Sajid Javid has made a start, but a lot more needs to be done to reduce knife crime

Another day, another teenager fatally stabbed on the streets of Britain. It’s a domestic issue crying out for urgency and action. It’s something the Home Secretary is reportedly losing sleep over – as are many parents, particularly in those communities most affected.

Today’s announcement of a new Knife Crime Prevention Order forms part of a welcome chain of action from the Home Secretary, but it lacks the knock-out blow required to change things on our increasingly violent streets.

In particular, it takes us no closer to addressing the fundamental issue that came from the huge collapse in stop and search: a significant minority of people who feel they can carry weapons without reasonable fear of detection.

While police forces do their best to increase and better explain stop and search – Merseyside’s Chief Constable perhaps most notably – other senior officers concede a reluctance and reticence on the part of a battle-weary frontline to do so, prompting, as in London, an increase in so-called ‘Section 60s’ (where senior police authorise officers to search anyone without any suspicion for a given time in a given area) and the creation of specialist taskforces made up of those officers ready, willing, and able to be proactive.