Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to reduce youth-related violence in Sutton Coldfield constituency.

This Government is determined to reduce youth-related violence. This includes giving the police the resources and tools they need to keep families, communities and our country safe. The Government has recently launched a national campaign to begin to recruit 20,000 new police officers over the next three years, and we are making it easier for the police to use stop and search powers. Police funding is increasing by more than £1 billion this year, including council tax and additional funding through the £100 million Serious Violence Fund. This Fund covers 18 areas worst affected by serious violence and includes £63.4 million for surge operational activity, £35 million to support Violence Reduction Units, and £1.6 million to help improve the quality of data on serious violence. West Midlands PCC is receiving £7,620,000 for surge operational activity and up to £3,370,000 to support the development of their Violence Reduction Unit.

The Government is also investing over £220 million into early intervention projects to steer young people away from crime. The West Midlands PCC was awarded over £2m from the Early Intervention Youth Fund to target resources and interventions at the young people most at risk and we recently awarded over £170k from the anti-knife crime Community Fund to projects in the West Midlands. Additionally, projects in Birmingham will benefit from investment from the first allocations from the Youth Endowment Fund.