Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps her Department has taken to reduce the number of violent crimes committed in West Yorkshire.

The Government is determined to drive down serious violence. We are doing this through a twin-track approach which combines tough enforcement action with support for those most at risk; so that we can stop young people from becoming trapped in the cycle of violence in the first place.

Since 2019, the Home Office has invested £170m into the development of 20 Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) in the areas worst affected by serious violence, which includes establishing a VRU in West Yorkshire. VRUs bring together local partners and deliver a range of early intervention and prevention programmes to divert young people away from a life of crime. Since 2019, the West Yorkshire VRU has received c.16m to support delivery of violence reduction activity, including £5.9m in this financial year. The VRU was also successful in bidding for an additional £450k to work alongside the police to deliver targeted youth work to high-risk young people at the point of arrest.

As at 30 September 2022, West Yorkshire Police has recruited 744 additional uplift officers against a total three year allocation of 852 officers.

The deployment of officers is an operational decision for Chief Constables.