Children's champion to focus on violence

Led by England’s children’s commissioner Al Aynsley-Green the organisation will spend £126,000 addressing the problem of violence, after young people voted it the most important issue. The move comes in the same week as the Prime Minister ordered a national review of how police keep guns off the street. At a meeting last week Gordon Brown and Home Secretary Jacqui Smith asked Ken Jones, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, to carry out the review in a bid to cut the availability of guns.

The review is in response to the murder of 11-year-old Rhys Jones, who was shot while playing football in a pub car park in Liverpool. Chief police officers across the country will speak to communities affected by gun crime during the next month. Brown also said the government will carry out "intensive work" to deal with teenage crime and gang culture, claiming tougher enforcement of existing laws and the passing of new laws, if required, were high on the government's agenda. He has said that authorities plan to target 10 areas around the country with measures including an alcohol crackdown and early intervention to deter young people from gangs and guns and knife crime.