What its strategy is for reducing knife crime, and how it will measure the effectiveness of this.

Tackling all forms of violence including knife crime is a key priority for this government.Law enforcement and prosecution are essential in our overall approach to tackling violence, including knife crime. In addition to this, Scotland’s Violence Prevention Framework uses a public health approach to address violence, including knife crime, that focuses on identifying and tackling the underlying root causes of violence. We want to prevent people from picking up a knife in the first instance.Through the Framework and our partner organisations, a range of activity is being taken forward to divert people away from violence, including reducing knife crime. This includes supporting and monitoring the effectiveness and progress being achieved on the following;YouthLink Scotland’s No Knives, Better Lives programme which provides training to practitioners and engages directly with young people on the risks and consequences of violence including knife crime.Medics Against Violence’s schools education programme, which delivers violence prevention lessons within schools and other settings.The Scottish Violence Reduction Unit are working within communities to provide violence prevention training including the carrying and use of weapons.We will also utilise national statistics to monitor levels of handling offensive weapon crimes, which includes knife carrying and would hope to maintain the improvements we have seen over the longer term.As part of implementation of the Framework, we committed to developing a Measurement Framework which will monitor high-level progress towards the Framework’s vision over the long term. This will be published following publication of the findings from the 2023-24 Scottish Crime and Justice Survey in 2025, thereby aligning it with the very latest national data available on violence victimisation.