Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of male mentors needed to befriend and support boys and young men growing up without a father in the home in areas with high prevalence of knife crime or gang membership.

The Government’s Serious Violence Strategy sets out our analysis of the drivers of serious violence and risk factors of involvement in violent crime. There are a range of complex factors behind the recent increases in serious violence, and the analysis in the strategy sets out that a major factor has been changes in the drugs market. The strategy also sets out the key risk factors which may mean a young person may have a greater propensity to get involved in crime than would otherwise be the case such as school absence, peer pressure and family circumstances.

We are supporting a range of locally led community projects through the anti-knife crime Community Fund and Early Intervention Youth Fund to intervene early with young people at risk of criminal involvement, gang exploitation and county lines. While no specific assessment of numbers have been made, a number of these projects make use of male mentors who are able to gain the trust of young people and who are more likely to convey the right messages in appropriate ways to deter young people from making the wrong choices.

We are also introducing a new £200 million Youth Endowment Fund, to be delivered over 10 years to support further interventions in this area to steer young people away from becoming serious offenders. We are also piloting a new community advocate programme within priority areas in London and Manchester to help equip trusted adults with advice and messages to support and signpost young people who can be hard to reach in having #knifefree conversations.