FAQs

The Serious Violence Duty arising from the Police, Crime, Sentencing & Courts Act 2022 and amends the 1998 Crime & Disorder Act to make serious violence a specific responsibility of Community Safety Partnerships. 

The duty requires “specified authorities to work together to prevent & reduce serious violence, including identifying the types of serious violence that occur in an area, the causes of that violence and to prepare and implement a strategy for preventing and reducing it". 

Duty holders - local authorities, the police, youth offending teams, Integrated Care System (NHS), probation, and the fire service. Certain organisations have a “duty to cooperate” e.g. education establishments

The Serious Violence Duty sets out key delivery requirements as set out in the Government guidance. This includes:

•Agreeing a partnership structure e.g. which partnership body manages and monitors the work of the new duty.  

•Developing a strategic needs assessment (a data and intelligence assessment of serious violence locally)

•Agreeing a definition of Serious Violence, with evidence based analysis of the causes of serious violence in the area and effective data sharing

•Developing and implementing a partnership strategy to prevent & reduce serious violence 

Serious Violence for the purposes of the Serious Violence Duty in Tower Hamlets, is defined as:

“Any violence and exploitation affecting young people under the age of 25, domestic abuse, sexual violence and hate crime. Within the context of these types of violence, it encompasses homicide, grievous bodily harm, actual bodily harm, rap, assault by penetration, sexual assault, personal robbery, threats to kill and violence against property caused during the commission of one of these offences.”

Yes. This document will be published on the Tower Hamlets website in June 2024