To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to combat the rise in (1) youth gang-related violence, and (2) knife crime.
Answered on
19 March 2019
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. 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.
Significant progress has been made in delivering our key commitments including launching a £22m Early Intervention Youth Fund which is already supporting 29 projects in England and Wales, providing £3.6m for a new National County Lines Co-ordination Centre to tackle violent and exploitative criminal activity associated with county lines and providing support for a new national police capability to tackle gang related activity on social media. To tackle knife crime, we are providing £1.5 million in 2018/19 through an anti-knife crime Community Fund to support 68 projects and a national knife crime media campaign - #knife free - to raise awareness of the consequences of knife crime. We have also introduced 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 to address violent crime including a consultation on new legal duty to support a multi-agency approach to preventing and tackling serious violence, a new £200 million youth endowment fund, and an Independent Review of Drug Misuse.