Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of reductions in funding for Violence Reduction Units and the Serious Violence Duty on levels of knife crime and youth violence.

We are committed to halving knife crime in a decade, and in April 2026 published a Plan to Halve Knife Crime.

As part of this, the 26/27 Police Settlement included an allocation of over £66m for Serious Violence Reduction Programmes. This funding will be used to maintain our network of 20 Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) in the areas of England and Wales which are experiencing over 80% of knife crime; support public sector bodies to fulfil their statutory requirements under the Serious Violence Duty and continue the promising work of the Young Futures Panel pilots.

We are considering funding options for FY 27/28 and 28/29 for Serious Violence Reduction Programmes, including VRUs.