Commenting on figures compiled by Hospital Episodes Statistics which show a dramatic rise in under-16s admitted for stab wounds, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Huhne said:

"These appalling figures show that the Government’s strategy for tackling teenage knife crime is failing abjectly.

"Ministers claim that crime is falling, but these figures show serious attacks that require hospital admission are up. They cut through all the problems with the crime reported to the police and the lack of information about teenagers in the British Crime Survey.

"We appear to be locked in a vicious circle where teenagers don’t feel safe on our streets, and therefore carry more knives, which in turn just fuels the spiral of knife crime.

"The solution has to be more knife arches, more targeted stop and search in hot spots, a sustained campaign in schools, and more detection and prosecution for carrying knives.

"Instead of spending billions on unworkable and unnecessary ID cards, the Government should spend the money on actually making people safer by putting more police on our streets."