FactCheck: knife crime U-turn?
Updated on 15 July 2008
Has the government backed down on plans to send those caught with knives to casualty?
The claim
"We are not - I have never said that we are - proposing to bring young people into wards to see patients."
Jacqui Smith, home secretary, House of Commons, 14 July 2008
The background
Reel out tough initiatives at haste, repent the spin at leisure. Ever since Tony Blair's government floated a suggestion that yobs would be marched to the cashpoint to withdraw an on-the-spot fine, it could be a mantra for New Labour politicians wanting to soothe public fears on crime.
The latest to fall foul of the convention of leaking upcoming big announcements in the weekend paper appears to be home secretary Jacqui Smith.
The government unveils its latest Youth Crime Action Plan today; the initiative that caught the public's imagination over the weekend was the suggestion that those caught with knives would be taken to see stabbing victims in hospital.
But yesterday the government appeared to make a swift about-turn, with Smith saying not only that there would, in fact, be no hospital visits, but that she had never said there would be.
So what did she say, and when?
The analysis
The hospital story kicked off at the weekend. According to the front page of the Sunday Telegraph, the home secretary's plan "includes a proposal to make young offenders visit casualty wards to examine knife wounds in an attempt to shock them into mending their ways".
"Teenagers caught with knives will be forced to tour casualty units and meet the relatives of stabbing victims, under government plans to combat the glorification of weapons within gangs" said Sunday's Observer.
The Mail on Sunday reported that knife referral projects would "include visits to hospitals to see the impact of knife wounds". "Offenders dragged to A&E to see injury horror", said the Sunday Mirror.
These articles didn't quote or name Jacqui Smith as the source of the facts, but in broadcast interviews that day, the home secretary didn't leap to quash the stories. In fact, her comments in one interview in particular fanned the flames.
On Sunday Live, Sky News political editor Adam Boulton asked Jacqui Smith: "One of those proposals is that people caught carrying knives should be taken to see people in hospital who have been stabbed, or to meet the families of victims, is that correct?"
'What we're talking about here is not necessarily traipsing around a hospital ward, but actually talking to the A&E surgeons, looking at the sorts of injuries that are caused.'Jacqui Smith on Channel 4 News
"It is," she replied. "I'm very keen that, particularly when it comes to young people, we don't have some sort of simplistic approach that says that everyone caught with a knife should be sent to prison."
When asked by Channel 4 News on Sunday evening, "what evidence is there that these kinds of hospital visits worked?" Smith clarified: "What we're talking about here is not necessarily traipsing around a hospital ward, but actually talking to the A&E surgeons, looking at the sorts of injuries that are caused."
To be fair, she does say that the accused wouldn't necessarily "traipse" around the ward, but she then goes straight on to mention A&E, and looking at injuries does suggest a bit of victim-meeting.
But yesterday afternoon, the home office issued a clarification that young people would not actually get to visit A&E wards.
Shortly afterwards in parliament, the home secretary was asked about "her plans to force knife offenders to confront victims face to face in hospitals" by her shadow, Dominic Grieve.
Was it correct, he wanted to know, that this aspect of the government's policy has already been abandoned?
No, said Smith. Instead, she talked of the importance of knife referral schemes, which "could include visits to hospitals, or doctors visiting them so that they can talk to health care professionals, hear about the graphic impact of knife wounds and better understand what happens when somebody is stabbed".
But this did not involve "bringing young people into wards to see patients".
The verdict
U-turn, u-turn, claimed Sky News - and Jacqui Smith did tell the channel's Sunday Live show that those caught with knives would be taken to see stab victims in hospital.
To the average viewer, this would seem to indicate going on to wards - otherwise why hold the visits in hospital? Particularly in the light of the media coverage that day.
Smith did tell parliament yesterday, and GMTV this morning, that hospital visits would go ahead - but the detail of exactly what these would involve seems to have come a little too late.
FactCheck rating: 3.5
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The sources
- Government U-turn on knife crime, Sky News, July 14 2008
- Channel 4 News, government youth crime action plan as two people are fatally stabbed, 13 July 2008
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