New duty puts PCCs at the forefront of efforts to reduce serious violence.

County Durham and Darlington Police and Crime Commissioner Joy Allen has welcomed new rules to ensure public bodies work closer together to tackle the root causes of serious violence.

The Serious Violence Duty came into force on January 31st and places new responsibilities on police and crime commissioners to bring agencies together to share information and data to help prevent young people from becoming either perpetrators or victims of serious violence.

It has been introduced as part of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and is part of the Government’s Serious Violence Strategy which stresses the important of early intervention to stop young people from being drawn into knife crime and serious violence.

Under the new rules, PCCs are responsible for bringing partners together and monitoring the delivery of this collaborative work while holding agencies to account for compliance.

All partners will be required to work together to develop a thorough understanding of the unique causes of violence in their area and publish a strategy on how they will tackle it.

Welcoming the new duty, Commissioner Allen said: “I’m really pleased this new duty is coming into force. PCCs have been saying for some time that the police cannot solve knife crime and serious violence on their own and that to tackle risk and threat effectively, every organisation needs to play their part. This legislation recognises that.

“The partnership approach is well-embedded across the force and we are already working with local authorities and criminal justice agencies to reduce harm and target prevention activity where it is needed most to stop further unnecessary deaths our streets. With new statutory guidance, we will look to build on these existing relationships and develop more to ensure the outcome of this work is effective as possible.”

The Serious Violence Duty has been developed in line with a Public Health approach which seeks to treat serious violence in the same way as an infectious disease using evidence to identify its causes and intervening early to prevent it spreading further.