---

Knife Crime

My hon. Friend makes a powerful point. We must deal with offending early enough and effectively enough, which is why I am critical of the Government's approach. Their Respect agenda has been put out to pasture, because that is not happening. If we look at the offenders involved, we will see a pattern of offending; by the time they get to the offence in question, they are inured to the criminal justice system. It is then much harder to turn things around as they have not been dealt with properly from the outset.