Asked by: Harpreet Uppal (Labour - Huddersfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether additional funding will be made available for youth services in Huddersfield to (a) support early intervention and (b) reduce youth offending.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
As part of our Plan for Change, the Safer Streets Mission is driving work across Government to divert young people away from crime.
To this end the Government has committed to the creation of a Young Futures Programme jointly led by the Home Office and Department for Education. Under this programme the Government will intervene earlier to ensure children and young people who are facing poorer outcomes and are vulnerable to being drawn into crime are identified and offered support in a more systematic way. The programme also aims to create more support and opportunities for them in their communities.
As we continue to design the Young Futures Programme, we want to ensure that it learns from and builds on the work of the Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) in this regard. In 2025/26 we are investing £47m via the Home Office in core grant funding to VRUs, including making over £4.3m available to the West Yorkshire VRU this year. This funding will support delivery of a range of early intervention and prevention programmes to divert young people away from crime.
In addition, the Serious Violence Duty requires a range of specified authorities, such as, the police, local government, youth offending teams, fire, health, and probation services, to work collaboratively, analyse the local problem, and put in place a strategy to prevent and reduce serious violence within their local communities. In 2025/26, the Government has allocated £14.4m to continue the implementation and delivery of this Duty across all 43 police force areas in England and Wales. This includes £162k for West Yorkshire.
Asked by: Harpreet Uppal (Labour - Huddersfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of town-wide safety campaigns in reducing crime in (a) Huddersfield and (b) other urban centres.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government wants town centres to be vibrant, welcoming places where businesses thrive and people feel safe and come to shop, socialise and live.
To that end we are working with Police and Crime Commissioners, and essential local partners such as councils, schools, health services, business, transport and community organisations in launching a new programme of work focussed on Keeping Town Centres Safe this Summer, with the aim of driving down street crime, shop theft and anti-social behaviour in town centres. This will help us build on existing data and evidence of what works locally to tackle these issues.
The Home Office has not assessed the effectiveness of town-wide safety campaigns in reducing crime. However, as part of the Government’s Plan for Change, and to support making the country’s streets safer for 2025/26 £66.3 million Hotspot Action funding has been awarded to all 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales. As part of the Hotspot Action Fund, West Yorkshire will be in receipt of £ 2,476,420.