Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he plans to introduce a Violence Reduction Unit within the Dorset constabulary to tackle knife crime in Bournemouth.

The Government is committed to ensuring that the police have the resources they need to tackle violent crime. That is why I have recently confirmed Dorset’s police funding settlement of £179.8 million in 2024/25, an increase of up to £11.1 million when compared to 2023/24. In addition, in recognition of recent exceptional policing demand arising in Bournemouth, I am pleased to have recently approved, on an exceptional basis, an additional £600k in 23/24 to enable Dorset Police to respond to this pressure.

Serious Violence is strongly linked to specific geographies, and, to ensure maximum impact, Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) funding is accordingly allocated in accordance with volumes of serious violence (as measured by hospital admissions relating to injury with a sharp object). This means that Violence Reduction Unit funding is allocated to 20 Police Force Areas, not including Dorset, which collectively account for around 80% of total relevant admissions.

However, the Government also recognises that a preventative approach to tackling violence will also benefit in other parts of England and Wales with lower levels of violent crime and that is why we have introduced the Serious Violence Duty, which requires relevant agencies to work in partnership to tackle violence. Funding has also been provided to support implementation of the duty (for Dorset amounting to £292kin the 23/24, with funding continuing in 24/25) which can be used to support delivery of a Violence Reduction Unit based approach in Dorset.