Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how the additional funds for tackling knife crime announced in the Spring Statement will be allocated to (a) the seven police forces with the highest rise in knife crime, (b) Nottinghamshire Police Force and (c) other police forces.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer announced on 13 March that an additional £100 million funding in 19/20 will help in the police’s immediate response to the rise in serious knife crime, enabling priority forces to immediately begin planning to put in place the additional capacity they need. The funding will also be invested in Violence Reduction Units, bringing together a range of agencies including health, education, social services and others, to develop a multi-agency approach in preventing serious violence altogether. It is important that we recognise that greater law enforcement on its own will not reduce serious violence and that we must continue to focus on prevention.

The majority of the investment will go towards supporting police forces where violent crime is impacting the most, to take immediate action to sup-press the violence we are seeing, to make our streets safer. We are engaging with partners including the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners and we are developing the criteria by which forces will receive this funding