Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of the 12 July 2021 to Question 28365 on the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, when her Department plans to publish the equality impact assessment relating to Part 4 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We aim to publish an equality impact assessment covering the Home Office measures in the Bill before Lords Second Reading.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make available the equality impact assessment relating to Part 4 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill 2021.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We will be publishing an equality impact assessment in relation to the Home Office provisions in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, including Part 4.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to reduce the rates of (a) gun and (b) knife offences in Liverpool.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government is committed to tackling gun crime and knife crime across England and Wales. Through the Offensive Weapons Act 2019 we have introduced a ban on certain rapid-firing rifles and we are also introducing greater regulation of antique firearms to prevent their misuse by criminals.
We have also consulted on statutory guidance on firearms licensing to improve standards and the consistency of police licensing decisions, and we have established a multi-agency national firearms threat assessment centre to improve our capability to disrupt the supply and use of illegal firearms by criminals and Organised Crime Groups. This unit works closely with Merseyside police and the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit.
The Offensive Weapons Act 2019 will also give the police with more powers to tackle knife crime and make it more difficult for young people to get hold of knives in the first place. The Act also introduces Knife Crime Prevention Orders which will give the police an important new tool to help them to help to steer those most at risk away from serious violence and knife crime.
Funding for Merseyside Police increased by £18.3 million last year and the Merseyside Police and Crime Commissioner has set out her plans to use this funding to recruit 80 more police officers. In addition, the Home Office has provided £100 million in 2019/2020 through the Serious Violence Fund. Of this, Merseyside Police has been allocated and additional £4.2 million this year from the Home Office Serious Violence Fund to pay for a surge in police operational activity against serious violence, and a further £3.37 million to develop Merseyside’s Violence Reduction Unit. This is a non-statutory partnership which offers leadership and strategic coordination of the local response to serious violence by bringing together police, local government, health and education professionals, community leaders and other keypartners to identify the drivers of serious violence and agree a multi-agency response. The Government has announced a further £35 million to continue funding Violence Reduction Units next year, and Merseyside has been allocated a further £3.37 million for 2020/21 as part of this.
The Government has also provided Merseyside Police and Crime Commissioner with £700,000 over two years through our £22 million Early Intervention Youth Fund for an early interventions programme targeting young people aged 8-19, to tackle serious violence and criminal exploitation. Under year 3 of the anti-knife crime Community Fund (2019-20), we have funded 5 community-based projects in Liverpool and Merseyside totalling £132,550.
We are also providing a targeted £25million to tackle county lines drugs gangs, given the links between drugs, county lines and serious violence.