Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to help tackle violent assaults in (a) Enfield North Constituency, (b) the London Borough of Enfield and (c) London.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Since 2019, the Home Office has provided over £43m of funding for a London Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) (including £9.5m this year) which is providing a multi-agency, preventative response designed to tackle the drivers of serious violence and knife crime. In addition, we have invested over £60m (including c.£8.9m this year) in ‘hotspot policing’ to boost the policing response to serious violence in London and provide high-visibility police patrols and problem-solving tactics in the streets and neighbourhoods most affected.
VRUs are tasked with investing in evidence-based approaches designed to steer vulnerable young people away from involvement in violence. As part of this approach, the London VRU is funding local interventions in Enfield including an outreach and detached youth team which delivers after school activities and creative sessions, 1-1 holistic support for young people, mentoring sessions and sports sessions for children and young people. Alongside this, the policing hot spot response programme is targeting key locations in Enfield Town and Fore Street. In addition to additional visible police patrols, policing interventions delivered through this programme in Enfield have included work to prevent robberies of school pupils and work to target males who were assaulting sex workers.
The government is also taking forward a programme of national activity to drive down knife crime. This includes recent consultation on new legislative proposals, including a ban of zombie-style knives and machetes. The government response was published on 30 August 2023. Following careful consideration of the responses to the consultation, a Statutory Instrument was laid in Parliament on 25 January 2024. Once the legislation has been approved by Parliament, a surrender scheme will be launched this summer to remove these items from our streets and once this has been completed, the manufacture, supply, sale and possession of zombie-style knives and machetes will be outlawed from 24 September 2024. This will cover face to face and online sales.
Additionally, through the Criminal Justice Bill 2023, which is currently progressing through parliament, we are providing more powers for police to seize knives held in private that they believe will be used for unlawful violence, increasing the maximum penalty for the offences of selling prohibited weapons and selling knives to under 18s and creating a new offence of possessing an article with blade or point or an offensive weapon with intent to commit unlawful violence.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to help tackle arson in (a) Enfield North Constituency, (b) the London Borough of Enfield and (c) London.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Since 2019, the Home Office has provided over £43m of funding for a London Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) (including £9.5m this year) which is providing a multi-agency, preventative response designed to tackle the drivers of serious violence and knife crime. In addition, we have invested over £60m (including c.£8.9m this year) in ‘hotspot policing’ to boost the policing response to serious violence in London and provide high-visibility police patrols and problem-solving tactics in the streets and neighbourhoods most affected.
VRUs are tasked with investing in evidence-based approaches designed to steer vulnerable young people away from involvement in violence. As part of this approach, the London VRU is funding local interventions in Enfield including an outreach and detached youth team which delivers after school activities and creative sessions, 1-1 holistic support for young people, mentoring sessions and sports sessions for children and young people. Alongside this, the policing hot spot response programme is targeting key locations in Enfield Town and Fore Street. In addition to additional visible police patrols, policing interventions delivered through this programme in Enfield have included work to prevent robberies of school pupils and work to target males who were assaulting sex workers.
The government is also taking forward a programme of national activity to drive down knife crime. This includes recent consultation on new legislative proposals, including a ban of zombie-style knives and machetes. The government response was published on 30 August 2023. Following careful consideration of the responses to the consultation, a Statutory Instrument was laid in Parliament on 25 January 2024. Once the legislation has been approved by Parliament, a surrender scheme will be launched this summer to remove these items from our streets and once this has been completed, the manufacture, supply, sale and possession of zombie-style knives and machetes will be outlawed from 24 September 2024. This will cover face to face and online sales.
Additionally, through the Criminal Justice Bill 2023, which is currently progressing through parliament, we are providing more powers for police to seize knives held in private that they believe will be used for unlawful violence, increasing the maximum penalty for the offences of selling prohibited weapons and selling knives to under 18s and creating a new offence of possessing an article with blade or point or an offensive weapon with intent to commit unlawful violence.
Mentions:
1: Paul Howell (Con - Sedgefield) We have a local campaign against knife crime, and at the latest working group meeting we discussed deterrents - Speech Link
2: Fleur Anderson (Lab - Putney) that clear link to crime. - Speech Link
3: Janet Daby (Lab - Lewisham East) issues, which have led to rising levels of violence. - Speech Link
4: Bob Blackman (Con - Harrow East) Under the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, there is a solemn duty on prison governors to prepare ex-offenders - Speech Link
Mentions:
1: Lord Bailey of Paddington (Con - Life peer) reduction units in addressing knife crime. - Speech Link
2: Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede (Lab - Life peer) My Lords, knife crime is up by 70% since 2015 and, according to the YMCA, youth services were cut by - Speech Link
3: Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con - Life peer) As regards knife crime across the country, the rise is driven largely by the situation in London. - Speech Link
4: Baroness Doocey (LD - Life peer) My Lords, violence reduction units can definitely reduce knife crime, as has been shown time and time - Speech Link
Asked by: Tobias Ellwood (Conservative - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of creating a violence reduction unit in Bournemouth to tackle knife crime.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) can play a key role in the implementation of a whole-system, or public-health, approach to tackling violence. The value of such approaches is recognised in the Government’s 2018 Serious Violence Strategy.
Since 2019, the Government has provided over £160m to support the implementation of VRUs, with a further £55m invested in 23/24. Violence is strongly linked to specific geographies and to ensure maximum impact, this funding is targeted at 20 force areas that collectively experience the highest volumes of violent offences (around 80% of relevant offences). In light of the number of violent offences taking place in the Dorset Force area, Dorset does not currently meet the threshold for VRU funding specifically.
We recognise, however, that a public health approach can still have value in areas with comparatively lower levels of violence, and that is why in 2023, we introduced the Serious Violence Duty, which requires specified authorities across England and Wales to work together to plan to prevent and reduce serious violence in their local areas. Local areas may choose to implement VRU-style partnerships as part of their work to fulfil obligations arising under the Duty. Useful information for those wishing to do so can be found here: Violence Reduction Units 2022 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
The Government remains committed to providing the resources needed to tackle violent crime. We have provided funding to support implementation of the Duty, which for Dorset, amounts to £292k in 23/24, and we have also recently confirmed Dorset’s police funding settlement of £179.8 million in 2024/25, an increase of up to £11.1 million when compared to 2023/24. In addition, in recognition of recent exceptional policing demand arising in Bournemouth, we are pleased to have recently approved, on an exceptional basis, an additional £600k in 23/24 to enable Dorset Police to respond to this pressure.
Feb. 08 2024
Source Page: James Cleverly at the APCC general meetingFound: I’m a big fan of the police and crime commissioner model.
Report Feb. 08 2024
Committee: Secondary Legislation Scrutiny CommitteeFound: special attention of the House: Draft Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Offensive Weapons) (Amendment, Surrender and
Mentions:
1: Chris Philp (Con - Croydon South) We are also tackling knife crime, which we discussed extensively yesterday. - Speech Link
2: Chris Philp (Con - Croydon South) I mentioned violence reduction units and hotspot patrolling. - Speech Link
Mentions:
1: Alistair Carmichael (LD - Orkney and Shetland) a violence reduction unit. - Speech Link
2: Michael Tomlinson (Con - Mid Dorset and North Poole) when it comes to addressing serious violence, knife crime and weapons carrying. - Speech Link
3: Sally-Ann Hart (Con - Hastings and Rye) We have seen a 16% reduction in knife crime for that period. - Speech Link
4: Sarah Owen (Lab - Luton North) Knife crime and violence have no place in our society. - Speech Link
5: Feryal Clark (Lab - Enfield North) That will support our aim of halving serious violence, including knife crime, and youth violence within - Speech Link
Mentions:
1: Philip Davies (Con - Shipley) gang-related or group violence, and whether the doctrine should be enshrined in statute. - Speech Link
2: Florence Eshalomi (LAB - Vauxhall) A few weeks ago, I spoke in a debate on knife crime. - Speech Link
3: Jeremy Corbyn (Ind - Islington North) Like her, I represent a constituency where, sadly, we do experience knife crime and death by knife crime - Speech Link