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<p>In April 2018 the Government published the Serious Violence Strategy which sets
out a comprehensive set of 61 commitments and actions we are taking to tackle violent
crime. This included launching a £22m Early Intervention Youth Fund which is already
supporting 29 projects in England and Wales, a national knife crime media campaign
- #knife free; a new National County Lines Co-ordination Centre to tackle this violent
and exploitative criminal activity; and the Offensive Weapons Bill to strengthen legislation
on firearms, knives and corrosive substances.</p><p>In addition, on 2 October 2018
the Home Secretary announced further important measures including a consultation on
a new legal duty to support a multi-agency approach to preventing and tackling serious
violence, a new long term £200 million Youth Endowment Fund, and an Independent Review
of Drug Misuse. On 1 April the Home Secretary launched the consultation on a public
health approach to tackling violent crime. This will ensure that all parts of the
Public Sector have a responsibility to help vulnerable young people. As part of this
we have proposed a new statutory duty on partners across education, social services
and health to work together to tackle violence. It is important that we recognise
that greater law enforcement on its own will not reduce serious violence and that
we must continue to focus on prevention.</p><p>On 13 March the Chancellor of the Exchequer
also announced that an additional £100 million funding for serious violence in 2019/20
to help the police’s immediate response to the rise in serious knife crime, and also
to support investment in Violence Reduction Units, bringing together a range of agencies
including health, education, social services and others, to develop a multi-agency
approach in preventing serious violence altogether.</p><p>Most recently, on 1 April
the Prime Minister hosted the Serious Youth Violence Summit to continue to drive cross-government
action to tackle serious violence. The Prime Minister will also Chair a Ministerial
Taskforce, within government, focussed on improving and better coordinating our response
to knife crime.</p>
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