Knife task force will 'help keep communities safe'

West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster at a weapon surrender bin

The West Midlands' police and crime commissioner (PCC) has said a new knife crime task force led by the home secretary will help to "keep our communities safe".

The national group aims to prevent, tackle and reduce "knife-enabled robbery", focusing on regions like the West Midlands which has the highest rate of knife crime offences in England and Wales.

PCC Simon Foster and Chief Constable Craig Guildford joined the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, the policing minister and representatives from other badly affected regions in London.

The new group will meet monthly for the next six months, in a move Mr Foster said would "bring efforts and resources together".

Despite the high level of knife crime, Mr Foster said recent data showed there had been a 13% reduction in serious youth violence across the West Midlands.

But he insisted: "We are not complacent and never will be.

“I am keen to work with my counterparts across the country and with central government to see how we can bring efforts and resources together, to reduce knife-enabled robberies and crime and keep our communities safe.”

The task force, bringing together senior officers and politicians from the seven worst-affected areas of England, forms part of the government’s Safer Streets initiative to halve knife crime in a decade.