The Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 provides that, for the purposes of the Duty, serious violence includes domestic abuse, sexual offences, violence against property and threats of violence, but does not include terrorism.
The Governments Serious Violence Strategy sets out specific types of crime of concern, including homicide, violence against the person which may include both knife crime and gun crime, and areas of criminality where serious violence or its threat is inherent, such as in county lines drug dealing. These crimes should be at the core of the serious violence duty for the purpose of its reduction and prevention.
The London Guidance advises that Serious Violence for the purposes of the Serious Violence Duty in London, is defined as:
Any violence and exploitation affecting young people under the age of 25, domestic abuse, and sexual violence. Within the context of these types of violence, it encompasses homicide, grievous bodily harm, actual bodily harm, rape, assault by penetration, sexual assault, personal robbery, threats to kill and violence against property caused during the commission of one of these offences.
Domestic abuse is as defined in the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 (Further information is given in the Appendix 1)
In the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham we have agreed to adopt this definition of serious violence for the purposes of the Serious Violence Duty.