Justice system ‘collapsing’ as jail terms for blade use hit 10-year low

THE number of knife offenders going to jail has fallen to a 10-year low despite a surge in crime, new figures show.

A quarter (26.1 per cent) of knife crime offenders were handed immediate prison terms in the last year, the lowest proportion since 2011, despite rising knife crime. It is down from a peak of 42.9 per cent of offenders jailed in 2019 and comes as knife possession offences hit a record high of 24,546 in the year ending March 2022.

There has also been a slump in the proportion of offenders being charged, leading to warnings by crime experts that offenders are emboldened by the declining police prosecution rates.

The proportion of knife possession offences resulting in a charge has nearly halved from 63.7 per cent in 2015-16 to 36.4 per cent in 2021-22.

In London, the proportion of knife offences – defined as any attempted murder, homicide, threat to kill, assault, robbery or rape involving a knife – which result in a sanction or detection has fallen from 24.1 per cent in 2016 to 16.4 per cent, one in six.

David Wilson, emeritus professor of criminology at Birmingham City University, said: “We are seeing figures that point to a dysfunctional criminal justice system that has lost confidence in itself.

“The police no longer feel confident to do the job they did, barristers have been on strike, courts are plagued by delays and backlogs.

“It is a criminal justice system that is creaking. These figures show how much it has lost direction.”

The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) data also showed 45.5 per cent of repeat knife offenders avoided jail, the highest rate since 2016 when the Government introduced its “two strikes and out” laws that require courts to impose a jail term “unless it would not be in the interest of justice to do so”.

Harvey Redgrave, a former No10 adviser and chief executive of crime consultancy Crest Advisory, said: “[We] know that repeat knife offenders pose a serious risk to themselves and the communities in which they live – that is why the two-strikes law was introduced.

“The fact that nearly half of those caught repeatedly using a knife are avoiding prison indicates a system that is collapsing.”

An MOJ spokesman said: “Under this Government those caught carrying a knife are more likely to be sent to jail, and for longer, than they were a decade ago.”