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The Serious Violence Duty will come into effect in January 2023, placing a new legal requirement on a range of public sector bodies to share information to reduce incidents of violence and prevent casualties, such as knife and gun crime.
The guidance published today (16 December 2022) will help police, health, fire and rescue services, local government and criminal justice partners meet their responsibilities under the Act, how they should collaborate to identify and tackle the causes of serious violence in their communities. is showing. .
The Home Secretary can take action where public bodies are not meeting their duty to work together and, where necessary, issue directions forcing them to do more.
Early intervention and prevention are at the heart of this ‘whole-system’ response.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman said:
Any life lost to violence will always be one too many. When knife crime is going down and gun crime is down in this country, we can’t be happy.
We recognize that the drivers behind such violence are complex and preventing further tragedies is a shared responsibility of all in the public service – not just the police. The new duty will see schools, hospitals and councils work together to intervene before disaster strikes.
With a priority violence reduction strategy in every local area and the recruitment of 20,000 extra police officers, we will keep our young people and our streets safe.
To combat serious violence, duty holders should focus on public space youth violence, including knife and gun crime, and activities where threats of violence are common, such as county lines. The duty has been introduced by the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act (2022), which was amended to specify that serious violence can include domestic abuse and sexual offences.
Each area will determine its own definition of serious violence based on what affects their communities. Police and Crime Commissioners will bring together relevant agencies from law enforcement to local authorities, education, health and the voluntary sector to develop strategies targeting the specific needs of their area.
The guidance has been published in summer 2022 following public consultation and engagement with public sector organisations, violence reduction units and the voluntary sector.
A number of innovative projects have also been awarded £1.8m of government funding over the next 2 years, including 5 nationwide initiatives, to prevent further murders. This includes:
- The National Council of Police Chiefs is investing in new technologies such as data mining, artificial intelligence and machine learning to identify and manage potential perpetrators of domestic abuse and knife crime. He will also create the role of a knife crime co-ordinator, working directly with the Home Office and forces across the country, to build a national picture on knife carrying and best policing practice.
- The National Crime Agency is conducting behavioral science research into how to prevent young people from being drawn to homicide.
- The College of Policing analyzes ‘near-misses’ including attempted murder. This will improve the understanding of trends surrounding homicide, by increasing the number of cases available for study. They will also replicate a project by Kent Police, where domestic abuse data is shared between accident and emergency departments and the police to better identify and help people at risk of fatal violence.
The Government has made £130m available this financial year (2022/2023) to tackle serious violence, including murder and knife crime, building on similar levels of investment in previous years.
Evidence shows that this whole-of-systems approach to tackling serious violence is working. From 2019, through police, government and community efforts to tackle the crime that most affects our communities:
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90,000 dangerous weapons have been taken off our streets.
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More than 49,000 violent crimes have been prevented and 260,000 vulnerable young people have been supported through ‘hotspot policing’ tactics and violence reduction units.
As early as 2023, four police forces across the country will trial new powers to stop and detect those guilty of knife crime or offensive weapon offences. Police, local authorities and public health organizations in the three regions will also work together to review homicides involving offensive weapons, identifying where lessons can be learned from these deaths. Pending successful pilots, both approaches will then be rolled out across the country.
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