Knives: Crime

(asked on 30th October 2020) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to reduce knife crime in Sussex.


Answered by
Kit Malthouse Portrait
Kit Malthouse
This question was answered on 9th November 2020

This Government is determined to turn the tide on knife crime in all areas, wherever it occurs. Across England and Wales, we are recruiting 20,000 more police officers over the next three years and increasing sentences for violent criminals. We have made it easier for the police to use enhanced stop and search powers and we will introduce a new court order, Serious Violence Reduction Orders, to make it easier for the police to stop and search those who have been convicted of knife crime. In addition, we have legislated through the Offensive Weapons Act 2019 to give the police more powers and to ensure knives are less likely to make their way on to the streets and we will introduce new Knife Crime Prevention Orders, a preventative order which will provide an additional tool for police to help steer those most at risk away from serious violence. We will also be introducing new legislation to place a duty on the police, councils and health authorities to work together to prevent and tackle serious violence.

Over the last 12 months, we have increased police funding, by £1 billion this year and announced that the amount of funding available to the policing system in 2020 to 2021 will increase by more than £1.1 billion. Sussex Police have received £309.9 Million in 2020-21, an increase of 7.6% from 2019-20 and have recruited 114 additional officers under uplift (as at end of June 2020).

We have also announced a targeted £25 million to tackle county lines drug gangs, given the links between drugs, county lines and serious violence.

This government has committed £76.5 million in 2020/21 to address the drivers of serious violence at the local level and significantly bolster the police response in the 18 Police Force areas most affected by serious violence across England and Wales. This builds on the £100 million invested in the previous year. Of this, Sussex Police has been allocated £2.2 million over two years to pay for a surge in police operational activity, such as increased patrols in greater numbers for longer periods of times, as well as new equipment and technology, improved intelligence and targeting, and an enhanced investigative response. A further £1.8m from the Fund was invested in developing Sussex Police’s Violence Reduction Unit (VRU).

VRUs will be distributing a further £2.9 million to hundreds of frontline charities working on violence prevention projects which support vulnerable children and young people. More than 300 charities will share in the financial assistance, which is part of the £750 million package of support for charities announced by the Chancellor in April. Sussex VRU received £74,720 and is also supporting 9 charities.

In addition to the Serious Violence Fund, in 2018 we invested £200 million in early intervention and prevention support initiatives over 10 years to support children and young people at risk of exploitation and involvement in serious violence, through the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF). In Sussex, one project has been offered funding for £93,500 under the Covid grant round.

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