Written question asked by James Brokenshire (Conservative) on Tuesday, 7 October 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 16 October 2008. It was answered by Alan Campbell (Labour) on Thursday, 16 October 2008 on behalf of the Home Office.

Crime

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent assessment she has made of the extent and nature of gang-related criminal activity; and if she will make a statement.

Answer: There is no single definition of a 'gang' and so it is difficult to assess the extent and nature of gang activity.However, the Tackling Gangs Action Programme (September 2007 to March 2008) was set up to tackle gangs who use serious violence and firearms as a central part of their activities. The focus was in the four cities with the highest number of firearms homicides: London, Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool.As part of this work, police forces in these cities identified 774 individuals, of whom 655 had on average 11 convictions each, of which the majority were for public order, harassment, drugs, violence and acquisitive offences.

Secondary information