The Prime Minister meets the people

BBC correspondent Nicholas Jones reports

London teenagers give their reaction to the Government's plans

Blair Uses Q&A Session to Set Out His Law and Order Platform

Mr Blair spoke to an invited audience of 130 in Worcester's historic Guildhall, where he promised a new approach to tackling law and order, with as great an emphasis on preventing crime as on punishment.

Condemning the previous Government's law and order record as a failure, Mr Blair insisted his Government would tackle the root causes of crime as well as punishing offenders.

Mr Blair said, "I think there's a real and serious problem we have to tackle. It's important we reinforce responsible behaviour in relation to this." Mr Blair repaeated his familiar theme that opportunities come with responsibilities. "Rights and responsibilities go together. If you provide the opportunity, you can demand responsibility."

"Crime will always rise as long as people asre shut out from society's mainstream without the hope of work, a job stable family, a network of friend and a chance of getting on. That's common sense."

It is why our policies to provide jobs for young people, decent housing, support for families is so in giving children the chance to succeed and stop them being lured into a life of crime."

Mr Blair steps out of the Westminster 'bunker'

Mr Blair told his audience that the forthcoming Crime and Disorder Bill would provide for new reparation orders, aimed particularly at the young and designed to bring home to them the impact of their offences. Vandals, for example, would be required to rebuild and repaint the bus shelter they had wrecked and a thug who ruined a hedgerow would, if the victim agreed, have to put right the damage. Mr Blair also promised much greater support for witnesses giving evidence in court.

Some Tories have dismissed the sessions as a publicity stunt. One prominent backbencher, Alan Clark, accused Mr Blair of speaking to "hand-picked audiences" selected by Peter Mandelson, the Minister without Portfolio who masterminded Labour's election campaign.