The Serious Violence Duty (SVD) was introduced by government through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and commenced on 31st January 2023.
The duty places several requirements upon local areas, including:
- agreeing a local partnership arrangement to lead on the duty
- agreeing a definition of serious violence
- having consistent data sharing, analytical processes to produce a Strategic Needs Assessment
- production of a Strategy to set out how the duty will be implemented locally.
The responsible authorities (also known as ‘duty holders’) in the Serious Violence Duty are:
- The police
- Fire and rescue authorities
- Justice organisations (youth offending teams and probation services)
- Health bodies (Integrated Care Boards)
- Local authorities
For Haringey, the Community Safety Partnership (CSP) is leading on the delivery and implementation of the Serious Violence Duty.