Full YouGov poll results

A nationwide youth curfew to help combat knife crime was backed by the public and senior politicians last night.

In the strongest sign yet of the growing fear of violence on Britain’s streets, a Sunday Times poll reveals today that nine out of 10 parents would back legal restrictions on their children going out after dark.

A report from a House of Commons committee will say this week that a national curfew on young teenagers could curb anti-social and violent behaviour. Keith Vaz, the Labour chairman of the home affairs select committee, said: “I have sympathy with the view that children should not be out after 9pm.”

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Last night Phil Woolas, the environment minister, admitted that the legislation targeting teen violence was failing. “There are parts of the country where for periods of time, you should be able to introduce curfews,” he said. “We need a heavy police presence and fines for parents.”

A No 10 source said there were no plans for a national curfew, but added: “It is something we might consider trialling in hotspot areas.”

Last week six people were stabbed to death in under 24 hours. Among the victims was London’s 20th teenage murder victim this year.

Yesterday Gordon Brown summoned Britain’s most senior police officer, Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan commissioner, for a meeting at Chequers on youth crime.

This week the prime minister will seek to reassure worried voters with a package of measures, including:

— Forcing criminals caught carrying knives to visit accident and emergency wards to see the impact of knife wounds;

— Removing the licences of pubs and clubs that fail to take measures such as searching customers for knives;

— Compelling young offenders to do community work on Friday and Saturday nights to prevent them from going out to cause more trouble;

— Axing dozens of central government targets to reduce police red tape and allow officers to spend more time on the beat.

The YouGov poll for The Sunday Times reveals a strong appetite for tougher measures to protect the public.

There was overwhelming support for an experimental curfew scheme to be extended throughout Britain.

Operation Goodnight, pioneered in Redruth, Cornwall, gives police the power to remove anyone under 16 seen on the streets after 9pm and any child under 10 after 8pm. The scheme will run over the school summer holidays.

Our poll shows that 73% of parents would welcome an 8pm curfew for young children while a further 17% would back one at 9pm. Similarly, 53% would welcome a nationwide 9pm curfew for 10 to 16-year-olds, with a further 35% of parents saying a 10pm ban would be acceptable.

More than eight out of 10 parents (81%) claim they are concerned about the threat of knife crime to their own children.

While most knife attacks are committed by people over 16, supporters of the youth curfews point out that increasing numbers of young teens are carrying blades, and recent murder victims have been as young as 14.

Vaz said there were wide regional variations in police powers. “What is confusing for people is the way different police areas are doing different things,” he said. “There needs to be much better co-ordination of policing. Police should have the authority to question young people on why they are out on the streets late in the evening.”

Patrick Mercer, a Conservative member of the home affairs committee, said: “We can’t have one rule in one part of the country and another rule in another part. It is clearly something that has worked in Redruth and something we should consider nationally.”

However, Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, said a Tory government would not change the law.

“While the use of these powers is an operational matter for the police, it speaks volumes about just how broken our society has become under Labour that we have reached the stage where curfews for youths are having to be considered,” he said.

Brown’s flagship plan to force criminals to confront knife victims in hospitals came in for criticism yesterday.

Yusef Nsubuga, the stepfather of Yusufu Miiro, a student who died in a knife attack in Walthamstow, north London, last week, said: “Just taking people to hospital isn’t going to stop them from carrying knives. What you need is proper jail sentences and prisons where they experience hardship. At the moment they go to prison for two years and get free televisions, free food. Prison should be really tough. The government needs to be far tougher.”

Harry Fletcher, of the probation officers’ union Napo, said: “It’s a cheap gimmick which shows that the government has run out of ideas. What happens if the patients who have just been attacked with a knife say they don’t want to be seen by a knifer?”

Smith said: “The government is taking the issue of knife crime very seriously. I am particularly concerned about the young age of offenders and victims.”

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