Topical Question: Knife crime
Philip Dunne challenges the Secretary of State for Health over proposals for hospital visits by convicted knife-crime assailants.
Mr. Philip Dunne (Ludlow) (Con): If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.
The Secretary of State for Health (Alan Johnson): The responsibilities of my Department embrace the whole range of NHS social care, and mental and public health service delivery, all of which are of equal importance.
Mr. Dunne: Did the Home Secretary ask the Secretary of State for his advice on the impact on patients, staff and security arrangements of the Home Secretary's proposals for hospital visits by convicted knife-crime assailants, and if so, what advice did he give her?
Alan Johnson: There was never a proposal to take a person who had stabbed someone to meet their victim in accident and emergency, or in any other part of the hospital. [Interruption.] No, there was not; there was no such proposal. The hon. Gentleman will be interested to learn that the proposal is that, as part of a restorative justice process, youngsters who have been caught in possession of a knife but have never used one will be taken by a physician in the local health service to see the damage that knives can cause. I think that that is eminently sensible, and that was the proposal all along.
