Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to support local authorities in preventing violent crime associated with anti-social behaviour.

Tackling violent crime and anti-social behaviour (ASB) are top government priorities and we are working tirelessly to keep young people, families, and communities safe. We know that involvement in anti-social behaviour can be an early indicator that someone may be more likely to become involved in violence, and so we take a joint approach to these challenges.

Estimates from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) showed there were 1.1 million violent offences in the year to September 2022, no significant change compared with the year ending March 2020 and a 38% fall compared with the year ending March 2010.

This year the Government has made £130m available to tackle serious violent crime. This includes £64m for Violence Reduction Units (VRUs), set up in the 20 areas worst affected by serious violence, which bring together partners including local authorities, to tackle the drivers in their area. VRUs deliver a range of early interventions and prevention programmes to divert people away from a life of crime. Our £30m ‘Grip’ police enforcement programme operates in the same 20 areas as VRUs and is helping to drive down violence by using highly data-driven process to identify violence hotspots – often to individual street level – and target operational activity in those areas. In the first three years of funded delivery, the Grip and VRU programmes have collectively prevented an estimated 136,000 violence offences.

To help combat ASB, we have provided the police, local authorities, and other local agencies with a range of flexible tools and powers that they can use to respond quickly and effectively to ASB through the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. The Act allows local areas to decide how best to deploy these powers depending on specific circumstances.

To further support local authorities, in July 2021 the Beating Crime Plan was published, which laid out the Government’s plan for tacking crime and ASB and committed to working with local agencies and partners to drive down ASB using the full range of powers and tools in the 2014 Act.

Lastly, at 31 December 2022, we have recruited 16,753 additional police officers in England and Wales through the Police Uplift Programme, 84% of the target of 20,000 officers by March 2023. By the end of March 2023, we will have the highest number of officers on record with over 148,400 in post surpassing the previous peak of 146,030 officers in March 2010.