Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment he has made of trends in the level of knife crime in (a) the West Midlands and (b) Coventry South constituency since 2010.

The Home Office collects data on the number of selected offences involving a knife or a sharp instrument recorded by the police in England and Wales at the police force area level.

Data on knife offences at the police force area level can be found in the Home Office Knife Crime Open Data Tables, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-recorded-crime-open-data-tables

Tackling knife crime is a priority for the Government. Our work to tackle knife crime is centred on four key strands – working with the police on operations and enforcement, work on the legislative framework, work with retailers on responsible sales, and early intervention and prevention.

On 14 October 2017, the Government launched a consultation on new laws on offensive weapons. The consultation was closed on 9 December and we are now considering the responses.

The Government continues to encourage police forces to undertake a series of coordinated national weeks of action to tackle knife crime under Operation Sceptre. The operation includes targeting habitual knife carriers, weapon sweeps, test purchases of knives from identified retailers, and the use of surrender bins. We hosted an all force briefing event on Operation Sceptre on 23 January and a record 44 police forces took part in the most recent week of action in the week commencing 12 February 2018.

We have awarded £765,000 from the new anti-knife crime community fund launched in October 2017 to support local communities to tackle knife crime. We announced the 47 successful bids in December. In addition, we have announced a further round of the Community Fund of up to £1m in 2018/19 and will be inviting bids in the Spring.

The Government’s new Serious Violence Strategy, due to be published in Spring, will put greater focus on steering young people away from a life of crime, while continuing to promote a strong law enforcement response.