Millions of Britons will be subjected to routine metal-detector screening under a crackdown on knife crime. (Daily Telegraph)Airport-style surveillance "knife arches" will be installed in hundreds of public buildings - including pubs, bars, doctors' surgeries and schools. It is understood the police will make use of collapsible arches, small enough to be taken in the boot of a car, for use wherever there are fears that knives are present.
Mobile police units will be issued with hundreds of hand-held scanners - or "wands" - to check revellers for weapons on the streets.
The plans will be unveiled today by Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, in the Tackling Violence Action Plan. It has been drawn up following a series of stabbings and rising levels of drink-fuelled violent crime. Knives were linked to 258 deaths in 2006/07 compared with 219 the previous year. The Government is also keen for the courts to make greater use of the new automatic four-year jail term for adults caught in possession of a blade.
