Part 2: Prevention, investigation and prosecution of crime Chapter 1: Functions relating to serious violence Section 8: Duties to collaborate and plan to prevent and reduce serious violence
Subsection (1) places a duty on specified authorities for a local government area to collaborate with the other specified authorities for that same area to prevent and reduce serious violence. The specified authorities (as listed in Schedule 1) are chief officers of police, specified health authorities, local authorities, probation service providers, youth offending teams and fire and rescue services. Each specified authority must collaborate with every other specified authority in that area, although the scale, scope and nature of that collaboration are likely to differ, depending on local circumstances. A "local government area" for these purposes is, in England, a district council, a London borough, the City of London or the Isles of Scilly, and, in Wales, a county or county borough (see section 11(4)).
	Subsection (2) states that the duty created in subsection (1) includes a duty to plan with the other specified authorities for that area, to prevent and reduce serious violence in the area, although again, the nature of that planning is likely to differ, depending on local circumstances.
	Subsection (3) requires specified authorities in a local government area to work with the other specified authorities in that area: to identify the kinds of serious violence that occur in the area; to identify the causes of serious violence in the area so far as is possible; and to prepare and implement a strategy that is aimed at preventing and reducing serious violence in the area. It is expected that this will involve the formulation of a local problem profile/strategic needs assessment, which identifies the main issues and drivers of serious violence in the local area and the cohorts of people most affected or at risk; and the production of a strategy which sets out the proposed local area response to the issues and drivers identified in the local problem profile and describes how the specified authorities will work together to prevent and reduce serious violence in the specified local area.
	Subsection (4) requires, in preparing a strategy for a local area, that the specified authorities for the area must consult each educational authority, prison authority or youth custody authority in that area (these terms are defined in section 12 and Schedule 2).
	Subsection (5) states that a strategy prepared for a local area may include actions which are to be carried out by an educational authority, prison authority or youth custody authority in that area. Section 15 includes further provision relating to the duties of such authorities in respect of such actions.
	Subsection (6) states that the specified authorities, in preparing a strategy for a local government area in England or Wales, may invite participation from a prescribed person who is not subject to the Serious Violence Duty, as specified in an order made by the Secretary of State or the Welsh Ministers (as appropriate) under section 5(3) of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 (see the Crime and Disorder Strategies (Prescribed Descriptions) (England) Order 2004 (SI 2004/118 ), as amended, and Crime and Disorder Strategies (Prescribed Descriptions) (Wales) Order 2009 (SI 2009/3050 )).
	Subsection (7) mandates that once a strategy has been prepared for a local government area, the specified authorities must publish a strategy, keep it under review and must from time to time prepare and implement a revised strategy.
	Subsection (8) states that specified authorities must not include in the strategy any material that they consider- (a) might jeopardise the safety of any person, (b) might prejudice the prevention or detection of crime or the investigation or prosecution of an offence, or (c) might compromise the security of, or good order or discipline within, an institution of a kind referred to in column 1 of a table in Schedule 2
	Subsection (9) states that a strategy prepared under this section may also cover an area larger than a local government area if it is also prepared in the exercise of powers under section 9.  Section 9 is concerned with collaborations between specified authorities in more than one local government area. The effect of this Section is therefore to support such collaborations by providing, for example, for a common strategy to be prepared for multiple local government areas in the same city, county or region.
	Subsection (10) confers a power on the Secretary of State, by regulations, to make further provision for or in connection with the publication and dissemination of a strategy under this section. Such regulations may specify, amongst other things, the date by which the first strategy must be published.