Homicide Prevention Fund

Tender description

The Home Office is seeking to award grant funding of up to £1.1m in FY 22/23 and FY 23/24 to Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs), Police Forces and/or Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCUs) in England and Wales. Whilst the evidence shows overall crime continues to fall, homicide is rising. To the year ending March 2022, there was a 25% increase in police recorded homicide offences compared to the year ending March 2021. The proportion of homicides where a knife or sharp instrument was the method of killing was 40% in the year ending March 2022 . Despite the recent rise in homicide, serious violence has decreased, resulting in an uncharacteristic divergence of these trends. This reinforces the need for specific homicide funding, as the work carried out on serious violence is not working to reduce homicide as we would expect. The purpose of the Homicide Prevention Fund (HPF) is to address this gap by funding projects which have an evidenced impact on homicide reduction or seek to improve national process, enhance capabilities, or improve analysis and use of data. To do this, the HPF will fund selected PCCs, Police Forces and ROCUs to deliver work to target the drivers of homicide locally and regionally, in addition to separate funding for national police system leaders from the NPCC, College of Policing and NCA to deliver projects that will improve homicide prevention nationally across all 43 police forces. We welcome proposals from PCCs, Police Forces and ROCUs that take forward activity to: a) Tackle any of the drivers of homicide. We are particularly interested in proposals that focus on tackling the drivers linked to the recent increase in homicide, and welcome local data to back bids in this category. b) Build on the current understanding and evidence base of the drivers linked to the recent increase in homicide, with the aim of developing targeted interventions that work. c) A combination of both. Eligibility PCCs, Police Forces and ROCUs across England and Wales. Outcomes The desired outcomes of the HPF are: 1. To prevent homicides in England and Wales; 2. To support system leaders, and regional and local policing partners to improve their response to prevent homicide; 3. To improve knowledge and understanding of the drivers of homicide, and develop and deliver interventions that will target these drivers; 4. To build the evidence base for what works on reducing homicide; 5. To improve the quality of violent crime data that forces record and share with the Home Office, to ensure we continue to accurately target activity.