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<p>Since 2019, the Home Office has provided over £5 million of funding for a Violence
Reduction Unit in Wales (known as the Wales Violence Prevention Unit (VPU)) which
is providing a multi-agency, preventative response designed to tackle the drivers
of serious violence and knife crime. Over the same period, we have invested c.£3.5
million (including c.£535k in 2023/24) in ‘hotspot policing’ to boost the policing
response to serious violence in South Wales. In 24/25, we are providing c.£4.4 million
of funding to all force areas in Wales under the Hotspot Response fund to deliver
high-visibility patrols and problem-solving tactics in the streets and neighbourhoods
worst affected by serious violence and Anti Social Behaviour.</p><p>The Wales VPU
is tasked with investing in evidence-based approaches designed to steer vulnerable
young people away from involvement in violence. As part of this approach, the VPU
is funding local interventions including A&E Navigators, delivering advice, support
and guidance to patients of any age who have experienced violence with injury, with
the aim of engaging with those injured whilst they are in hospital to help break the
cycle of violence at the point of crisis. The VPU is also funding youth workers to
deliver sessions to young people within both education and community settings covering
issues such as knife crime. Additionally, just under £1m was awarded in 2023/24 to
support delivery of the Serious Violence Duty across Wales.</p><p>We have also introduced
new legislation which, subject to parliamentary approval, will ban zombie-style knives
and machetes from 24 September 2024. Through the Criminal Justice Bill 2023, 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.</p><p>It is an offence to sell bladed articles to people
under the age of 18 and with measures in the Offensive Weapons Act 2019 we strengthened
the requirements for age verification, and made it an offence to send bladed articles
to residential addresses after they are bought online, unless the seller has arrangements
in place with the delivery company to ensure that the product would not be delivered
into the hands of a person under 18. This legislation is enforced by Trading Standards
and the police. The Home Office does not hold enforcement data in relation to breaches
of this legislation.</p><p>The Online Safety Act 2023 has finished its parliamentary
passage and received Royal Assent on 26 October 2023. The Government's intention is
to have the regime operational as soon as possible.</p><p>Ofcom published the first
draft codes of practice on illegal content for consultation on 9 November 2023. The
Government expects these to be finalised in late 2024. These codes of practice will
set out the steps companies can take to fulfil the duties for illegal content. In
scope services will either need to follow these codes, or show their approach is equally
effective. Tech companies will need to remove and limit the spread of illegal content.
This means less illegal content online and when it does appear it will be removed
quicker.</p><p>Schedule 7 of the Act sets out a series of priority offences which
includes the sale of weapons. Companies will need to take particularly robust action
to prevent the proliferation of this content online and ensure that their services
are not used for offending. This means companies will need to proactively mitigate
the risk that their services are used for illegal activity or to share this illegal
content, to design their services to mitigate the risk of this occurring and to remove
any content that does appear as soon as they are made aware of it.</p>
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