Since the publication of the Serious Violence Strategy in 2018, the Government have delivered an ambitious set of programmes to tackle serious violence across England and Wales. To reinforce this work to date, the new Serious Violence Duty has been introduced through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts (PCSC) Act 2022.
The Serious Violence Duty places a legal obligation on specific organisations to plan and collaborate to prevent and reduce serious violence. The PCSC Act creates powers for PCCs to convene and assist the specified authorities in the exercise of their functions under the Duty and monitor their exercise of those functions. PCCs have a highly important role to play in convening partner agencies and are responsible for the totality of policing in their area.
As a result, the Government has channelled funding for the Serious Violence Duty through PCCs to coordinate the local area’s response to delivering the Duty and strengthen their role created under the Act.