Violent crime is increasing in Wiltshire and Swindon.

But while it makes up four in every 10 crimes committed in the county, the rate of increase is also lower than average across England and Wales.

Wiltshire’s Police & Crime Commissioner Philip Wilkinson has published the force’s first serious violence strategy, which will be in effect for the next five years until 2029.

The strategy says there were two homicides in Swindon and one in Wiltshire in 2021-22 costing the taxpayer £9.6m to deal with.

There were also 2,251 violent crimes leading to injury in Swindon and 3,710 such crimes in Wiltshire that year at the cost of  £83.8m.

Devizes Town, with 677, Trowbridge Central at 570 and Swindon town centre with 563 violent offences in the year saw the most violence in the whole area, with the rate increasing over the last 10 years but at a slightly slower rate than across  England and Wales.

The strategy says the force, and its partners in local authorities and other agencies, will adopt a public health approach to tackling serious violence.

The strategy starts with the World Health Organisation definition: "Violence is the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation.”

It says there are four main parts of the approach. The first is to properly understand the problem by collecting all the necessary information properly.

Using that information will allow the force and  local authorities to: “Establish why violence occurs using, the causes and correlates of violence, the factors that increase or decrease the risk for violence, and the factors that could be modified through interventions; to find out what works to prevent violence by designing, implementing and evaluating interventions and to implement effective and promising interventions in a wide range of settings.”

The good news is that violent crime in Wiltshire and Swindon are low in comparison with the rest of England and Wales. With the second-lowest level of crime, and the seventh-lowest level of knife crime.

Nevertheless, violent crime at 41 per cent of all reported crimes, is the most common type of offence in the county and it cost more than £90m to deal with in 2021/22.

The strategy says that the prevention of violence needs three layers of intervention.

The first starts in early childhood: “Serious violence can be prevented by ensuring that all children have the best start in life and that they and their communities are supported to develop the ability to safely negotiate risk throughout their journey to adulthood.

“We are seeking to prevent violence by providing young people, parents, professionals and the wider community - with a raised awareness of issues leading to violence and the ability to keep themselves safe, make positive choices about their behaviour, and improve resilience.”