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<p>The Government’s Serious Violence Strategy, published in April 2018, sets out our
analysis of the trends and drivers behind rises in serious violence including gun
and knife crime.</p><p> </p><p>We are clear that the police must have the powers and
resources they need to tackle gun and knife crime, wherever it occurs. This is why
we are recruiting 20,000 more police officers over the next three years and why the
West Midlands police are receiving £620.4m in funding in 2020/21 – an increase of
£49.1m on 2019/20.</p><p> </p><p>In addition, the Home Office has committed over £176.5
million over two years to address</p><p>serious violence in the most affected 18 police
force areas in England and Wales, which</p><p>includes £104.9 million to pay for a
surge in police operational activity, of which £12,601,485 has been allocated to West
Midlands police. The remaining £70 million is being invested in multi-agency Violence
Reduction Units (VRUs) over two financial years, with £6,740,000 of this going directly
to the West Midlands VRU. The VRU brings together police, local government, health
and education professionals, community leaders and other key partners to identify
the drivers of serious violence and agree a multi-agency response.</p><p> </p><p>In
relation to gun crime specifically, the Offensive Weapons Act 2019 has introduced
a ban on certain rapid-firing rifles and we are introducing greater regulation of
antique firearms to prevent their misuse by criminals. We have also consulted on statutory
guidance on firearms licensing to improve standards and the consistency of police
licensing decisions, and we have established a multi-agency national firearms threat
assessment centre to improve our capability to disrupt the supply and use of illegal
firearms by criminals and Organised Crime Groups.</p><p> </p><p>The Offensive Weapons
Act 2019 also gives the police more powers to tackle knife crime and will make it
more difficult for young people to get hold of knives in the first place. The Act</p><p>introduces
Knife Crime Prevention Orders which will help the police to steer those most at risk
away from serious violence and knife crime, and we will be legislating to introduce
new Serious Violence Reduction Orders to make it easier for the police to stop and
search known knife</p><p>carriers.</p><p> </p><p>The Serious Violence Strategy also
puts an emphasis on prevention and early intervention. We are investing £200 million
through the Youth Endowment Fund to invest in and evaluate early intervention projects
and an additional £500 million over five years through the new Youth Investment Fund
to build new youth centres, refurbish existing youth facilities, provide mobile facilities
for harder to reach areas, and to invest in the youth work profession and frontline
services.</p>
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