Today I asked Minister Victoria Atkins if we can hope for longer term funding for Violence Reduction Units in this autumn’s spending review. She said the Government had invested “record amounts” but dodged my point about the importance of timescales.

The work VRUs do is extremely important in tackling the root causes of violence, but they can’t formulate long term strategies without long term funding.

You can watch our exchange below. ⬇

Here’s our exchange in plan text:

Vicky Foxcroft: The Government have stated that they are committed to a public health approach to tackling violence affecting young people and the Minister has just mentioned the violence reduction units, yet our 18 violence reduction units only receive short-term funding settlements. The work these units do is extremely important in tackling the root causes of violence, but they cannot formulate long-term strategies without long-term funding, so what is the Home Secretary doing to ensure that the comprehensive spending review delivers on that?