Strong measures in knife crackdown

The move, part of a Tackling Violence Action Plan to be unveiled by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, will also include measures designed to prevent binge drinkers moving on to commit crimes of violence.

Ms Smith will announce new resources for hundreds of metal-detecting arches and search wands in local communities.

It is understood that the mobile arches will be collapsible and small enough to be taken in the boot of a police car for use outside pubs, clubs or schools or wherever there are fears knives are present.

The plan comes amid increasing concern about drunken violence on the streets of Britain, as well as the escalation in the use of knives, which were linked to 258 deaths in 2006/07 compared with 219 the previous year.

Developed with police, it will focus on the links between violent crime and alcohol.

A £1 million campaign will be launched this summer to warn youngsters that - far from making them safer, as many believe - carrying a knife heightens their chances of becoming a victim of violence.

Ms Smith told BBC1's The Politics Show: "I am serious about tackling the serious violence we see, if it occurs on our streets or if it occurs behind closed doors. I want nobody to be under any misapprehension that you are safer if you carry a knife, as some young people tell me they think they are. We will be running a very large campaign to make that clear."

Shadow home secretary David Davis said: "Jacqui Smith is belatedly papering over the cracks of an enormous problem of the Government's own making. Violent crime has doubled under Labour, the result of disastrous policy decisions - including a multitude of perverse law enforcement targets, reams of red-tape stifling the police and a lax approach to binge-drinking and drugs.

"Tinkering with targets and publicity campaigns are a drop in the ocean of the serious and sustained action required to reverse the tragic scourge of violence on our streets."