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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Mark Blunden

Knife crime: jump in under-18s hospitalised with stab wounds

A ‘knife surrender’ bin in Chelsea, London (Andrew Parker/Alamy) -

Listen here on your chosen podcast platform.

Hospital admissions data suggests a growing proportion of patients admitted to wards in England after being stabbed are under 18 years old.

It comes amid growing calls to finally crack down on online blade sales and London actor Idris Elba backing the blunting of sharp tips on kitchen knives.

The Standard podcast is joined by Patrick Green, chief executive of the Ben Kinsella Trust, which was founded in honour of a 16-year-old Londoner stabbed to death in an unprovoked attack in 2008 after celebrating finishing his GCSEs with friends.

The charity and Elba are working with the government’s Coalition To Tackle Knife Crime initiative, which aims to halve Britain’s blades menace within a decade.

In part two, Network Rail has sparked a commuter backlash over train times ‘vanishing’ from information boards three minutes before departure - but could the nudge tactic improve disabled access and service punctuality?

We speak with Michael Solomon Williams, head of campaigns at the Campaign for Better Transport.

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