Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith is visiting Oxford to find out about the latest methods of tackling youth crime.

Oxford is the penultimate destination on his three-week national tour of the UK, and on Thursday (October 31) he will meet staff from the county's Youth Offending Team at the Westgate Centre to discuss restorative justice.

Before his visit to Oxford city centre, he will get a private briefing at Thames Valley Police headquarters in Kidlington about the restorative justice initiative, which encourage criminals, in some cases, to meet their victims.

The force has been running the initiative for a number of years to help rehabilitate offenders.

Mr Duncan Smith has been discussing problem-solving projects with community groups across the country.

These included a parents' group in Birmingham concerned that children were being lured into gang-related gun-crime and a project in Manchester that removed graffiti and rubbish, which helped crime levels to drop by 45 per cent.

A Conservative Party spokesman said at the start of the tour: "The idea is we will be finding out what people's views are on the ground and Iain will bring these back to Parliament.

"The tour isn't just about going to inner-city areas, it will cover crime blighted towns the length and breadth of Britain. The tour is a demonstration that we are prepared to leave behind the Westminster village to find out how the policies we outlined can help people across the country."