In Health and Social Care questions this week, I asked the Secretary of State for DHSC whether he had made any progress with supporting the Home Secretary in implementing a public health approach to tackle violence.

I was concerned earlier this month to hear Matt Hancock completely dismiss the public health approach in an interview on LBC. He seemed completely unaware that his Government had announced they would be tackling violence with a public health strategy, and instead stated: “If you try to say it’s a public health issue that implies it’s nobody’s fault.” His comments showed a complete misunderstanding of his own Government’s policies and of what the public health approach would entail.

I asked the Secretary of State for clarification after his remarks and he assured me that he is now a “big fan” of the public health approach… I can’t say I found his wishy-washy response particularly reassuring though.

Following the question, I wrote to the Prime Minister requesting an invitation to the emergency knife crime summit that she is organising next week.