Knives: Crime

(asked on 14th December 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 (a) Stoke-on-Trent and (b) Kidsgrove.


Answered by
Kit Malthouse Portrait
Kit Malthouse
This question was answered on 22nd December 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 additional police officers by March 2023 and the amount of funding available to the policing system for 2020/21 will increase by up to £1.1 billion, totalling £15.2 billion. Staffordshire Police will receive up to £211.1 million in 2020-21, an increase of 7.3% from 2019-20. Staffordshire have also been allocated 90 additional officers in the first year of uplift. As at 30 September 2020, the force is +55 officers into uplift against its baseline and is therefore well on its way towards its year one allocation.

We have tightened the law on knives through the Offensive Weapons Act 2019, which also introduced Knife Crime Prevention Orders. We have recently completed a public consultation on the introduction of Serious Violence Reduction Orders, to make it easier for the police to stop and search those who have been convicted of knife crime. While it is vital that the police have the resources and powers they need to tackle knife crime and serious violence, this is not a matter for the police alone. It is important that we also invest in prevention and early intervention to stop young people being drawn into violence in the first place. This is why we have invested a further £200 Million through the 10-Year Youth Endowment Fund to ensure those most at risk are given the opportunity to turn away from violence and lead positive lives. In addition, through the Early Intervention Youth Fund, which ran from 2018-2020, Staffordshire received £392,700 to develop a coordinated local approach to tackling serious violence.

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