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<p>Whilst the Mayor of London has operational responsibility for policing in the capital,
this Government is committed to providing additional resources to the police and their
partners to tackle violent crime and make our streets safer.</p><p> </p><p>To support
the prevention of violence in London, we have allocated the London Violence Reduction
Unit (VRU) c.£33.7m since 2019, including a</p><p>c.£12.6m allocation for this financial
year (2022/23). The VRU also received an additional investment of £5.5m in 2021/22
to deliver specific, highly targeted interventions to vulnerable young people. The
London VRU delivers multiple initiatives that are projected to support over 5,300
young people in the capital next year.</p><p> </p><p>We are also providing additional
funding to enable the Metropolitan Police to increase enforcement activity where most
violence occurs, through our Grip programme (previously known as Surge). The Metropolitan
Police have been allocated approximately £50.9m over the last three years, including
£7.9m for this financial year (2022/23) for Grip. Through this programme, the Metropolitan
Police are delivering data-driven, targeted visible patrols to suppress violence where
it is most concentrated.</p><p> </p><p>Whilst the Mayor of London has operational
responsibility for policing in the capital, the Government continues to encourage
police forces to undertake a series of coordinated national weeks of action to tackle
knife crime under Operation Sceptre. The latest phase of the operation took place
between 16 to 22 May 2022. In the Metropolitan and City Police areas 126 knives were
seized during enforcement action with a further 90 being surrendered or seized during
sweeps.</p><p> </p><p>The Home Office has invested £200m over 10 years in early intervention
and prevention initiatives to help children and young people at risk of exploitation
and involvement in serious violence, through the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF). This
will support how the Government responds to serious violence by identifying what works
in diverting children and young people away from involvement in serious violence.
Currently the YEF has invested around £50m on interventions and evaluations around
London.</p><p>Grip, VRU & YEF funding are provided in addition to the commitment
to increase the number of police officers in England and Wales by 20,000 by March
2023. As of 30 June 2022, the MPS has recruited an additional 2,952 uplift officers
against a total three-year allocation of 4,557 officers.</p>
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