Written question asked by Mark Pritchard (Conservative) on Friday, 6 October 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 9 October 2006. It was answered by Lord Coaker (Labour) on Tuesday, 7 November 2006 on behalf of the Home Office.

Ethnic Gangs

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what research has been undertaken into how to tackle ethnic gangs in England and Wales.

Answer: There has been very little robust research undertaken on how to tackle gangs in England and Wales and the information which has been published tends to provide information about how to tackle gang related activity in general rather than providing specific recommendations on how to tackle ethnic gangs.A review of the international published robust evidence on how to reduce gang related violence provides some recommendations on how to tackle gang related violence in general. The report is called: ““Evidence Based Approaches to Reducing Gang Violence:”” a rapid evidence assessment for Aston and Handsworth Operational Group (2004) Butler, G., Hodgkinson, J., Holmes, E. and Marshall, S and it is available online on the Government Social Research website.

Secondary information