Crimes of Violence: Community Relations
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of violent crime on community cohesion in high-incidence areas.
Answered by Dame Diana Johnson
This Government recognises the devasting effects of violence on communities, that is why we work closely with community groups, including through the Coalition to Tackle Knife Crime to understand the impacts and help shape the Government’s plan to halve knife crime in ten years.
To support communities in high-incidence areas, the Government has made £47m available for Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) to continue their valuable work in 2025/26. 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 collective understanding of the root causes of violence locally.
Additionally, the Government has awarded £66.3m in 25/26 to all 43 Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) in England and Wales for the Hot Spot Action Fund. This funding is for high-visibility patrolling in the areas with the highest densities (‘hotspots’) of knife crime and anti-social behaviour, as well as problem-oriented policing to tackle the longer-term drivers of crime.
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