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Legal duty on public bodies to tackle knife crime together

Public sector organisations will be legally bound to work together to tackle serious violence including knife crime under a new duty announced by the government.

Concerns had been raised by councils over the prospect of individual professionals being placed under the public health duty, after Home Secretary Sajid Javid launched an eight-week consultation on the proposal in April.

However, the government confirmed the new requirement would hold organisations to account rather than frontline workers such as teachers, nurses or social workers.

The legal duty will require the police, councils, NHS trusts together with education representatives and youth offending services to share data, intelligence and knowledge.

This would help public services better understand the causes of serious violence and allow them to target their interventions to prevent and stop violence altogether, the government said.

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