Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the recommendations from the Home Affairs Select Committee in its report entitled Serious violence, HC 1016, published 31 July 2019, whether she plans to allocate dedicated police officers for schools located in areas with higher risk of youth violence.

The Government is committed to tackling serious violence and we are supporting the police to tackle these crimes. Police funding will increase by £1 billion this year, including council tax and the new £100 million Serious Violence Fund, which will support action in the most affected areas. The Prime Minister and Home Secretary also announced plans to recruit an additional 20,000 officers over the next three years.

Decisions on the deployment of individual officers are an operational matter for Chief Constables. In the Serious Violence Strategy, we recognise the benefits of building positive relationships between schools and police across a range of crime issues.