Since 2019, the Home Office has provided over £5 million of funding for a Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) in South Wales (known as the Wales Violence Prevention Unit) (including c£1m in 2023/24) which is providing a multi-agency, preventative response designed to tackle the drivers of serious violence and knife crime in South Wales. In addition, we have invested c.£3.5m (including c.£535k in 2023/24) in \u2018hotspot policing\u2019 to boost the policing response to serious violence in South Wales and provide high-visibility police patrols and problem-solving tactics in the streets and neighbourhoods most affected.<\/p>
The 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 in Cardiff 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. Alongside this, the policing hot spot response programme is targeting key locations in Cardiff and Swansea with a dedicated proactive team conducting additional visible patrols and undertaking activity to target individuals within hotspots as well as providing additional support to teams working to police the night-time economy.<\/p>
Additionally, just under £1m has been awarded in 2023/24 to support delivery of the Serious Violence Duty across Wales.<\/p>
The government is also taking forward a programme to strengthen the controls and legislation on knives. A Statutory Instrument was laid in Parliament on 25 January 2024 to ban zombie style knives and machetes. Subject to the relevant legislation being approved by Parliament, a surrender and compensation scheme will be launched in August to remove zombie style knives and machetes from circulation and ownership, and once the scheme ends on 23 September, the manufacture, supply, sale and possession of zombie-style knives and machetes will be outlawed from 24 September 2024.<\/p>
Additionally, through the Criminal Justice Bill , which is currently progressing through Parliament, 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>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4503", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Chris Philp"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Croydon South"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Chris Philp"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2024-02-22", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "groupedQuestionUIN" : {"_value" : "14616"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2024-02-22T15:43:26.717Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Home Office"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Home Office"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2024-02-19", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Knives: Wales"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to help tackle knife crime in (a) Cardiff Central constituency, (b) Cardiff local authority area and (c) Wales.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4425", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Jo Stevens"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Cardiff Central"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Jo Stevens"} ], "uin" : "14611"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 1, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }