Soft sentences ‘fuel the scourge of knife crime’

FURY has erupted over the growing number of knife carriers given slap-on-the-wrist community sentences.

- Michael Knowles

Analysis by the Daily Express shows 2,883 of 16,060 adults convicted of a knife offence last year were given the soft option – the highest number since 2014.

Suspended sentences have doubled in 10 years – from 2,434 to 4,911 in the year to March 2022.

Alarmingly, the number of people jailed for carrying or using a knife to threaten someone has tumbled from a 10-year high of 7,404 in 2018 to 5,615 this year.

This is also the lowest number of people sent straight to prison since 2016.

Tory MP Alec Shelbrooke said: “The Government has made clear it wants to crack down on knife crime.