Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what communications have had with (1) the police, and (2) third-sector organisations, about preventative, non-criminal justice approaches to reducing knife crime.

The Government is determined to tackle the scourge of knife crime and other serious violence, which is having a devastating effect on too many victims, families and communities. We are providing the police with the resources and powers they need, including recruiting an extra 20,000 officers over the next three years. Through regular dialogue with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and direct with forces themselves, we will continue to support the police and a wide range of other partners about the challenges they face in tackling serious violence.

The Serious Violence Strategy, published in April 2018, put a new emphasis on prevention and early intervention alongside continuing, robust enforcement. We have also worked with voluntary sector organisations via continuous discussions and visits to support delivery under a number of funding streams. These include the Government’s anti-knife crime Community Fund, where we have supported 175 projects in local communities delivered by voluntary sector agencies to tackle knife crime in the three years since 2017/18. They also include the 40 projects under the £22 million Early Intervention Youth Fund, working with children and young people across England and Wales, which have been delivered by the third sector in some areas and local authorities in others and are supported by Police and Crime Commissioners. In addition, we are providing £200m over the next 10 years through a Youth Endowment Fund to focus on those most at risk of youth violence including those displaying signs such as truancy, aggression and involvement in anti-social behaviour in order to steer them away from becoming serious offenders.

We have also invested £35 million from the £100 million Serious Violence Fund in Violence Reduction Units as a key component of our action to tackle the root causes of serious violence. Violence Reduction Units are non-statutory partnerships which offer leadership and strategic coordination of the local response to serious violence by bringing together police, local government, health and education professionals, community leaders and other key partners to identify the drivers of serious violence and agree a multi-agency response.