The Office for National Statistics today issued its latest set of crime data. The Policing Minister's response is carried below.
Minister for Policing and the Fire Service, Nick Hurd said:
Tackling the impact of violent crime remains a government priority and it is crucial to stamp this out. Since March we have taken urgent and unprecedented action which is having an impact and knife crime is stabilising in London and slowing in the rest of the country.
We recognise that young people are most at risk of falling victim to knife crime and our Serious Violence Strategy sets out a multi-agency approach, which includes a greater focus on early intervention. We are investing a further £220m in community early intervention projects and have made clear that all public bodies need to treat serious violence as a priority and will be consulting on making it a legal duty.
We must also provide the police with the necessary powers to tackle violent crime, that is why we have listened to their concerns about rising demand and have proposed the biggest increase in police funding since 2010. I’m confident the new settlement, which delivers up to £970m of additional public investment into policing in 2019/20, will help the police continue to recruit more officers.
Serious Violence Strategy
- In April 2018, the Government published the Serious Violence Strategy. It represents a step change in the way the Government responds to serious violence. Our approach is not solely focused on law enforcement, but depends also on a multi-agency approach across a number of sectors such as education, health, social services, housing, youth services, victim services and others.
- The 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.
- The Serious Violence Strategy set out 61 commitments that the Government will be taking forward to tackle violent crime, which includes:
- providing £17.7m over the next two years through a new Early Intervention Youth Fund to work with PCCs and CSPs to provide joined up support to youth groups and communities to support early intervention and prevention with young people. The Home Secretary has said that the money not spent in 18/19 for the EIYF is available to support other serious violence projects this financial year.
- a new £3.6m National County Lines Co-ordination Centre to tackle violent and exploitative criminal activity associated with county lines.
- a new Offensive Weapons Bill to strengthen up legislation on firearms, knives and corrosive substances;
- £1.4m to support a new national police capability to tackle gang related activity on social media;
- national knife crime media campaign - #knifefree - to raise awareness of the consequences of knife crime; and
- a Serious Violence Taskforce, which is chaired by the Home Secretary and brings together Ministers, Members of Parliament, the Mayor of London, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Director General of the National Crime Agency, other senior police leaders, and public sector and voluntary sector chief executives. It meets regularly to oversee and drive delivery of the strategy.
- introducing new knife Crime Prevention Orders through the Offensive Weapons Bill.
- On 2 October 2018 the Home Secretary announced further measures to address violent crime in the UK including:
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- a consultation on new legal duty to underpin a ‘public health’ approach to tackling serious violence
- a new £200 million youth endowment fund
- an independent review of drug misuse