Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the earliest date is that police forces can expect to receive 2021-22 Violence Reduction Unit allocations.

Programme level Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) funding was initially announced in April 2019. Police and Crime Commissioners were then advised in August of the individual amounts that they, working in partnership with other VRU representatives, would be eligible to apply for. The date at which individual VRU awards were confirmed varied, as this was dependent on successful completion of an application process and individual agreement of grant agreements. The following year (20/21), programme level VRU funding and the amounts that Violence Reduction Unit partnerships would be eligible to apply for via Police and Crime Commissioners was confirmed in December 2019. Again, the date at which individual VRU awards were confirmed varied, as this was dependent on successful completion of an application process and individual agreement of grant agreements. Programme level funding for 21/22 was announced in February 2021 and, as in previous years, the funding will be dependent on successful completion of an application process and individual agreement of grant agreements. Officials are in touch with the VRUs in relation to the applications for the 2021/22 funding round. We expect that the information on the applications will be shared in the near future. The applications will be accompanied by bespoke support from the Home Office, in order to enable VRUs to provide the strongest possible application.