Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the findings of the College of Policing's knife crime briefing published in April 2019.

We welcome the Knife Crime Evidence Briefing published by the College of Policing on 27 April as a valuable contribution to the response to knife crime and serious violence. The report is consistent with the evidence and approach that we set out in the Serious Violence Strategy which we published in April last year. Specifically, the briefing supports the Government’s view that tackling knife crime and serious violence cannot be solely focused on law enforcement, but it should also involve a multi-agency approach involving a wide range of sectors, including education, health, social services, housing, youth services, victim services and others. This is why we launched our consultation on a new legal duty to ensure public bodies take action to prevent serious violence on 1 April. The consultation explores how a legal duty will support effective multi-agency work. It is open to everyone to respond and can be found here https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/serious-violence-new-legal-duty-to-support-multi-agency-action. The consultation closes on 28 May.

The College of Policing briefing is consistent with the approach we are tak-ing through the £22 million Early Intervention Youth Fund, which is already supporting 29 projects delivering interventions to young people at risk of becoming involved in knife crime and serious violence. We have also launched the £200 million Youth Endowment Fund, which will be delivered over the next 10 years to support interventions with children and young people at risk of involvement in crime and violence, focusing on those most at risk to steer them away from violence and to offer them a better future. In addition, our national knife crime media campaign - #knifefree – is raising awareness of the consequences of knife crime amongst young people, and through the Offensive Weapons Bill we will be introducing new Knife Crime Prevention Orders to help the police divert young people who they know are at risk of becoming involved in knife crime, to make more positive life choices.