Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to support schools in educating students about the dangers of knife crime.

In April 2018 the Government published the Serious Violence Strategy. It set out action being taken to address serious violence, and in particular the recent increases in knife crime, gun crime and homicide. The strategy set out 61 commitments from Government, including new legislation in the Offensive Weapons Bill to strengthen police capability, and working with young people to encourage them to take up positive activities rather than get involved in crime.

Alongside the legislative measures in the Bill the Government is taking forward a number of other actions, including a national knife crime media campaign, “#knifefree”, to raise awareness of the consequences of knife crime and discourage young people from carrying knives. As part of this, the Home Office have created a “#knifefree” resource for teachers.

The Department is also making Relationships Education compulsory in primary schools, and Relationships and Sex Education compulsory in secondary schools. These subjects will help young people understand safe, respectful and positive relationships and appropriate ways of resolving conflict, including that resorting to violence is never right. The Department is currently considering the responses to the recent consultation on the draft regulations and guidance for the new subjects, and expect to publish the response and lay regulations in Spring 2019.