Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much funding the Government has made available for research into knife crime prevention in the last two years; and how much funding is being made available in the next 12 months.

The Government’s Serious Violence Strategy sets out the action it is taking to address serious violence and in particular the recent increases in knife crime, gun crime and homicide. We have carried out an analysis of the trends and drivers of serious violence and this looked at the evidence of the key risk factors which may mean a young person may have a greater propensity to get involved in crime than would otherwise be the case. It also sets out the evidence about what are the most effective type of programmes and the importance of early intervention with young people and to provide them with the skills and resilience to lead productive lives free from violence.
In 2017/18 we awarded £765,000 to 47 projects from the (anti-knife crime) Community Fund launched in October 2017 to support local communities across England and Wales to tackle knife crime. In addition we have announced up to £1million for a new round of the Community Fund on 18 May which is currently open for bids for funding from community groups. As part of our work with successful projects, we will require a report back outlining the outcomes achieved and the nature and level of the impact their interventions have had on young people.The Serious Violence Strategy also includes a commitment for a new £11 million Early Intervention Youth Fund to support communities for early intervention and prevention with young people for 2018 to 2019 and 2019 to 2020. We have also provided support to Redthread to expand its capacity and youth violence intervention work to Birmingham and Nottingham.