Commissioner supports amendment to policing bill

I support Baroness Bertin’s proposed amendment to the UK Government’s Policing Bill, which seeks to include domestic abuse and sexual violence within the legal definition of ‘serious violence’.

Not only would this send an important message that violence of any kind will not be tolerated, it creates additional opportunities to tackle these issues through Violence Reduction Units (VRUs). VRUs bring partner agencies together to tackle the underlying causes of violent crime but have traditionally been set up to focus on issues such as knife crime, and serious and organised crime.

Bringing domestic abuse and sexual violence within the remit of the VRUs would complement the partnership work we already do to tackle these issues, and enable us to dedicate more resources to these crucial issues.