Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps have been taken to prevent knife crime in (a) Slough and (b) the Thames Valley region.

Halving knife crime over the next decade is a key part of the Government’s Safer Streets Mission. Preventing knife crime across the UK, including Slough and the Thames Valley region, will play a key role in meeting this ambition.

To date, we have taken action to ban zombie knives and the ban on ninja swords came into force on 1 August 2025 - it is now illegal to sell or own these weapons. We have also implemented, “Ronan’s Law”, a range of measures which will include stricter rules for online sellers of knives.

Over £66 million is available to all 43 police force areas to fund the 'Hotspot Action' programme in 2025/26. This includes Thames Valley Police who have been allocated £1.69m for 2025/26. This programme is a combination of increased high visibility foot patrols and funding of problem-oriented policing (POP) tactics. POP is bespoke to the local areas to tackle the underlying drivers of crime using a comprehensive menu of policing interventions, such as increased targeted knife sweeps, and licensed premises checks.

Through the Young Futures Programme, the Government will establish Young Futures Hubs and Young Futures Prevention Partnerships across the country, to intervene earlier and ensure that children and young people vulnerable to being drawn into crime are identified and offered support in a more systematic way.

As part of this, the Government will pilot new multi-agency Prevention Partnership Panels, led by Violence Reduction Units (VRUs), to identify and refer vulnerable children and young people to a range of support services, including the Young Futures Hubs. More than twenty panels will be up and running in the coming months, across the areas of the country that collectively account for more than 80% knife crime, with more to follow.

VRUs bring together partners, including from the voluntary and community sector, to understand and tackle the drivers of serious violence in their area. In 2025/26 the Home Office is investing £1.5m in grant funding to the Thames Valley Violence Prevention Partnership (VPP), alongside £280k to continue the implementation of the Serious Violence Duty. The Home Office has also made additional funding available for the set up of panels.

This funding will support delivery of a range of early intervention and prevention programmes, which includes the continuation of a Focused Deterrence intervention in Slough. This project will be targeted to young people who carry knives and provide them with tailored multi-agency support to desist from violence, alongside enforcement measures. Funding will also support the delivery of Operation Deter, which provides support for young people in custody following knife possession offences, helping them access education, mentoring and rehabilitation services.