Queen's Speech December 2019 - Serious Violence Bill

Serious Violence Bill

"New laws will require schools, police, councils and health authorities to work together to prevent serious crime.’’

The purpose of the Bill is to:

• ●  Create new duties on a range of specified agencies across different sectors, such as local government, youth offending, and health and probation, to work collaboratively, share data and information, and put in place plans to prevent and reduce serious violence within their communities.

• ●  Amend the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 to ensure that serious violence is an explicit priority for Community Safety Partnerships, which include local police, fire and probation services, as well as local authorities and wider public services.

• ●  Ensure the police have the powers they need to keep weapons off our streets.

  The main benefits of the Bill would be:

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• ●  Complementing the Government’s investment in Violence Reduction Units in the areas most affected by serious violence by ensuring that agencies work effectively together.

• ●  Deterring people from carrying weapons, by introducing new court orders to target known knife carriers, to make it easier for the police to stop and search those convicted for knife crime offences.

  The main elements of the Bill are:

• ●  Placing duties on relevant public agencies and bodies to work together to prevent and reduce serious violence.

• ●  Providing sufficient flexibility so that the relevant organisations will engage and work together in the most effective local partnership for any given area, whether that be a Community Safety Partnership or other multi-agency partnership such as local safeguarding arrangements. Statutory guidance will also be published that will set out the likely implications on a sector-by-sector basis.

A multi-agency approach to tackle the root causes of violent crime by placing

an emphasis on intervention with young people and acknowledging that law

enforcement alone cannot tackle violence.

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• ●  Amending section 6(1) of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, which sets out the strategies Community Safety Partnerships must formulate and implement, to explicitly include serious violence.

• ●  New court orders to target known knife carriers, to make it easier for the police to stop and search those convicted for knife crime offences. The power will apply only to those convicted of a knife related offence.

  Territorial extent and application

● The Bill’s provisions would extend and apply to England and Wales only.

Key facts

• ●  In 2018 the Government published the Serious Violence Strategy to address serious violence and in particular the recent increase in knife crime, gun crime and homicide. The Serious Violence Strategy made 61 commitments which we have made progress in delivering.

• ●  On 26 July, the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary announced plans to recruit an additional 20,000 police officers over the next three years – the biggest police recruitment drive in decades. The Government announced funding to support the recruitment of the first wave of up to 6,000 additional officers by the end of financial year 2020-21.

• ●  There were 681 homicides in the 12 months ending June 2019, a 5 per cent fall (from 719) compared with the previous year. The rate of homicide remains very low, at 12 homicides per 1 million people.

• ●  The measures will complement the Government’s wider response to serious violence, including the investment of £35 million of the Serious Violence Fund in Violence Reduction Units. These Units are operating in the areas worst affected by serious violence to tackle the root causes of violent crime by ensuring that local agencies work effectively together.