'Hundreds will die before knife crime plans work'

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Police and doctors told a Policy Exchange summit in Westminster the measures will not reduce knife attacks until 2018.

Last year 28 London teenagers were shot, stabbed or beaten to death. Tens of thousands a month are now being searched for weapons, including knives, and 95 per cent of people found with one are arrested.

The NHS spends about £80million a year on victims of knife attacks.

Professor Karim Brohi, consultant trauma and vascular surgeon at the Royal London Hospital, said: "Without long-term intervention I think we'll continue to see an increase in knife crime up to 2016 or 2018 when it will begin to fall off as the measures kick in.

"There are methods but they need to be fairly urgent and directed not just at teenagers today but into primary schools and families living in [affected] areas to target the social and economic causes."

Dr Bob Golding, a former assistant chief constable with Warwickshire Police, said: "It will take 10 to 15 years to really bite into the problem. This is a disease, it is not just a crime issue."