PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES - United Kingdom Parliament

1587 Easter Adjournment
26 MARCH 2013 Easter Adjournment
1588
[Mr Mark Williams]
whatsoever. If a feature is worthy of regulation when it
is contained in one product, why is it not worthy of
regulation when contained and concealed in another?
In Ceredigion there are well over 30 types of the
Clydesdale and Yorkshire fixed-rate loan with hidden
swap, and that is in one community alone. Hotels, pubs,
lucrative shops and farms are being targeted by the
banks. The stories are heartbreaking. These toxic loans
mean that hitherto successful businesses are burdened
with unmanageable interest rates. Owners are unable to
exit the arrangements because of extortionate breakage
penalties of between 20% and 40%.
What about the consequences? Job losses resulting
from trading for four years in a severe economic situation
while locked into an inappropriate product—a product
that has sucked out every surplus the business has
generated, preventing development and the engagement
of staff and precipitating redundancies—are forcing
people in my constituency on to benefits.
The challenge for the Government is to put all pressure
imaginable on the FSA and the successor organisation
to ensure that such embedded products are considered
part of the review, so that the growing number of
business affected have the redress and justice I believe
they deserve. I hope my right hon. Friend the Deputy
Leader of the House answers favourably.
7.5 pm
Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con): It is a pleasure
to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Ceredigion
(Mr Williams), with whom I shared a trip to Nigeria
last year, and to participate in the David Amess
Adjournment debate. We heard my hon. Friend’s tour
de force earlier, but I will concentrate on one subject.
I am always pleased to reassure my constituents that
Harrow has one of the lowest crime rates in London. In
fact, we are the second-safest borough in London for
crime. For the past three years, crime has come down
overall. However, I first got involved in dealing with
knife crime when two savage incidents occurred in my
constituency. To my horror, knife crime in Harrow has
increased by 16% in the past two years. The overall
crime figures show a reduction, and we see ourselves as
a low-level borough for crime, including knife crime,
but that increase prompted me to look at the wider
figures in the country as well as in London.
Nationally, the knife crime figures are going in the
right direction—they show that knife crime fell by 15%
in the past three years, with the number of crimes
coming down to around 30,000. However, in London in
the comparable period, knife crime has increased by
15%. London accounts for nearly half of all knife crime
committed in England and Wales, which is a serious
concern.
The Government have seen fit to address that trend in
the new tougher sentencing regime introduced as part
of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders
Act 2012, which created the offence of aggravated knife
possession—it is now an offence to threaten or endanger
others with a knife or offensive weapon. The offence
carries an automatic custodial sentence of six months
for over 18s. I was one of a number of MPs who
supported my hon. Friend the Member for Enfield
North (Nick de Bois), who tabled an amendment to
insist on an automatic custodial sentence of four months
for 16 and 17-year-olds.
The offence came into operation only on 3 December
2012, so we are unable fully to judge its effectiveness
yet. However, we can say that this is not the end of the
fight against knife crime, but only the beginning. We
need to look at the recently released figures to know the
trend, particularly the figures on knife possession—if
people do not carry knives in the first place, they will
not commit knife crime. In 2012, nearly a quarter of the
offensive weapon possession offences were committed
by repeat offenders—I would add that they repeated the
same offence. Of 4,000 individuals, 43% escaped a
custodial sentence. Forty-four per cent. of those offenders
had three or more previous convictions, but also escaped
a custodial sentence. Even more gallingly, 5% of repeat
offenders escaped with nothing more than a caution.
Both the rates of reoffending and the sentences show
that something is going wrong.
Across London, 62% of knife crime is accounted for
by personal robberies involving a knife. Knives are used
primarily as a weapon of threat, and in only a small
number of cases is someone injured, but 40% of homicides
in England and Wales involve a knife. That leads to the
utterly wrong view that possession is the least dangerous
aspect of knife crime, and therefore unimportant. We
must address that. An attitude needs to be introduced in
this country by which knife possession is completely
and utterly unacceptable. If we allow repeat offenders
to escape with nothing but a caution, that attitude will
not come about. If we had such an attitude, we would
not allow nearly half of all repeat offenders to escape
prison.
I believe that possession of a knife or offensive weapon
needs to be taken much more seriously, which is why I
call on Ministers to assess whether it would be appropriate
to introduce a two-strikes policy, by which anyone
found in possession of a knife who has a previous
conviction for a knife-related offence should receive an
automatic custodial sentence. That would make it clear,
in the strongest terms, that the Government stand against
knife crime and are prepared to challenge its root
causes.
This is holy week, when Christians celebrate Easter,
Jews commemorate the Passover and the deliverance
from Egypt, and Hindus celebrate Holi. I wish people
of all religions a very happy holy week.
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle): I call Sir
Bob Russell, on his birthday.
7.10 pm
Sir Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD): My birthday is on
Sunday.
I draw the House’s attention to what I said in the
pre-Christmas recess debate on 20 December at
columns 1082 to 1085, with reference to the scandalous
financial transactions made by the then leader of Essex
county council, courtesy of the public purse. It is estimated
that, from 2002 to January 2010, he spent nearly £450,000,
an average of £1,000 a week, through credit card payments.
It is ludicrous for anyone to say that those payments