West Midlands Police: Finance

(asked on 20th May 2019) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans he has to increase funding for West Midlands Police to tackle violent crime.


Answered by
Nick Hurd Portrait
Nick Hurd
This question was answered on 29th May 2019

The Government is determined to do everything it can to tackle knife crime and break the deadly cycle of violence that devastates the lives of victims, families and communities.

We are taking action to address these increases on a number of fronts in support of our Serious Violence Strategy. This includes providing the police with the powers and resources they need to take effective action in all areas of the country. Through the Offensive Weapons Act we are tightening the law in relation to knives, including making it an offence to possess certain offensive weapons in private, and stopping knives being sent to residential addresses after they are bought online unless the seller has arrangements with a delivery company to verify age. We are also introducing new Knife Crime Prevention Orders, requested by the police to help them to tackle young people who are on the cusp of serious violence, to help them make more positive lifestyle choices. We also continue to support the police national weeks of action against knife crime under Operation Sceptre.

The police funding settlement provides the police with the biggest increase in funding since 2010, and in addition we are providing the additional £100 million to tackle serious violence announced in the Spring Statement on 13 March, which includes £80m of new funding from the Treasury. £63.4 million of this funding has already been allocated to 18 police forces most affected by serious violence to pay for surge operational activity, including increased patrols, and £1.6 million to help improve the quality of data on serious violence, particularly knife crime, to support planning and operations. West Midlands has been allocated £7.62m from this fund. A full list of the forces and the funding they have received from the serious violence fund is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/police-granted-funding-boost-for-action-on-serious-violence.

The remaining £35m from the Serious Violence Fund will be invested in Violence Reduction Units, which will support the local response in a number of areas worst affected by serious violence. VRUs 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. We are working closely with local partners to develop proposals for Violence Reduction Units, and will be seeking to make announcements on this funding in early June.

We are also raising awareness among young people of the dangers of carrying a knife through our national media campaign - #knifefree – and supporting early intervention through the £22 million Early Intervention Youth Fund, which is already supporting 29 local projects, including around £2m allocated to the Police and Crime Commissioner in the West Midlands to target young people identified as being most at risk, particularly those at risk of exclusion from school, and those already engaged in crime and violence.

We have also introduced the £200 million Youth Endowment Fund, which will be delivered over the next 10 years to support interventions with children and young people at risk of involvement in crime and violence, focusing on those most at risk. The charity Impetus, working in partnership with the Early Intervention Foundation and Social Investment Business, is now operating the Fund.

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