The UK government today unveiled a tough anti-violence strategy as part of its wider crackdown on illegal drugs to tackle cases of rising street violence in the country.
Commissioned by the home secretary Amber Rudd and backed with £40 million of Home Office funding, the Serious Violence Strategy claims to mark a major shift in the government's response to knife and gun crime.
It involves a new Serious Violence Taskforce, which will bring together the voluntary sector, local government, police and other key sectors to ensure the strategy is delivered effectively.
"The evidence is were seeing a different approach to drug dealing, a different approach to using children in the most disgraceful way as drug dealers," said Rudd.
"A crucial part of our approach will be focusing on and investing more in prevention and early intervention. We need to engage with our young people early and to provide the incentives and credible alternatives that will prevent them from being drawn into crime in the first place. This in my view is the best long-term solution," she said.
The strategy identifies the changing drugs market, in particular the "devastating impact of crack cocaine", as a key driver of the violence harming communities.
It announces a range of powerful actions to tackle the issue of "county lines", or where city gangs courier heroin and crack cocaine to rural or coastal towns of the UK.
Home Office data from 2014 to 2015 and 2016 to 2017 indicate that homicides, where either the victim or suspect were known to be involved in using or dealing illicit drugs, increased from 50 per cent to 57 per cent.
"Crack cocaine markets have strong links to serious violence and evidence suggests crack use is rising in England and Wales due to a mix of supply and demand factors," the Home Office said.
Its new strategy launch came as there are growing concerns around a noticeable spike in violence on the streets of London, with Scotland Yard opening 55 murder investigations in the first three months of this year alone.
Rudd believes an illegal drugs market is the "biggest driver" of the increase in violence and contradicted a leaked Home Office document, which cited falling police numbers for the rise.
Across England and Wales, the number of police officers fell by 14 per cent to 121,929, between September 2010 and September 2017, according to official statistics.
"It is not all about police numbers," Rudd said.
The Home Office warns that drug-market violence may also be facilitated and spread by social media, with a small minority of people using social media to glamorise gang or drug-selling life, taunt rivals and normalise weapons-carrying.
The new strategy is aimed at striking a balance between prevention and law enforcement with a new £11 million Early Intervention Youth Fund for community projects to help young people live lives free from violence.
Bob Blackman MP speaks during the event