Government wants mandatory life sentences for more crimes
Mandatory life sentences will for the first time be extended to crimes other than murder under plans set out by Justice Secretary Ken Clarke.
Anyone convicted of a second serious sexual or violent crime in England and Wales would get an automatic life term.
A new offence for 16 and 17-year-olds of threatening with a knife would also carry a mandatory custodial term.
Labour's Sadiq Khan welcomed the knife measure but said other changes could see dangerous offenders freed.
The BBC's home affairs correspondent Tom Symonds reports.
27 Oct 2011