Serious Violence Duty: public consultation

Date: 20-06-2022

The Home Office has launched its public consultation into the Serious Violence Duty.

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 makes vital provision through the Serious Violence Duty to ensure that the right authorities and organisations work collaboratively, share data and information, and put in place plans to prevent and reduce serious violence.

Tackling serious violence is a top priority for the Home Office. In 2018, the Government published its Serious Violence Strategy which sets out the Government’s aim to prevent serious violence. The Government has made £130m available this financial year (22/23) to tackle serious violence, including murder and knife crime.

This includes £64m for Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) of which the Essex VVU is one.The VRUs deliver a range of early intervention and prevention programmes to divert people away from a life of crime. Between us we have reached more than 260,000 vulnerable young people in the last year alone.

The consultation welcomes views on the revised draft Statutory Guidance on the Duty. Consultation responses will help determine both the contents of the final statutory guidance and the direction of support for implementation.

The consultation is aimed at those with expertise in working with young people at risk of criminal involvement and/or re-offending or victimisation, those involved in law enforcement and, more generally, the communities affected by serious violence including the voluntary and community sector. This includes relevant professionals, such as those working in social care, education, law enforcement, local government, community safety, youth services, offender management, victims’ services, public health and healthcare.

The geographical scope of the consultation is England and Wales.

To take part visit Serious Violence Duty - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)