Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to reduce incidences of knife crime in (a) Romford constituency and (b) the UK.

This Government is determined to turn the tide on knife crime, wherever it occurs. This is why we are recruiting 20,000 more police officers over the next three years and increasing sentences for violent criminals. We have made it easier for the police to use enhanced stop and search powers and we will introduce a new court order to make it easier for the police to stop and search those who have been convicted of knife crime. We will ensure that anyone charged with knife possession will appear before magistrates within days and we are also making £10 million available to the police to equip more officers with tasers. We have also announced a targeted £20 million to tackle county lines drug gangs, we have launched the £200 million Youth Endowment Fund to support children and young people most vulnerable from becoming involved in crime and violence, including reoffending, and put in place a landmark review into drug misuse. The first grant round of the Youth Endowment Fund took place in 2019-20. 23 successful projects located across England and Wales will share £17.1m over 2 years. Twelve projects are being delivered in London and the surrounding areas, including one in the Boroughs of Havering, Barking and Dagenham, Redbridge and Thurrock.

Funding for policing is increasing by £1 billion this year, including council tax, and we have recently announced the amount of funding available to the policing system in 2020 to 2021 will increase by more than £1.1 billion. In addition, through the Serious Violence Fund we are providing £63.4 million to the 18 police forces worst affected by serious violence to pay for surge operational activity, such as increased patrols, which sees an additional £20.8 million for the Metropolitan Police. The Serious Violence Fund is also providing £1.6 million to help improve the quality of data on serious violence, particularly knife crime, to support planning and operations. In addition, we are providing £35 million through the Fund to support Violence Reduction Units, which form a key component of our action to build capacity in local areas to tackle serious violence.

The Government will also change the law so that police, councils and health authorities are legally required to work together to prevent and tackle serious violence, and the Offensive Weapons Act introduces new laws which to give police extra powers to seize dangerous weapons and ensure knives are less likely to make their way onto the streets in the first place.