Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to reduce youth-related violence in (a) Barnsley and (b) Sheffield City Region.

In April 2018, the Government published the Serious Violence Strategy which sets out a comprehensive set of 61 commitments and actions we are taking to tackle violent crime. This includes launching a £22m Early Intervention Youth Fund, which is already supporting 29 projects in England and Wales; a national knife crime media campaign: #knife free; a new National County Lines Coordination Centre and the Offensive Weapons Bill, which will strengthen legislation on firearms, knives and corrosive substances.
On 2 October 2018, the Home Secretary announced further important measures including a consultation on new legal duty to support a multi-agency approach to preventing and tackling serious violence, a new long term £200 million Youth Endowment Fund and an Independent Review of Drug Misuse.

Most recently, on 13 March, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced an additional £100 million of funding for serious violence in 2019/20. This funding will directly support the police’s immediate response to the rise in serious knife crime, as well as supporting investment in Violence Reduction Units, which will bring together a range of agencies including health, education, social services and others to develop a multi-agency approach to 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.

With specific reference to Barnsley and the Sheffield City Region, we have awarded almost £1.25m from the Early Intervention Youth Fund to the Police and Crime Commissioner for South Yorkshire in support of two projects, one of which is working in Barnsley and the other in Sheffield. In addition, alongside all other police forces in England and Wales, South Yorkshire Police took part in a national week of action to tackle knife crime, called Operation Sceptre, from 11-18 March 2019.