans was ‘inevitable’ following the publication of today’s Home Affairs Select Committee report.   The proposals, outlined in Tackling Booze Britain, include:

Ø     Stop irresponsible drink promotions by introducing a minimum price for alcohol

Ø     Put an end to the sale of alcohol to children by imposing a ‘one strike and you’re out’ policy

Ø     Protect Accident & Emergency staff by fining disruptive drunks in hospital A&E departments

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Leader, Nick Clegg said: “The Government’s failure to tackle the alcohol misuse in this country has left many of our town centres as no-go areas on Friday and Saturday nights.

“We cannot afford to ignore the impact that this problem is having on many people’s lives.

“These proposals will increase funding for treatment of people with a drink problem, force retailers to sell alcohol responsibly, and ensure that those people who cannot handle alcohol responsibly are held to account.

“Following the publication of today’s Home Affairs Select Committee report, these changes now become inevitable.

“We need a radical new approach to the alcohol related problems in this country. Parents, young people, and the alcohol industry must all play their part if we’re to have any hope of dealing with the country’s binge drinking culture.

“Ministers have spent years ignoring this growing problem. It’s time action was taken to tackle this now.”

      I have just been out and about in the ward collecting signatures for new alleyway schemes, and I was talking to a number of residents about the problem of underage drinking in one area of East Marsh. It is a problem that blights many estates; not just in our area but the whole of the UK. In this case, it is not young people purchasing the alcohol it is the youngsters pressurising adults outside the shop to purchase it on their behalf.

I then arrived home, and read the Sunday Times online and came across an article titled: “hundreds of children under 10 hospitalised with alcohol problems.”

A child under ten is admitted to hospital to be treated for alcohol-related problems once every three days in England, according to Government figures revealed today.

Between 2002 and 2007, a total of 648 under-tens and more than 24,000 under-16s were hospitalised because of excessive intake of alcohol.

The figures come from within a parliamentary answer revealed by the Liberal Democrats ahead of the launch tomorrow of their strategy to tackle underage and binge drinking.

In the 16-17 age bracket alone, they revealed, around 12,500 teenagers were admitted to Accident and Emergency for alcohol-related conditions, marking an increase of 95 per cent between 2002 and 2007.

Reacting to figures from the Department of Health, Liberal Democrat Shadow Culture, Media and Sport Secretary, Don Foster is calling for a change to Britain’s drinking culture, and said the Government had “completely failed” to tackle the problem.

He said: “For so many children of such a young age to be hospitalised is scandalous. Ministers must conduct an urgent review of the systems in place, which are meant to be ensuring that young children cannot have access to such harmful substances.

“Only a complete change to our drinking culture will prevent a whole generation of young people from being condemned to serious alcohol-related illnesses.”

I completely agree with Don Foster’s comments, we should be doing more to help our young people with drink related problems; they must learn to drink sensibly. Binge drinking is often linked to high teenage pregnancy rates, mental health conditions, worklessness, crime and disorder. In many of our communities drink is too easily available, and at prices that encourage young people to go over the top. 

     Commenting on today’s announcement that workers at two UK airports are to be given ID cards, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Huhne said: “Ministers are choosing a limited number of guinea pigs at two smaller airports because they are aware of how unpopular ID cards are.”

Chris Huhne continued, saying: “The Government is too scared to force ID cards on voters before an election because they know it would be a laminated poll tax.

“Jacqui Smith does not have the courage to make announcements on ID cards in Parliament, where she can be cross-questioned, but instead prefers supine think-tank audiences.

“The problem is not the ease with which we can give up sensitive personal data, but the ease with which the Home Office loses it. The Government cannot be trusted to keep personal information safe.

“Costs are already spiralling out of control without a single card being issued.

“We are ordering a meal without knowing the prices on the menu, because no-one has yet estimated how much this grotesque intrusion into our hard-won liberties will ultimately cost.”

   When the licensing laws were relaxed there was a theory that it would lead to culture were people would drink sensibly, and potentially they may moderate their intake leading to less anti-social behaviour on our streets.

However new research has shown that more people are attending hospital between 3am and 6am with alcohol-related problems since 24-hour drinking was introduced. The research was undertaken at a large city centre hospital in Birmingham according to the Daily Telegraph.

The biggest changes were a rise in A&E attendances between 3am and 6am, and a fall between 9pm and midnight. The study, from scientists at Birmingham University, is published in the open-access online journal BMC Public Health. They compared data from City Hospital one week in late January in both 2005 and 2006.

By the time the study started 37 per cent of bars and clubs in Birmingham had successfully applied to extend their opening hours.

The researchers found that there had not been a significant change in alcohol-related attendances to the accident and emergency unit before and after the Licensing Act came into force in November 2005.

Prof Andrew Durnford, who led the study with Dr Tommy Perkins, said: “Interestingly, since 24-hour drinking, significantly more alcohol-related attendances were observed in the early hours of the morning and a significantly smaller proportion in the earlier evening. This trend was seen for weekdays and weekends.

“Our findings suggest that although the Act has not affected the number of alcohol-related attendances at the Emergency Department or the day of presentation, it is associated with a shift in the time of attendances into the early hours of the morning. This may reflect a change in drinking patterns.”

The research suggests that 24-hour drinking has not reduced the burden of alcohol attendances to emergency departments and has simply shifted the problem later into the night. The report says: “For the NHS, this suggests 24-hour drinking has not lessened the workload. Furthermore, this shift to increased attendances in the early hours will have implications for night-time service provision in the NHS and the police”.

In many parts of the UK the number of 24-hour drinking licenses issues has been very small, but in the future this may change and pubs may start applying for such licenses.

       There has been a 26% increase in the number of premises selling alcohol, but only 0.1% of such premises have had their licences taken away, according to Liberal Democrat analysis of new Licensing Statistics released today.

Don Foster went on to say: The figures also show that there was a 14% increase in the number of premises with 24-hour licences.

This is despite the fact that in 2007/8 there were 947,000 alcohol-related violent incidents and an increase in crime in the early morning.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Culture, Media and Sport Secretary, Don Foster said: “Despite ministers’ complete failure to get to grips with binge drinking, the number of licensed premises is soaring.

“The Government’s failure to prosecute those selling alcohol to drunk people and children has made many town centres ‘no go’ areas, causing immense damage.

“We have laws in place to deal with these problems but they simply aren’t being enforced. The message should be simple, those who can’t sell alcohol responsibly won’t be allowed to sell it at all.”