Asked by: Kate Kniveton (Conservative - Burton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to provide (a) funding and (b) infrastructure support to (i) local and (ii) community projects to tackle (A) knife crime and (B) violence against women and girls.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government recognises the important role played by local and community projects in efforts to effectively tackle knife crime and violence against women and girls.
The Government has made £130m available this year alone (22/23) to tackle serious violence, including murder and knife crime. This includes £64m for Violence Reduction Units, which bring together key partners locally to address violence. VRUs take a public health approach to reducing violence, which includes as a central tenet working with and for community.
VRUs deliver a range of interventions that support young people at risk of involvement in serious violence, which requires close work with those local communities affected. Interventions commissioned by the VRU are often co-produced between statutory bodies and community organisations, to ensure shared support for those who need it most.
For example, in Greater Manchester, the VRU commissions hyper-local activity in communities across each of their ten local districts. This includes a pilot conducted in Salford, which identified 27 young people deemed to be at high-risk of becoming involved in violence over the summer holidays. Through a series of diversionary activities in the community, 26 of the 27-strong cohort had now become involved in education, employment or training by September 2021.
Additionally, this Government is determined to deliver on the commitments set out in Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy and the Domestic Abuse Plan. To achieve this, we have allocated £15.5m this financial year to activity to support victims and better establish what works to prevent VAWG. This will be delivered in part via local and/or community projects. We have also allocated £25m to perpetrator programmes and research, and £12m in response to the Rape Review (£5m to Operation Soteria and £7m to enhance the technical capability of police when dealing with Rape and other Serious Sexual Offences.)
Asked by: Kate Kniveton (Conservative - Burton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to increase police capacity in Staffordshire to tackle serious violent crimes.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We are increasing the number of police officers in England and Wales by 20,000 by the end of March 2023 and I am pleased to say excellent progress is being made in delivering against this target.
Due to their hard work and commitment, police forces in England and Wales have already recruited 11,053 additional officers, 55% of the 20,000-officer target.
As at 30 September 2021, Staffordshire police had recruited 149 additional officers against a combined allocation of 179 additional officers for years one and two of the uplift programme. These officers are tackling crime and keeping the communities of Staffordshire, safe. The deployment of officers is a decision for operationally independent Chief Constables.
We are committed to reducing serious violence and putting an end to the tragedies afflicting our communities. It is important that we work across government, statutory, private, and voluntary sectors to turn the tide of violence and deliver change. Tackling serious violence forms a key part of the Government’s Beating Crime Plan, which sets out our strategic vision to cut crime and protect victims. The Government is making £130.5m available this year to tackle serious violence, including murder and knife crime.
We acknowledge there is more to do which is why we are bringing forward the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill so the law-abiding majority can be confident they are safe.
Asked by: Kate Kniveton (Conservative - Burton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of Knife Crime Prevention Orders; and when those orders will be rolled out to police forces across England and Wales.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Knife Crime Prevention Orders have been introduced to protect lives and to prevent vulnerable people from becoming serious criminals. The police are confident they will be a valuable additional tool to prevent crime and keep our communities safe.
On 5 July 2021, we introduced the pilot for Knife Crime Prevention Orders across the Metropolitan Police area. There will be a robust and scientific evaluation of the pilot and it will allow us to judge the effectiveness of the orders before any decision is taken about whether to roll out the orders nationally. A report following the pilot must also be laid before Parliament before Knife Crime Prevention Orders can be introduced across England and Wales.
Asked by: Kate Kniveton (Conservative - Burton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum seekers are currently being accommodated in hotels in Burton constituency; and how much that accommodation cost the public purse in the most recent period for which data are available.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The number of asylum seekers accommodated in each local authority can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/asylum-and-resettlement-datasets#asylum-support
Accommodation costs are considered to be commercially confidential so we do not provide this information, however, total asylum spends are published as part of transparency data https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-transparency-data
Data is published on a quarterly basis from 31st March 2014 with the latest information covering until 30th June 2020. The next quarterly figures are due to be released in November 2020
Asked by: Kate Kniveton (Conservative - Burton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to paragraph 1.119 of the Budget 2020 Red Book, how she plans to allocate the £10 million funding for domestic abuse; and if she will take urgent steps to allocate that funding in response to the increase in domestic abuse as a result of the covid-19 social distancing measures.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government has committed to providing £10 million in 2020/21 for innovative new approaches to preventing domestic abuse, including work to expand projects like the ‘Drive’ perpetrator programme.
The Home Office is currently working with key voluntary and statutory organisations to ensure that this funding is used effectively to deliver immediate and longer-term improvement to our response to domestic abuse and domestic abuse perpetrators.