Richard Fuller MP has welcomed a £1,934,987 funding boost to Bedfordshire as part of the government’s £130 million investment to tackle the most devastating types of crime – including knife crime, gun crime and homicide.
As the government set out an ambitious funding programme to build on these efforts to tackle serious violence, it also revealed that Violence Reduction Units and ‘hotspot policing’ initiatives prevented 49,000 violent offences across England and Wales.
Set up in 2019, Violence Reduction Units are a pioneering initiative established in 18 areas across England and Wales which bring together local partners in policing, education and health and local government, to share information in order to identify vulnerable children and adults at risk, helping steer them away from a life of crime and violence.
Figures published in an evaluation of these Violence Reduction Units’ first 18 months of operation demonstrate the impacts they are having up and down the country, changing lives and reducing violent crime. Areas that have rolled out Violence Reduction Units saw 8,000 fewer incidents of violence leading to injury and 41,000 fewer incidents without injury, compared with areas that didn’t. This has resulted in an estimated £385 million avoided in associated costs for victims and society.
Initiatives include ‘Weapons Down Gloves Up’ – engaging young people out of work through boxing, while partnering them with a civil engineering company to help them gain manufacturing qualifications.
Commenting, Richard said:
New figures reveal the success of the government's Violence Reduction Units – preventing 49,000 violent offences, saving lives and breaking the cycle of crime.
The government's additional £1,934,987 investment in Bedfordshire shows it will never let up it's relentless pursuit to address the many factors that can lead a vulnerable person into a life of seemingly inescapable violence, diverting people from crime and keeping local communities safe.
