Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate he has made of the number of (a) gang members in England, (b) gang members who are under the age of 18 and (c) children in England who are the sibling of a known gang member.

Information on the number of gang members is not collected centrally by the Home Office. We do know from our Ending Gang Violence and Exploitation local area reviews that some areas and police forces collect information local-ly on gang members but this is operational information which is locally held.

Our Serious Violence Strategy sets out our analysis of recent increases in violent crime and shows that increases in serious have been accompanied by a shift towards younger victims and perpetrators.

Our analysis also looks at the evidence of the key risk factors (e.g. school ab-sence, peer pressure etc.) which may mean a young person has a greater propensity to get involved in crime than would otherwise be the case. It also sets out the evidence supporting the importance of early intervention with young people and encouraging positive activities to engage them in and build links with their community.