Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to tackle serious violence; and if he will make a statement.

In April 2018 the Government published the Serious Violence Strategy which sets out a comprehensive set of 61 commitments and actions we are taking to tackle violent crime. This included launching a £22m Early Intervention Youth Fund which is already supporting 29 projects in England and Wales, a national knife crime media campaign - #knife free; a new National County Lines Co-ordination Centre to tackle this violent and exploitative criminal activity; and the Offensive Weapons Bill to strengthen legislation on firearms, knives and corrosive substances.

In addition, on 2 October 2018 the Home Secretary announced further important measures including a consultation on a new legal duty to support a multi-agency approach to preventing and tackling serious violence, a new long term £200 million Youth Endowment Fund, and an Independent Review of Drug Misuse. On 1 April the Home Secretary launched the consultation on a public health approach to tackling violent crime. This will ensure that all parts of the Public Sector have a responsibility to help vulnerable young people. As part of this we have proposed a new statutory duty on partners across education, social services and health to work together to tackle violence. It is important that we recognise that greater law enforcement on its own will not reduce serious violence and that we must continue to focus on prevention.

On 13 March the Chancellor of the Exchequer also announced that an additional £100 million funding for serious violence in 2019/20 to help the police’s immediate response to the rise in serious knife crime, and also to support investment in Violence Reduction Units, bringing together a range of agencies including health, education, social services and others, to develop a multi-agency approach in preventing serious violence altogether.

Most recently, on 1 April the Prime Minister hosted the Serious Youth Violence Summit to continue to drive cross-government action to tackle serious violence. The Prime Minister will also Chair a Ministerial Taskforce, within government, focussed on improving and better coordinating our response to knife crime.