Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to tackle violent assaults in Solihull constituency.

Tackling knife crime and violent assaults is a priority and the Government is determined to crack down on the scourge of violence devastating our communities.

As a result of the Government’s Police Uplift Programme (PUP) the West Midlands Force recruited 1,376 additional uplift officers against a total three-year allocation of 1,218 officers. On 31 March 2023, there were 8,067 police officers in West Midlands, a total growth of 1,376 additional officers against the baseline (6,691) at the start of the Police Uplift Programme.

The Government is proposing a total police funding settlement of up to £18.4 billion in 2024-25, an increase of up to £842.9 million when compared to 2023-24. Assuming full take up of precept flexibility, overall police funding available to PCCs will increase by up to £922.2 million (6.0% in cash terms). West Midlands funding will be up to £789.4 million for 2024/25, an increase of up to £50 million when compared to 2023/24.

West Midlands Police are delivering additional policing in their areas worst affected by serious violence via the Grip programme funding, including in Solihull City Centre. This is a combination of regular visible patrols in the streets and neighbourhoods (‘hotspot areas’) experiencing the highest volumes of serious violence to immediately suppress violence and provide community reassurance, and problem-oriented policing. Problem-oriented policing is bespoke to the local areas to tackle the local underlying drivers of crime, using a more comprehensive menu of policing interventions and enforcement. Interventions in the Force area have included targeted open space knife sweeps, knife crime education in schools, and conducting safeguarding referrals. Grip-funded analysts monitor operational police activity within the hotspots, as well as crime levels, to understand the effects of additional patrols on violent crime.

Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) bring together local partners to understand and tackle the drivers of serious violence in their area. They facilitate the sharing of data across organisational boundaries to build a shared understanding of the root causes of violence locally.

In the West Midlands its VRU delivers a range of preventative interventions, including Hospital and Custody Navigators (youth workers in settings steering young people away from violence at a ‘teachable moment’), cognitive behavioural therapy programmes and sports-based diversionary programmes.

Violence Reduction Units, in combination with Grip, have delivered a statistically significant reduction in hospital admissions for violent injuries since funding began in 2019 (an estimated 3,220 admissions have been prevented in areas where the programmes operate). VRUs have supported over 271,000 young people through funded initiatives in in their fourth year of operation alone.

We also recently consulted on new legislative proposals to tackle knife crime and as a result, in the Criminal Justice Bill, we have introduced provisions to provide more powers for police to seize knives held in private that could be used in crimes, increase the maximum penalty for the offences of selling prohibited weapons and selling knives to under 18s. When Parliamentary time allows, the Government intends to introduce a new ban on zombie-style machetes and knives.