Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to (a) decrease the total number of knife crimes and (b) support programmes that aim to educate young people of the dangers and consequences of carrying such weapons.

The Government is very concerned about increases in knife crime and its impact on victims, families and communities. The action we are taking is set out in our Serious Violence Strategy and includes new legislation in the Offensive Weapons Bill and continuing police action under Operation Sceptre. We have also been supporting the #knifefree media campaign to raise awareness of the consequences of knife crime and discourage young people from carrying knives. The campaign features real testimonies of young people, and it is being promoted via social media as well as traditional channels of communication, including lesson plans for schools.

The Serious Violence Strategy includes a strong focus on prevention and early intervention to stop young people being drawn in to knife crime. We are supporting early intervention and prevention with children and young people through 29 projects announced in November that we are funding with £17.7m through the Early Intervention Youth Fund and we are supporting 68 small community projects this year through £1.5 million from the anti-knife crime Community Fund. In addition, we have extended our support for Redthread in hospital emergency departments to introduce its “teachable moment” youth violence intervention work to hospitals in Birmingham and Nottingham.