Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to tackle incidents of knife crime on the railways.

The chances of being a victim of crime, on the railways or elsewhere, remain extremely low. However, the Government is very concerned about increases in knife crime and its impact on victims, families and communities. The action we are taking is set out in our Serious Violence Strategy and includes new legislation in the Offensive Weapons Bill and continuing police action under Operation Sceptre. The British Transport Police also participate in Operation Sceptre and we expect the next national week of action to take place in March 2019.

More widely, we have also been supporting the #knifefree media campaign to raise awareness of the consequences of knife crime and discourage young people from carrying knives more generally. The Serious Violence Strategy includes a strong focus on prevention and early intervention to stop young people being drawn in to knife crime. Our Early Intervention Youth Fund of £22 million is already supporting 29 projects in England and Wales. Over £17 million has already been allocated to projects delivering interventions to young people at risk of criminal involvement, gang exploitation and county lines.

We are supporting 68 small community projects this year through the anti-knife crime Community Fund. In addition, we have extended our support for Redthread in hospital emergency departments to introduce its “teachable moment” youth violence intervention work to hospi-tals in Birmingham and Nottingham.