Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022

15 Involvement of educational, prison and youth custody authorities E+W

(1) An educational, prison or youth custody authority (a “relevant authority”) for a local government area and a specified authority for that area may collaborate with each other to prevent and reduce serious violence in that area.

(2) A relevant authority for a relevant area and a specified authority for that area may collaborate with each other to prevent and reduce serious violence in that area.

(3) A relevant authority and a specified authority must collaborate with each other as mentioned in subsection (1) or (2) if either the relevant authority or the specified authority requests the other to do so.

(4) A relevant authority must carry out any actions which are specified under section 8(5) or 9(5) as actions to be carried out by the authority.

(5) A relevant authority for a local government area—

(a) may collaborate with another relevant authority for that area to prevent and reduce serious violence in that area, and

(b) must collaborate with another relevant authority for that area for those purposes if requested by that other relevant authority to do so.

(6) A relevant authority (“RA1”) may collaborate with another relevant authority (“RA2”) to prevent and reduce serious violence in an area which is made up of—

(a) all or part of the local government area for which RA1 is a relevant authority, and

(b) all or part of the local government area for which RA2 is a relevant authority.

(7) A relevant authority is not subject to a duty in subsection (3), (4) or (5)(b), and a specified authority is not subject to a duty in subsection (3), if or to the extent that compliance with the duty—

(a) would be incompatible with any other duty of the authority imposed by an enactment (other than subsection (5)(b)),

(b) would otherwise have an adverse effect on the exercise of the authority’s functions,

(c) would be disproportionate to the need to prevent and reduce serious violence in the area to which the duty relates, or

(d) would mean that the authority incurred unreasonable costs.

(8) In determining whether subsection (7) applies to an authority, the cumulative effect of complying with duties under this section must be taken into account.

(9) Subsection (7) or (8) does not apply in relation to the duty of a relevant authority to collaborate with a specified authority under subsection (3) to the extent that it relates to—

(a) the exercise by the specified authority of its function under subsection (3)(a) or (b) of section 8 of identifying the kinds or causes of serious violence in an area or its function of preparing a strategy under subsection (3)(c) of that section, or

(b) the exercise by the specified authority of its function under subsection (3)(a) or (b) of section 9 of identifying the kinds or causes of serious violence in an area or its function of preparing a strategy under subsection (3)(c) of that section.

(10) This section does not affect any power to collaborate apart from this section.

(11) In this section “enactment” includes—

(a) an enactment comprised in subordinate legislation within the meaning of the Interpretation Act 1978, and

(b) an enactment comprised in, or in an instrument made under, a Measure or Act of Senedd Cymru.

Commencement Information

I1 S. 15 not in force at Royal Assent, see s. 208(1)

I2 S. 15 in force at 31.1.2023 by S.I. 2022/1227, reg. 4(g)