Knife crime in Glasgow down 14 per cent in a year

Crimes in Glasgow involving an offensive weapon have fallen by 76 per cent since 2006/07, and by 14 per cent in the last year.

Recently published figures also show that violent crime in Glasgow has decreased by 12 per cent between 2013/14 and 2014/15 and the number of homicides have fallen by 3 per cent over the same period.

The Justice Secretary, Michael Matheson, visited a youth engagement project based in Castlemilk to see how their work is helping to make an impact on the reducing crime rates in the city.

He also met the young people benefiting from the programme.

Mr Matheson said: “Crimes of handling an offensive weapon have dropped dramatically and are now at their lowest level in 29 years while the number of young people under 19 convicted of handling an offensive weapon has fallen from 812 in 2006/07 to 165 in 2013/14.

“This is thanks, in no small part, to the fantastic initiatives like the one in Castlemilk, which I visited today, and the Scotland wide No Knives, Better Lives programme.

“Since 2009 we have provided over £2.5 million of funding to the No Knives, Better Lives initiative, which has now been made available to all local authority areas in Scotland, to educate young people about the dangers and consequences associated with carrying a knife and encourage positive life choices away from violence.

“We have also committed £75 million to community initiatives throughout Scotland as part of our CashBack for Communities programme which invests money seized from criminals back into our communities.”