Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to (a) change funding for Violence Reduction Units and (b) fund only for knife crime and serious violence reduction.

Over three years, through the Serious Violence Fund (SVF), the Home Office has invested a total of £242 million in the 18 police force areas in England and Wales that are most affected by serious violence.

£105.5 million of this has been invested in multi-agency Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) in these areas, whilst the remaining £136.5 million of the SVF has been invested to support the police in taking targeted action to respond to serious violence, including knife crime. Northumbria PCC has been allocated £4,800,000 since 2019 to set-up and develop their VRU, whilst Northumbria Police has been allocated £4,750,685 for operational activity.

The 18 areas in receipt of the SVF have been selected for funding based on their volumes of hospital admissions relating to injury with a sharp object, which represents the most consistent and reliable data source for serious violence. Collectively, these areas have accounted for 80% of total relevant admissions, allowing the SVF to focus on a significant majority of the serious violence problem across England and Wales. Total allocations to the selected areas reflect the proportion of relevant admissions in each area.

Future serious violence funding and potential allocation models will be carefully considered in the context of Departmental priorities through the upcoming Spending Review process. Whilst we cannot pre-empt the potential outcome of that process, we do recognise the need for VRUs to function as long-term, sustainable organisations delivering a ‘whole-systems’ approach to tackling serious violence and are working hard to achieve this.