Knives: Bournemouth East

(asked on 14th April 2023) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to prevent knife crime in Bournemouth East constituency.


Answered by
Chris Philp Portrait
Chris Philp
Minister of State (Home Office)
This question was answered on 19th April 2023

Tackling knife crime is a priority and the Government is determined to crack down on the scourge of violence devastating our communities.

We are supporting the police every step of the way to tackle knife crime and have given them more powers and resources to go after criminals and take knives and other dangerous weapons off our streets, including through the recruitment of 20,000 additional officers and increased police funding.

As of 31 December 2022, Dorset Police has recruited 117 additional uplift officers against a total three-year allocation of 166 officers and the force has been allocated 67 additional uplift officers in the final year of the Uplift.

On 31 January, the Government confirmed a total police funding settlement of up to £17.2 billion in 2023/24, an increase of up to £313.8 million when compared to 2022/23. Dorset police’s funding will be up to £166m in 2023/24, an increase of up to £6.9m when compared to 2022/23.

Nationally, the Government has made over £110m available this financial year (23/24) to tackle serious violence, including murder and knife crime and are also providing £200m over 10 years for the Youth Endowment Fund, to build an evidence base around what works in preventing youth violence and make this accessible to practitioners.

In the Bournemouth area the Youth Endowment Fund is supporting Tavistock Relationships with £1,512,711 across sites in Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch, offering 10 sessions of Mentalization-based therapy (MBT) for parents experiencing high levels of relationship conflict.

In the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 we have introduced

o Serious Violence Reduction Orders (SVRO); these will be piloted in four police force areas and will give police the power to stop and search adults already convicted of knife or offensive weapons offences.

o The new Serious Violence Duty created to ensure a range of specified agencies work together to address serious violence.

o New offensive weapons homicide reviews; introduced to improve the national and local understanding of causes, patterns, victims and perpetrators of violence and homicide; improve the response to serious violence on a national and local scale; and ultimately help save lives.

Lastly, on 18 April we launched a 7-week consultation on new knife legislation proposals to tackle the use of machetes and other bladed articles in crime. We are consulting on legislative measures to provide the police with more tools to disrupt knife possession and tackle knife crime. The consultation is open to the public.

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