Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help reduce gang-related activity in London.

The Government is committed to tackling the harm caused by gang-related activity, including preventing serious violence and drug-related activity.

On serious violence, we are taking a twin-track approach; combining tough enforcement to get dangerous weapons off the streets – including through stop and search methods – with programmes that steer young people away from crime.

Since 2019, we have allocated the London Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) £33.7m, including £12.6m this financial year (2022/23). The London VRU delivers a range of interventions that support young people at risk of involvement in serious violence and gangs, which requires close work with those local communities affected.

We are also continuing to provide funding to the Metropolitan Police to increase enforcement activity in areas where the most violence occurs, through our Grip hotspot policing programme. The Government has allocated approximately £52.6m over the last three years to the Grip programme in London, including £7.9m for this financial year (2022/23). Through this programme, the Metropolitan Police are delivering data-driven, targeted visible patrols to suppress violence where it is most concentrated.

On tackling drug-related activity, we are investing up to £145m over the next three years to bolster our flagship County Lines Programme, which has already resulted in over 2,900 lines closed, over 8,000 arrests and in the engagement of over 9,500 individuals through safeguarding interventions. As part of this programme, we are funding the Metropolitan Police’s Operation Orochi, to support activity to disrupt and close lines originating in London.

We are also funding Catch22 to provide a specialist support and rescue service for under 25’s from the major exporting force areas (London, the West Midlands, Merseyside and Greater Manchester), and their families, who are criminally exploited through county lines, to help them safely reduce and exit their involvement.