Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she is having with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on a long term funding settlement for Violence Reduction Units ahead of the next Spending Review.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Over three years, the London Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) has been allocated £21 million from the Home Office’s Serious Violence Fund (SVF) to bring together key partners across health, education, policing, the criminal justice system, amongst others to identify the drivers of serious violence in London and deliver a tailored response to tackle them.
The VRU have utilised this funding to deliver a wide range of interventions which supported over 2750 young people in 2020/21. This includes innovative projects like the DIVERT programme, which engages with young people in custody immediately following a serious violence incident at a ‘teachable moment’ when they are expected to be most likely to change their behaviour.
This £21 million investment includes a £7 million allocation for London in the 2021/22 financial year. We have worked closely with the VRU on the development of their proposals for the year ahead, collaborating to ensure that effective interventions, structures, and partners are in place to respond to the root causes of violence across London’s 32 boroughs. These proposals have since been agreed and activity is being delivered throughout the summer months.
Future funding decisions are subject to the ongoing Spending Review, and we will engage with HM Treasury on proposals in due course as part of the departmental settlement. Whilst we cannot pre-empt the potential outcome of that process, we do recognise the need for VRUs to function as long-term, sustainable organisations and are working hard to achieve this.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to (a) change funding for Violence Reduction Units and (b) fund only for knife crime and serious violence reduction.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Over three years, through the Serious Violence Fund (SVF), the Home Office has invested a total of £242 million in the 18 police force areas in England and Wales that are most affected by serious violence.
£105.5 million of this has been invested in multi-agency Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) in these areas, whilst the remaining £136.5 million of the SVF has been invested to support the police in taking targeted action to respond to serious violence, including knife crime. Northumbria PCC has been allocated £4,800,000 since 2019 to set-up and develop their VRU, whilst Northumbria Police has been allocated £4,750,685 for operational activity.
The 18 areas in receipt of the SVF have been selected for funding based on their volumes of hospital admissions relating to injury with a sharp object, which represents the most consistent and reliable data source for serious violence. Collectively, these areas have accounted for 80% of total relevant admissions, allowing the SVF to focus on a significant majority of the serious violence problem across England and Wales. Total allocations to the selected areas reflect the proportion of relevant admissions in each area.
Future serious violence funding and potential allocation models will be carefully considered in the context of Departmental priorities through the upcoming Spending Review process. Whilst we cannot pre-empt the potential outcome of that process, we do recognise the need for VRUs to function as long-term, sustainable organisations delivering a ‘whole-systems’ approach to tackling serious violence and are working hard to achieve this.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of updating the areas eligible for Violence Reduction Unit funding.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We have invested £105.5m over three years into the Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) programme, establishing and developing 18 VRUs in the areas worst affected by serious violence. The minimum allocation any one VRU receives each financial year is £880,000. VRUs do not operate in a single form, therefore costs associated with their operations vary significantly; however, funding made available through the programme has been sufficient to allow for the establishment and sustainment of a range of VRU operating models.
These 18 areas have been selected for funding based on their volumes of hospital admissions relating to injury with a sharp object, which represents the most consistent and reliable data source for serious violence. Collectively, these areas have accounted for 80% of total relevant admissions, allowing VRU funding to focus on a significant majority of the serious violence problem across England and Wales.
A review of this data informed the most recent decisions about VRU funding made in February 2021. At this point, the available data demonstrated that the Humberside police force area, which includes the constituency of Haltemprice and Howden and county of East Riding of Yorkshire, did not feature in the ranked list of areas experiencing the greatest volume of hospital admissions for injury with a sharp object that collectively accounts for 80% of said admissions (i.e. the top 18 force areas, of which Humberside was not one, collectively accounted for 80% of relevant admissions). On this occasion, Ministers determined not to provide funding from the Serious Violence fund for Humberside.
Future VRU funding for currently eligible and ineligible areas, and any potential allocation models, will be carefully considered in the context of Departmental priorities through the upcoming Spending Review process.
Further information on the levels of police recorded crime within Haltemprice and Howden and/or East Riding of Yorkshire can be found in the Open Data Tables, available here: Police recorded crime and outcomes open data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). The Home Office collects and publishes this information at the CSP level; information on offences involving firearms or knives are available at the Police Force Area level from the same link.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what data her Department uses in determining which areas receive funding for Violence Reduction Units.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We have invested £105.5m over three years into the Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) programme, establishing and developing 18 VRUs in the areas worst affected by serious violence. The minimum allocation any one VRU receives each financial year is £880,000. VRUs do not operate in a single form, therefore costs associated with their operations vary significantly; however, funding made available through the programme has been sufficient to allow for the establishment and sustainment of a range of VRU operating models.
These 18 areas have been selected for funding based on their volumes of hospital admissions relating to injury with a sharp object, which represents the most consistent and reliable data source for serious violence. Collectively, these areas have accounted for 80% of total relevant admissions, allowing VRU funding to focus on a significant majority of the serious violence problem across England and Wales.
A review of this data informed the most recent decisions about VRU funding made in February 2021. At this point, the available data demonstrated that the Humberside police force area, which includes the constituency of Haltemprice and Howden and county of East Riding of Yorkshire, did not feature in the ranked list of areas experiencing the greatest volume of hospital admissions for injury with a sharp object that collectively accounts for 80% of said admissions (i.e. the top 18 force areas, of which Humberside was not one, collectively accounted for 80% of relevant admissions). On this occasion, Ministers determined not to provide funding from the Serious Violence fund for Humberside.
Future VRU funding for currently eligible and ineligible areas, and any potential allocation models, will be carefully considered in the context of Departmental priorities through the upcoming Spending Review process.
Further information on the levels of police recorded crime within Haltemprice and Howden and/or East Riding of Yorkshire can be found in the Open Data Tables, available here: Police recorded crime and outcomes open data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). The Home Office collects and publishes this information at the CSP level; information on offences involving firearms or knives are available at the Police Force Area level from the same link.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of funding for Violence Reduction Units.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We have invested £105.5m over three years into the Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) programme, establishing and developing 18 VRUs in the areas worst affected by serious violence. The minimum allocation any one VRU receives each financial year is £880,000. VRUs do not operate in a single form, therefore costs associated with their operations vary significantly; however, funding made available through the programme has been sufficient to allow for the establishment and sustainment of a range of VRU operating models.
These 18 areas have been selected for funding based on their volumes of hospital admissions relating to injury with a sharp object, which represents the most consistent and reliable data source for serious violence. Collectively, these areas have accounted for 80% of total relevant admissions, allowing VRU funding to focus on a significant majority of the serious violence problem across England and Wales.
A review of this data informed the most recent decisions about VRU funding made in February 2021. At this point, the available data demonstrated that the Humberside police force area, which includes the constituency of Haltemprice and Howden and county of East Riding of Yorkshire, did not feature in the ranked list of areas experiencing the greatest volume of hospital admissions for injury with a sharp object that collectively accounts for 80% of said admissions (i.e. the top 18 force areas, of which Humberside was not one, collectively accounted for 80% of relevant admissions). On this occasion, Ministers determined not to provide funding from the Serious Violence fund for Humberside.
Future VRU funding for currently eligible and ineligible areas, and any potential allocation models, will be carefully considered in the context of Departmental priorities through the upcoming Spending Review process.
Further information on the levels of police recorded crime within Haltemprice and Howden and/or East Riding of Yorkshire can be found in the Open Data Tables, available here: Police recorded crime and outcomes open data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). The Home Office collects and publishes this information at the CSP level; information on offences involving firearms or knives are available at the Police Force Area level from the same link.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will allocate long-term funding to Violence Reduction Units to enable them to (a) plan strategically for the future and (b) maximise their effectiveness.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
We have invested £70m over two years into the 18 areas worse affected by serious violence in England and Wales to support them in developing a Violence Reduction Unit (VRU).
VRUs are required to work across agencies to identify the root causes of violence and develop a strategy to prevent and reduce violence. We expect them to build on this platform over time and we hope to see VRUs operating beyond the end of 2021. That is why future funding for VRUs will be a key element of our spending review bid.