Violent crime crackdown: Brown says young people carrying knives must be prosecuted

Gordon Brown has ordered the police to prosecute anyone aged over 16 caught carrying a knife.

Currently, thousands of offenders caught with a potentially deadly weapon are let off with a caution.

But the Prime Minister said that a spate of knife killings made it even more important that thugs carrying blades would be hauled before the courts.

Police chiefs had already been drawing up

plans to scrap reprimands or warnings and instead prosecute anyone over 18 who is found with a knife in public.

But Mr Brown yesterday told MPs that he now wants this lowered to 16.

During Prime Minister's Questions in the Commons, he said: 'Knives are unacceptable and we've got to do everything in our power to deter (youngsters from carrying them).

'That's why also we are using the powers of stop and search. That's why arches and metal detectors are being used.

'That's why we need visible policing to back up our safer schools policy, support for parents in their communities and the education programme we are carrying out.'

He will set out more details at a meeting  between Labour ministers and senior figures from the police and CPS on Thursday.

Robert Knox, pictured on the right along with mother Sally and younger brother Jamie, became another victim of the knife culture when he was murdered in Sidcup last month

But critics have questioned whether the announcement was merely a stunt.

They pointed out that previous demands for 'zero tolerance' on knife crime had failed  - with fewer than one in seven offenders receiving a jail sentence.

Nick Herbert, the Tory justice spokesman, said: 'There is currently no presumption that adult offenders carrying a knife should be prosecuted.

'One in four is let off with a warning or caution, less than one in seven receives a custodial sentence, and those who do are eligible for early release. . . meaning that the average time served in jail is only a month.'