South Norfolk MP Richard Bacon, a member of the Commons public accounts committee, has said that the Home Office ‘could do better’ in fighting violent crime.

Mr Bacon said: “People are increasingly worried about violent crime and the growing use of knives and firearms.  The Home Office says it shares their concerns, but it needs to improve its effectiveness in fighting violent crime”.

“Home Office funding to stop violent crime often arrives too late to tackle the causes of violence and instead gets spent on dealing with its aftermath”.

“The Home Office should be sharing the most effective means of tackling violent crime with local Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships, yet only half of the Partnerships thought the Home Office was effective at this, partially because the Home Office has no reliable data on whether early deterrents to violent behaviour are working.  Frankly, the Home Office could do better”.

“Knives, guns and gang-related violence are becoming increasingly common on our streets.  If the Home Office is serious about fighting violent crime then it needs to support local Partnerships more effectively than at present”.

Mr Bacon was speaking as the Commons public accounts committee published its report into reducing the risk of violent crime.  The number of recorded crimes involving a firearm doubled between 1998–99 and 2005–06, as did the number of 15–17 year olds convicted of carrying a knife in public. 

However, the report finds that the Home Office’s attempts to tackle serious violent crime and gang-related violence have been undermined by poor distribution of funding and by the Department’s mixed performance in spreading good practice.   

Local Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships usually receive funding for tackling violence late in the financial year, and money is often one-off and short-term. This approach to funding results to expenditure being targeted at the consequences of violence, and not its causes.  

An important role for the Home Office is to spread good practice about tackling violent crime, but only half of Partnerships thought the Home Office was effective at this. In part, this was because the Department had not collected reliable data on the use and effectiveness of interventions such as Safer School Partnerships, despite both police and schools seeing these arrangements as an effective early deterrent to violent behaviour.

23 October 2008
 

See also:
PAC REPORT: Reducing the risk of violent crime

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