Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he plans to provide additional funding to help tackle (a) knife and (b) gun crime.

The Government remains committed to providing the resources needed to tackle violent crime. This includes taking firm action to protect the public by addressing the threat of criminals gaining access to illegal firearms including implementing legislation to prevent legally held firearms getting into the hands of criminals.

In 2023/24 we allocated £55m to Violence Reduction Units, £12.9m to support delivery of the Serious Violence Duty and £30m to ‘Grip’ hotspot policing patrols to tackle serious violence. Work is ongoing to continue this activity in 2024/25.

In the 2024 Spring Budget, the Chancellor committed an additional £75 million over 3-years from 2025 to upscale existing violence reduction units and expand activity across England and Wales, supporting a prevention first approach to serious violence.