Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to help tackle knife crime using public health methods.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Tackling serious violence, including knife crime, is a top priority for the Government. As set out in our Serious Violence Strategy, we are taking a multi-agency approach that brings together different sectors and stresses the importance of early intervention to tackle the root causes of violence.
To reinforce this approach, on 1 April, we launched a consultation on a new legal duty to underpin a public health approach to tackling serious violence. The consultation, which will close on 28 May can be found on the gov.uk website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/serious-violence-new-legal-duty-to-support-multi-agency-action].
Between 1 and 4 April 2019, the Prime Minister hosted a Serious Youth Violence Summit at 10 Downing Street, with the support of the Home Secretary and other Secretaries of State to ensure a shared understanding and commitment to the multi-agency, public health approach to tackling knife crime and serious violence. A new Ministerial Taskforce, chaired by the Prime Minister, has been created to drive cross-government action. A report summarising the key discussion points can be found on the gov.uk website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prime-ministers-summit-on-serious-youth-violence.
In addition, on 13 March the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced an additional £100 million funding for this year to tackle serious violence, which includes funding to support investment in Violence Reduction Units to support cross-sector work. The Violence Reduction Units will bring together a range of public agencies, such as the police, education, health partners, offender management, local authorities and others to tackle serious youth violence.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the findings of the College of Policing's knife crime briefing published in April 2019.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
We welcome the Knife Crime Evidence Briefing published by the College of Policing on 27 April as a valuable contribution to the response to knife crime and serious violence. The report is consistent with the evidence and approach that we set out in the Serious Violence Strategy which we published in April last year. Specifically, the briefing supports the Government’s view that tackling knife crime and serious violence cannot be solely focused on law enforcement, but it should also involve a multi-agency approach involving a wide range of sectors, including education, health, social services, housing, youth services, victim services and others. This is why we launched our consultation on a new legal duty to ensure public bodies take action to prevent serious violence on 1 April. The consultation explores how a legal duty will support effective multi-agency work. It is open to everyone to respond and can be found here https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/serious-violence-new-legal-duty-to-support-multi-agency-action. The consultation closes on 28 May.
The College of Policing briefing is consistent with the approach we are tak-ing through the £22 million Early Intervention Youth Fund, which is already supporting 29 projects delivering interventions to young people at risk of becoming involved in knife crime and serious violence. We have also launched the £200 million Youth Endowment Fund, which will be delivered over the next 10 years to support interventions with children and young people at risk of involvement in crime and violence, focusing on those most at risk to steer them away from violence and to offer them a better future. In addition, our national knife crime media campaign - #knifefree – is raising awareness of the consequences of knife crime amongst young people, and through the Offensive Weapons Bill we will be introducing new Knife Crime Prevention Orders to help the police divert young people who they know are at risk of becoming involved in knife crime, to make more positive life choices.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will hold discussions with representatives of (a) Operation Shutdown, (b) bereaved family members, (c) grassroots and other youth and community groups and (d) other stakeholders on the Government's public health approach to tackling the increase in knife crime.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Home Secretary and Ministers regularly meet families, victims and a range of other stakeholders to discuss issues around knife crime and serious violence. Tackling serious violence is a top priority for the Government and it is clear we must continue to step up the response to stop this violence. The Serious Violence Strategy sets out the Government’s approach, which depends on a multi-agency ‘public health’ approach across several sectors and stresses the importance of early intervention to tackle the root causes. We have also taken a number of steps towards introducing a multi-agency ‘public health’ approach to knife crime and serious violence.
On 1 April we launched a public consultation on a new legal duty to support a ‘public health’ multi-agency approach to preventing and tackling serious violence. This statutory duty would make serious violence a top priority for all key partners, ensuring that they are working together to prevent young people being caught in the criminal cycle. The consultation, which closes on 28 May, can be found on the Gov.UK website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications?departments%5B%5D=home-office&publication_filter_option=consultations
On 13 March the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a further £100 million funding in 2019/20 to help in the police’s immediate response to the rise in serious knife crime, enabling priority forces to immediately begin planning to put in place the additional capacity they need. £35m of this Serious Violence Fund will support the setting up of Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) in areas most affected by knife crime. The VRUs will be similar to the Glasgow model, bringing together a range of agencies including health, education, social services and others, to develop a multi-agency approach in preventing serious violence altogether.
In October 2018 the Home Secretary announced a ten-year £200m Youth Endowment Fund, focused on targeted early intervention with those children and young people most vulnerable to involvement in serious violence. This will form an important part of the multi-agency, public health; approach to serious violence.
On 1 to 4 April 2019 the Prime Minister hosted a Serious Youth Violence Summit at 10 Downing Street, with the support of the Home Secretary and Secretaries of State. The central aim of the summit was to ensure a shared understanding and commitment to a multi-agency, ‘public health’ approach to tackling knife crime and serious violence more generally. An outcome of the Summit is the creation of a new Ministerial Taskforce, chaired by the Prime Minister, to drive cross-government action. This will be supported by a new, dedicated, serious violence team in the Cabinet Office to support cross-departmental coordination.
Asked by: Lord Selkirk of Douglas (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to roll-out CCTV in areas which have high violent crime rates, including of knife crime.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
While most public space CCTV systems are owned, monitored and managed by local authorities, the Government has supported local initiatives to inform the effective deployment of CCTV and is supportive of police and local authorities’ use of CCTV in helping to prevent and tackle serious violence. This is consistent with the focus of the Serious Violence Strategy, in using all available tools and techniques to respond to recent rises in serious violence. Since the launch of the Strategy in April 2018, we have, amongst a raft of activities, launched a £22m Early Intervention Youth Fund which is already supporting 29 projects in England and Wales, a national knife crime media campaign - #knife free; a new National County Lines Co-ordination Centre to tackle this violent and exploitative criminal activity; and the Offensive Weapons Bill to strengthen legislation on firearms, knives and corrosive substances.
On 2 October 2018 the Home Secretary announced further important measures including a consultation on new legal duty to support a multi-agency approach to preventing and tackling serious violence, a new long term £200 million Youth Endowment Fund, and an Independent Review of Drug Misuse
Most recently, on 13 March the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that an additional £100 million, including £80 million of new funding from HM Treasury, for serious violence in 2019/20 to help the police’s immediate response to the rise in knife crime, and to support investment in Violence Reduction Units, bringing together a range of agencies including health, education, social services and others, to develop a multi-agency approach in preventing serious violence altogether. It is important that we recognise that greater law enforcement on its own will not reduce serious violence and that we must continue to focus on prevention and early intervention alongside this.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the number of knives carried on the streets in Yorkshire and the Humber.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government is very concerned about increases in knife crime and its impact on victims, families and communities. The action we are taking is set out in our Serious Violence Strategy and includes new legislation in the Offensive Weapons Bill, raising awareness among young people of the dangers of carrying a knife, supporting local early intervention projects and continuing police action under Operation Sceptre. The latest anti-knife crime week of action under Operation Sceptre took place from 11-18 March.
We are encouraging the police to use stop and search. It is a vital policing tool when used correctly and officers have the Government's full support to use these powers in a targeted way that is fair, lawful and effective. The Home Secretary has announced he is relaxing voluntary best practice guidance around the use of Section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act, which allows officers to stop and search anyone in a designated area in anticipation of serious violence.
The changes will allow the police to more quickly and effectively use these powers in anticipation of serious violence, safeguarding the public.
We have also listened to the police request that we introduce new Knife Crime Prevention Orders to help them to divert those involved in knife crime away from a violent lifestyle. The Government introduced the new Order in the Offensive Weapons Bill, currently awaiting Royal Assent.
The Offensive Weapons Bill includes specific new knives offences, in par-ticular making it an offence to possess certain offensive weapons in private, and stopping knives being sent to residential addresses after they are bought online unless the seller has arrangements with a delivery company to verify age. These measures are designed to help the police in their re-sponse to knife crime.
In addition to supporting the police on law enforcement, our Serious Vio-lence Strategy stresses the importance of early intervention to tackle the root causes of serious violence and provide young people with the skills and resilience to lead productive lives free from violence. This is why we are providing £22 million to support early intervention and prevention projects through our Early Intervention Youth Fund which is already supporting 29 projects in England and Wales, including the Box Clever project in Humber-side.
We are also supporting a national knife crime media campaign - #knifefree - to raise awareness of the consequences of knife crime. Its initial campaign was launched in March 2018 across England and Wales and activity includ-ed video on demand, street posters, social media, digital audio and video and partner engagement. The latest campaign went live on 1 April 2019.
Last October, the Government also announced a new £200 million Youth Endowment Fund to be delivered over 10 years to support interventions with children and young people at risk of involvement in crime and violence, focusing on those most at risk to steer them away from becoming serious offenders. This is now up and running and the charity Impetus, working in partnership with the Early Intervention Foundation and Social Investment Business, is operating the Fund.
In addition, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced in the Spring Statement on 13 March that there will be £100 million additional funding for the police in 2019/20 to tackle serious violence, including £80m of new funding from the Treasury. The majority of the investment will largely go towards supporting police forces most affected by the violence we are see-ing, but the funding will also support Violence Reduction Units, bringing to-gether a range of agencies, including health, education, social services and others, to develop a multi-agency approach to preventing serious violence.
The Prime Minister also hosted the Serious Youth Violence Summit from 1 – 4 April that underlined the whole of Government approach we are taking to tackle this issue. At this summit, the Prime Minister announced she would be chairing a new Ministerial Taskforce, supported by a dedicated Cabinet Office team, to oversee the cross-government programme of ac-tion.
On 1 April, we also launched our consultation on a new legal duty to ensure public bodies take action to prevent serious violence. The consultation will close on 28 May. It explores how a legal duty will support effective multi-agency work. It is open to everyone to respond and can be found here https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/serious-violence-new-legal-duty-to-support-multi-agency-action.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the consultation on Serious violence: new legal duty to support multi-agency action published on 1 April 2019, what additional (a) training and (b) funding will be offered to public agencies to support proposed arrangements.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
On 1 April the Home Secretary published a consultation on a new legal duty to support a multi-agency or ‘public health’ approach to preventing and tackling serious violence. This builds on the programme of work outlined in the Serious Violence Strategy, published in April 2018, which brings together a range of partners across different sectors to form a multi-agency response.
This approach involves partners across different sectors, such as education, health, social services, offender management services, housing, youth and victim services, working closely with community and faith leaders, and the voluntary and charitable sectors, to take joint action to address the underlying risk factors that increase the likelihood that an individual will become a victim or a perpetrator of violence.
Our consultation seeks information on the potential impact on agencies and a full cost assessment will be undertaken on the preferred option. We have also committed to provide guidance alongside any new duty.
The consultation will be open for a period of 8 weeks and will close on 28 May.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to tackle serious violence; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
In April 2018 the Government published the Serious Violence Strategy which sets out a comprehensive set of 61 commitments and actions we are taking to tackle violent crime. This included launching a £22m Early Intervention Youth Fund which is already supporting 29 projects in England and Wales, a national knife crime media campaign - #knife free; a new National County Lines Co-ordination Centre to tackle this violent and exploitative criminal activity; and the Offensive Weapons Bill to strengthen legislation on firearms, knives and corrosive substances.
In addition, on 2 October 2018 the Home Secretary announced further important measures including a consultation on a new legal duty to support a multi-agency approach to preventing and tackling serious violence, a new long term £200 million Youth Endowment Fund, and an Independent Review of Drug Misuse. On 1 April the Home Secretary launched the consultation on a public health approach to tackling violent crime. This will ensure that all parts of the Public Sector have a responsibility to help vulnerable young people. As part of this we have proposed a new statutory duty on partners across education, social services and health to work together to tackle violence. It is important that we recognise that greater law enforcement on its own will not reduce serious violence and that we must continue to focus on prevention.
On 13 March the Chancellor of the Exchequer also announced that an additional £100 million funding for serious violence in 2019/20 to help the police’s immediate response to the rise in serious knife crime, and also to support investment in Violence Reduction Units, bringing together a range of agencies including health, education, social services and others, to develop a multi-agency approach in preventing serious violence altogether.
Most recently, on 1 April the Prime Minister hosted the Serious Youth Violence Summit to continue to drive cross-government action to tackle serious violence. The Prime Minister will also Chair a Ministerial Taskforce, within government, focussed on improving and better coordinating our response to knife crime.
Asked by: Baroness Stroud (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what support they are offering to communities outside London, including (1) Inverclyde, (2) Rochdale, (3) Manchester, (4) Boston, and (5) Leicester, to tackle knife-related crime.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
On 9 April 2018, the Government published a new Serious Violence Strategy to take action to address serious violence and in particular the recent increases in knife crime, gun crime and homicide. The Serious Violence Strategy set out the Government’s response to serious violence and it outlines an ambitious programme involving 61 commitments and actions. Since launching the Strategy in April last year, we have made significant progress in delivering on our key commitments including:
• The Early Intervention Youth Fund of £22m, which is already sup-porting 29 projects in England and Wales
• Provision of £3.6m for a new National County Lines Co-ordination Centre. The centre was established to tackle violent and exploitative criminal activity associated with county lines and became fully operational in September 2018;
• The National County Lines Coordination Centre has co-ordinated two separate weeks of intensive law enforcement action resulting in more than 1000 arrests, over 1300 individuals engaged for safeguarding, and significant seizures of weapons and drugs;
• An anti-knife crime Community Fund which provided £1.5 million in 2018/19 to support 68 projects;
• The Offensive Weapons Bill to strengthen legislation on firearms, knives and corrosive substances; and
• A national knife crime media campaign - #knifefree - to raise awareness of the consequences of knife crime.
On 2 October 2018 the Home Secretary announced further measures to address violent crime:
• a consultation on new legal duty to underpin a ‘public health’ ap-proach to tackling serious violence this would mean police officers, education partners, local authority and health care professionals will have a new legal duty to take action and prevent violent crime.
a new £200 million youth endowment fund- this will be delivered over 10 years and will support interventions with children and young people at risk of involvement in crime and violence. It will focus on those most at risk, such as those displaying signs such as truancy, aggression and involvement in anti-social behaviour; funding interventions to steer children and young people away from becoming serious offenders; and
• an Independent Review of Drug Misuse. On 8 February, we appointed Dame Carol Black to lead a major review that will look into the ways in which drugs are fuelling serious violence.
The approach establishes a new balance between prevention and the rigorous law enforcement activity. It will shift our approach towards steering young people away from crime in the first place and put in place measures to tackle the root causes. We believe that the approach set out in the Strategy, with a greater emphasis on early intervention, will address violent crime and help young people to develop the skills and resilience to live happy and productive lives away from violence but we cannot deliver this alone
On 13 March the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced in the Spring Statement that there will be £100 million additional funding in 2019/20 to tackle serious violence, including £80m of new funding from the Treasury. This will allow police to swiftly crack-down on knife crime on the areas of the country and also allow investment in Violence Reduction Units.
Inverclyde is in Scotland and is therefore covered by the Scottish Government. Through the Early Intervention Youth Fund and the anti-knife crime Community Fund, we have invested in projects in Greater Manchester (including Rochdale) and Leicester. All forces, including Greater Manchester Police, Leicestershire Police and Lincolnshire Police (including Boston) participated earlier this month in Operation Sceptre, the national week of enforcement action against knife crime.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether representatives from the (a) Department of Health and (b) Department of Education have been to each meeting of the serious violence taskforce.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Serious Violence Taskforce, chaired by the Home Secretary, brings together partners from within government and across sectors to drive forward implementation of the Serious Violence Strategy. These partners include representatives from the Department for Education and representatives from the Health sectors who have been present at each of the Taskforce meetings. The Minister of State for Mental Health, Inequalities and Suicide Prevention attended the last meeting of the Serious Violence Taskforce and is now a permanent member.
Due to the nature of the discussions of the Serious Violence Taskforce, the minutes and actions of the meeting are not available publicly so to ensure an open discussion. The Taskforce is a valuable forum and it has led to the Home Secretary’s recent announcements on a new £200m Youth Endowment Fund, a consultation on the proposed new legal duty to support the public health approach to tackling violence, an independent review of drug misuse, and informed the recent announcement of £100m to support a police surge and investment in Violence Reduction Units.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will publish the (a) agendas and (b) attendees of each meeting of the serious violence taskforce from its inception to date.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Serious Violence Taskforce, chaired by the Home Secretary, brings together partners from within government and across sectors to drive forward implementation of the Serious Violence Strategy. These partners include representatives from the Department for Education and representatives from the Health sectors who have been present at each of the Taskforce meetings. The Minister of State for Mental Health, Inequalities and Suicide Prevention attended the last meeting of the Serious Violence Taskforce and is now a permanent member.
Due to the nature of the discussions of the Serious Violence Taskforce, the minutes and actions of the meeting are not available publicly so to ensure an open discussion. The Taskforce is a valuable forum and it has led to the Home Secretary’s recent announcements on a new £200m Youth Endowment Fund, a consultation on the proposed new legal duty to support the public health approach to tackling violence, an independent review of drug misuse, and informed the recent announcement of £100m to support a police surge and investment in Violence Reduction Units.