Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that police resources for tackling knife crime at a local level are used effectively.

This Government has set out an unprecedented mission to halve knife crime over the next decade.

As part of the £1 billion increase for policing in 2025-6 set out by the Home Secretary at the provisional police funding settlement, the Home Office is providing £49.7m for the continuation of the Violence Reduction Unit programme in 20 areas across England and Wales.

VRUs are delivering a whole system approach to tackling violence, including knife crime, bringing key local partners together to understand the local drivers of violence, and agree and deliver a coordinated response, including delivery of early intervention and prevention programmes aimed at diverting young people from involvement in crime and violence.

We will continue to build on, and learn from, this work during the development of our new Young Futures Programme