Commissioner welcomes new legal duty on public bodies to prevent and tackle serious violence

Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Essex, Roger Hirst, has welcomed the Home Secretary’s announcement that public bodies will have a new legal duty to prevent and tackle serious violence. “As public bodies we all have a role to play in keeping our communities safe and protecting the vulnerable. In Essex, by working together we have put together a comprehensive programme of activity to identify and support those people who are vulnerable to being drawn into a life of crime. At the same time we have continued to robustly crack down on those individuals bringing violence into our towns and cities. “Only by working together can we create the safe and secure communities we all want and that means all public bodies need to step up, be vigilant and support our efforts to tackle serious violence. “Within the emergency services we have seen how strong legislative action by the government can make a huge practical difference in how services work together on the ground. The same needs to happen with a much wider range of public bodies and I welcome this strong commitment by the government to create the right legislative environment for these relationships to grow.” The proposed legislation will create a new duty on a range of organisations to plan and collaborate to prevent and tackle serious violence. Further information on the Government’s proposal is available on the link below https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-public-health-duty-to-tackle-serious-violence