Response: Consultation on Serious Violence Reduction Orders (SVROs)
We welcome the opportunity to respond to the Home Office consultation on Serious Violence Reduction Orders (SVROs). We consulted widely with our members to ensure that the breadth and depth of their expertise informs our submission to the consultation.
Our key comments are as follows:
We are against the introduction of SVROs, particularly for children; we welcome the preference expressed by the government in the consultation that SVROs are not applied to children.
We are concerned that SVROs will exacerbate racial disproportionality and discrimination, increase tensions particularly among ethnic minority communities and further erode trust in police.
We believe SVROs will label and marginalise children, interfere with desistance, and draw them further into the criminal justice system.
We are concerned SVROs will displace rather than reduce knife and other weapon offences, widening the net of criminal exploitation whilst using up limited police resources and ultimately interfering with the police’s ability to do their job to protect communities.
There is no evidence stop and search is effective at reducing serious violence and we believe that time and resources would be better placed and more effective if directed towards realising public health approaches and prioritising community interventions.
Full Response: Response: Home Office consultation on Serious Violence Reduction Orders (SVROs) *
*Please note, this response was published under our previous name of the Standing Committee for Youth Justice (SCYJ)