Robbie Moore (Keighley) (Con) I beg to move, That this House has
considered the matter of antisocial behaviour in town centres. It
is a privilege to serve under your chairmanship, Ms McVey, in a
debate on an important issue. Antisocial behaviour is a plague that
haunts many of our town and city centres, our villages and our
countryside. We all feel passionately about the issue, and I am
sure we all receive much correspondence about it. Therefore, we all
need to get...Request free trial
(Keighley) (Con)
I beg to move,
That this House has considered the matter of antisocial behaviour
in town centres.
It is a privilege to serve under your chairmanship, Ms McVey, in
a debate on an important issue. Antisocial behaviour is a plague
that haunts many of our town and city centres, our villages and
our countryside. We all feel passionately about the issue, and I
am sure we all receive much correspondence about it. Therefore,
we all need to get on top of it. If we are to deliver real,
positive change for our constituencies, it is important that we
tackle antisocial behaviour in all its forms.
As Members of Parliament, we like to sing from the rooftops about
the positives in our communities—how well our businesses are
doing, how safe it feels to go around our town centres—but we
need to tackle darker issues such as antisocial behaviour,
fly-tipping and physical assaults taking place on our streets. I
want to use the debate to outline some of the challenges that I
unfortunately face in Keighley and in Ilkley, as well as some of
the positive work that the Government are doing and further work
that I would like them to do.
According to the Office for National Statistics, the police
recorded 1.2 million incidents of antisocial behaviour in the
year ending June 2022, which is a 16% decrease compared with the
year ending March 2020. Antisocial behaviour, while decreasing,
remains a problem for us all to face, and I want to describe some
examples of antisocial behaviour in Keighley. There is a huge
problem around the bus station. Young people are being approached
and mobile phones taken off them. Assaults are taking place in
the centre of Keighley where people are coming and going, and
wanting to access businesses. Sometimes, the environment is
intimidating and unsafe. I receive a lot of correspondence about
that particular hotspot.
There are various hotspot streets, particularly around the Lund
Park area of Keighley, and I have received correspondence about
Westburn Avenue. The incidents that take place are localised
micro-incidents. Nevertheless, they build the fear factor that we
all associate with antisocial behaviour.
We have had some darker incidents as well, such as vehicles being
targeted, and petrol being poured on vehicles and set alight.
That happened only a couple of weeks ago outside a location in
Keighley that I know well. We have also had speeding and the
antisocial behaviour associated with it, extreme speeding and
cars with loud exhausts going up and down particular streets in
Keighley, such as North Street, Cavendish Street, Oakworth Road
and Fell Lane. I have received a lot of correspondence about
drivers purposely accelerating way beyond the speed limits that
have been put in place. The police have been doing their level
best to try to tackle those incidents.
Another issue in Keighley is cars being driven without insurance
and parked cars that are way beyond having passed their MOT test.
Some of those cars are parked at the roadside, particularly where
drug drops and distribution take place.
(Totnes) (Con)
My hon. Friend is making a good speech and giving us an A to Z of
road names in his constituency. Does he agree that tackling the
list of problems he faces in Keighley, which I also see in south
Devon, is about enforcement, police visibility and ensuring that
young people have things to do—options and opportunities to go
out and achieve?
My hon. Friend makes a good point. I want to paint a picture of
the challenges that we all face as MPs and describe the nature of
the correspondence that is arriving in our inboxes, whether it is
about speeding, antisocial behaviour or physical assault. We have
to get to grips with why such incidents take place. It is
predominantly those of a younger age who are participating in
them, whether because of boredom or a lack of activities on offer
to them.
One of the things that I have been doing—I believe that my hon.
Friend has been doing this as well—is engaging in dialogue in
community meetings. I hold large constituency surgeries and
invite the police along, so that the issues can be raised. It is
always fed back to me that police prioritisation relies on data
collection. How many meetings do MPs go to and hear that, while
residents know that these issues are happening on their streets,
they have not necessarily been reported via the 101 system or
email, or to the community police station so that data is
collected and police enforcement targeted in specific areas?
On the outskirts of Keighley, the Utley safer streets group holds
regular meetings. It is organised at community level by local
residents and provides me as the MP, district councillors and the
local police with the opportunity to go along, receive
information and provide feedback on what the local police forces
do, while also serving as a means to hold them to account.
(Rutherglen and Hamilton
West) (Ind)
I congratulate the hon. Member on securing today’s debate. A pub
in Rutherglen in my constituency has faced awful harassment from
teenagers who loiter and drink on the street outside, spoiling
for a fight, and they have actually physically assaulted
customers coming out of the pub. The pub has spent tens of
thousands on preventive security measures, but the presence of a
bouncer actually exacerbated the problem. The police have done a
lot in this case, but a cross-agency approach is needed. Does the
hon. Member share my concern about the lack of funding for these
teams?
The hon. Member makes a valid point: street drinking is a big
problem. It is one that we have in Keighley, particularly around
the Church Green area, where groups hang around, causing issues
for local businesses that want to grow, thrive and improve their
customer base. However, street drinkers are putting people off
going to those businesses. In my constituency, the police are
doing a lot to try to alleviate the issues, including engaging in
dialogue and correspondence. Sometimes it is up to the pubs and
venues themselves to address the drink-related issues that spill
out from them and the issues caused by some wishing to access
their facilities. It is very much about having a joined-up
approach, which I will come on to later in my speech.
My hon. Friend is being gracious in giving way again. I have set
up a police hub initiative in my constituency where the police
use local spaces to enhance visibility. That ensures that they
can get out into the community more readily, rather than having
to go back to HQ each time. It has been very effective in driving
down crime and antisocial behaviour in local areas, at no extra
cost to the state. Does my hon. Friend approve of that model?
It is an exceptionally good idea. Before I became an MP, the
police station was in the centre of Keighley, but, frustratingly,
our previous Labour police and crime commissioner decided to move
it to an industrial estate just outside Keighley, which is not a
good location. Everyone in Keighley knows that the police station
is now out of the town centre as a result of that bad decision by
the previous Labour PCC. I want that police station to be moved
back to the centre of town.
(Croydon Central) (Lab)
We all suffer from the closure of police stations. Will the hon.
Member also condemn his own Government, who have overseen the
closure of nearly 800 police stations across the country?
Our police station was not closed. The Labour PCC decided to move
it out of the town centre to an industrial estate outside
Keighley, making it less accessible to many of my
constituents.
In addition, in the run-up to the 2019 general election, the then
Labour PCC, the then Labour MP for Keighley and the Labour leader
of Bradford Council gave false hope and false promise that the
police station would be moved back to the centre of town. That
false hope just happened to be announced in the run-up to the
general election, but what happened? All those plans are now off
the table as a result of our new West Yorkshire Mayor deciding
that we cannot facilitate that move. I hope we will get an
instruction, or as much help from the Government as possible, to
move the police station back into the centre of Keighley, from
which it should have never been moved in the first place.
On the point that my hon. Friend the Member for Totnes () made, police hubs are an
excellent idea. In many rural parts of my constituency,
facilities such as village halls have been used for
community-wide engagement. A police officer, a sergeant or the
neighbourhood policing team can go along and have dialogue with
residents, and communicate and provide reassurance at a
micro-local level. We can use such facilities across our
constituencies to enable dialogue and better reporting of issues
and concerns.
On drug taking, I am very pleased that the Government have taken
a stance on nitrous oxide—laughing gas—cannisters, which I have
been campaigning to ban since being elected. In the summer
months, and particularly on bank holiday weekends, a lot of
people get the train from Bradford and Leeds to Ilkley to sit at
the riverside and enjoy the sunshine, but sometimes the area is
used for antisocial behaviour, and that is not fair for Ilkley
residents.
We all face many, many issues with antisocial behaviour. I will
quickly touch on fly-tipping. I represent an urban fringe-type
constituency, and we have a lot of fly-tipping, particularly in
the Worth Valley ward, where Councillor Rebecca Poulsen has been
fighting incredibly hard, working with the police, to deal with
fly-tipping-related incidents. We must not forget that dumping
used construction material, or whatever else it might be, in our
beautiful environment is a form of antisocial behaviour in its
own right. It was horrifying that, at the back end of last year,
our Labour-run Bradford Council decided to close the Keighley
tip—a ridiculous decision that would have resulted in more
fly-tipping across the constituency. I am pleased to say that
after I brought a petition to this House, signed by more than
7,000 people, which Laura Kelly and Martin Crangle heavily
campaigned for, Labour-run Bradford Council finally listened and
overturned that ridiculous decision. It has now decided to keep
the Keighley tip open.
I very much welcome the Government’s plan to put more police
officers on our streets. As a Conservative MP, at the last
election I campaigned to get 20,000 police officers back on to
our streets, and West Yorkshire police has recruited more than
1,000 since I was elected. I want to ensure that they are
prioritised in dealing with the many concerns that my
constituents across Keighley raise. I urge the Mayor of West
Yorkshire, , to ensure that as many as
possible of those police officers are on the streets of Keighley,
Ilkley, Silsden and Worth Valley to tackle antisocial behaviour
and give our neighbourhood policing teams the means that they
need.
It is a complete myth that Labour is the party of law and order,
and that it actually cares about clamping down and being tough on
those who commit offences that cause harm to others and try to
rule the streets through fear. I can categorically say that that
is not the case at all. Labour will not pull the wool over the
eyes of residents across Keighley and Ilkley. It was so
determined to secure power in Keighley a couple of years ago that
it actively selected as a candidate for Labour-run Bradford
council Mohsin Hussain, who only seven years earlier had been
given a 12-month sentence, suspended for two years with 250 hours
of unpaid community work, after being convicted of an armed
street assault in Keighley with a pickaxe handle, causing bodily
harm. Another of his gang used a baseball bat. When that
individual was released on bail, he was caught accelerating to 77
mph in a 30 mph zone in Keighley, driving through a series of
traffic lights at speed and going around the wrong side of a
roundabout. Those are the types of antisocial behaviour issues
that I get contacted about time and time again. These are
unfortunately the very issues that are still happening in
Keighley today—physical assaults and extreme speeding. Yet
Labour’s answer to all of that is to select and actively campaign
for a candidate who a few years previously had been handed a
two-year suspended sentence. What is worse is that our West
Yorkshire Mayor, , who is in charge of
implementing our local police and crime strategy, , who wants to be the next MP
for Keighley, and the current Labour leader of Bradford Council
all came to Keighley to campaign, knock on doors and deliver
leaflets to get that individual into power. And now,
unfortunately, he is a district councillor on the
Labour-controlled authority.
What does that say to the victims of antisocial behaviour, the
victims of street crime, those who have to put up with physical
abuse and those who live near the streets where extreme speeding
regularly takes place? My view is that Labour does not care about
implementing a strong and robust police and crime strategy.
Labour will use any means possible to secure the votes to secure
power, taking the votes of people in Keighley and Ilkley for
granted.
I say to the Minister that I appreciate the work of the Home
Secretary and her predecessors in taking a robust approach to
antisocial behaviour. It is an issue that impacts all our
constituencies time and again. It is probably one of the biggest
issues to fill my inbox. We cannot sing from the rooftops about
the good things in our constituencies and promote our businesses
without tackling the plague that continues to haunt our town
centres. On that, I will hand over to other speakers, as I know
that many want to take part in this debate.
(in the Chair)
I remind Members that they need to bob if they wish to be called
in this debate. I will not put a time limit on speeches, but be
mindful that we will go to Front Benchers at 10.28 am, and that
will have a couple of minutes
at the end to wind up.
9.47am
(Wansbeck) (Lab)
I wish I had prepared my contribution as a response to the hon.
Member for Keighley (), because some of the
outrageous statements he made were frankly unbelievable. Anyone
would think that the Conservative party had not been in office
for 13 years. Is it just me, or would anyone think there is an
election around the corner? He hit back at the democratic
processes in his constituency about who is elected. It is the
people who elect their representatives. The MP does not select
councillors—it is the people who do that. Criticism of the people
in his own constituency might not go down well.
However, I seriously thank the hon. Member for bringing this
timely debate on a massive subject, though it is shame he used it
simply to try to attack the Labour party. That is extraordinary,
to be honest. His closing remarks were along the lines of, “Thank
you, Minister, for the wonderful robust approach that the
Government have taken to antisocial behaviour on the high
street.” If they are doing a great job, what is there to debate?
There is either a problem that needs to be dealt with, or
everything is okay. He cannot have it both ways, I am afraid.
The common denominator to the huge issues that I describe as high
street anarchy is that the Conservative party in 2010 reduced the
police by 20,000 officers.
(Hemsworth) (Lab)
As always, my hon. Friend is making a powerful contribution. I
was in Northfield Primary School in South Kirkby on Monday, where
there is a serious antisocial problem. The policing is lacking
because of the cuts that he just referred to. I do not think we
should be demonising a whole generation of young people. The
Tories cut £1 billion or more of funding for youth services, so
there is no youth provision in the villages I represent—there are
no youth clubs—and all sorts of other facilities simply closed
down as a result of those cuts. Does he agree that the backdrop
to this problem of antisocial behaviour is, first, inadequate
policing because of poor funding and, secondly, cuts to services
upon which so many people depend?
Absolutely. I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention, because
it is so true. Are these young people bored? Perhaps it is
boredom, but the hon. Member for Keighley should recognise that
it is because of the reduction in youth provision and the
withdrawal of funding to local authorities, charities and lots of
other organisations that used to fund youth networks right the
way through our communities. They are gone. That does not mean to
say that, because people are bored, they can create havoc on the
high streets, because that is not acceptable at all.
If we look at Northumbria police, I have to place on record that
the police in my constituency do a marvellous job—every one of
them—and they know that they are really under-resourced. That is
the real issue on the high street: the police are
under-resourced, and they have to assess and deal with crimes as
they happen in real time. Do the police go to where the assaults
are happening, or do they go to where somebody is pulling plants
out of flowerbeds on the high street? I do not want to trivialise
what is happening on the high street, because it is very, very
important. There is theft taking place in the shops. There is
vandalism. There is antisocial behaviour, and there is unruly
behaviour. We have also noticed in my constituency an increase in
racist abuse.
I put a survey out to retailers in Ashington, Newbiggin, Morpeth
and Bedlington asking them about antisocial behaviour, and I got
a fantastic response. They all have huge criticisms, and they all
have different issues. We then had a meeting with the police on
Friday night, and the sad fact of the matter was that very few
people turned up, because there is absolutely no confidence at
all in the criminal justice system. There is a recognition that
the police do what they can, but there is a bigger recognition
that they are not doing anything that is addressing the huge
issue of antisocial behaviour on the high street.
Let me give a few examples of what is happening in my patch. We
have people going into the bigger stores on the high street—into
Boots and Co-op—and stealing stuff, and they are basically
stealing, first, items to sell on, and secondly, items to keep
themselves healthy and clean. People never used to go pinching to
keep themselves clean and keep their babies’ clothes well washed,
but that is one of the things that is happening now. There are
people walking into some of the bigger stores on a daily basis
and just picking up what they want and walking out. The people
there are instructed by the management, and rightly so, that they
cannot stop people stealing, because it is not their role—and if
they do, goodness knows what the consequences might be.
We had a situation in my constituency where someone was stabbed
trying to prevent somebody else from stealing from the shop. We
have security guards in the bigger stores, but then we have the
smaller retailers. We had a chap who mentioned that somebody just
walked in last week, picked 24 cans of beer up and just walked
out. They rang the police, and they got a response four days
later. The response was: “Well, can you explain which direction
the gentleman went in?” That was infuriating. The police might
have had good reason to ask such a question, possibly for CCTV,
but if someone just walks into a shop—into someone’s else
business on the high street, which they depend on for themselves
and their family—pick something up and walk out, the owner will
want some action, for heaven’s sake. They want the police to
come, not to ring four days later.
I would imagine that, at the very same time, there were other
crimes assessed by the police to be a priority compared with what
is happening on the high street. We have all sorts of issues on
the high street. They have mentioned racism. I live in a
constituency that I think is roughly 99.1% white, and racism has
never, ever been an issue, but it is becoming an issue. The
people themselves are asking the police to deal with the racial
abuse—and again, it is not a priority. I mentioned the 20,000
police being taken off the streets in 2010, and we should never
forget that. It really galls me, by the way, when we hear the
Conservatives, time after time, saying, “We are putting police
back on the street.” They should not have taken the police off
the street in the first place. Since 2010, Northumbria police has
lost 1,000 police officers. Because of the inflationary crisis,
next year it will have to find a further £12 million, which will
cause extra pressures.
People do not just want their crimes to be recorded and for
somebody to perhaps ring up and say, “We will look at this,” or,
“We’ll look at that”; they want to see the police on the high
street. I have seen videos—Al Vaziri, who has been a businessman
in Ashington in my constituency for decades and a pillar of
society, showed us CCTV videos only last month of young people
throwing a brick at his window. Everybody knows who the
individual was; it is on CCTV. We need convictions. Mr Vaziri
took the decision to retire, because he cannot put up with it any
more—racial abuse was also a contributing factor. He has decided
that he and his wife will retire, away from what they see
happening on the high street.
We must realise that the system is entirely broken. On one side,
we have the retailers, the hard-working people and the
businesspeople, on high streets in different towns and villages
in the community, who are suffering as a consequence of this
unruly anarchy from young people who think they can do whatever
they want—because they can do whatever they want, because they
are not being challenged at any stage. Then we have the many
retailers who are being forced out of business. This fella told
me, “They come in, Mr Lavery, pinch these things and walk out.
It’s robbery—they’re robbing me and robbing my family.” It is
just not acceptable.
Retailers and people on the high streets are suffering greatly
from abuse, bad behaviour, unruly behaviour, theft and robbery,
and it is the police’s job to remedy the situation and tackle
these issues. I give full praise to the police in my constituency
for the fantastic work they do, but they simply do not have the
resources. They have not said this to me, but I feel that they
understand that they are having to undertake a tick-box exercise.
They realise how broken the system is, because they say that they
have to prioritise other issues. A startling fact that the
inspector told me on Friday night is that just above 50% of the
call-outs in my constituency are connected to mental health
issues. The police are not social workers; they are there to
tackle the issues I have raised, which will surely also be
mentioned in other contributions to the debate.
Is it too much to ensure that the police are properly resourced
to walk through communities, so that people see them? We very
rarely see police officers on the beat. Again, I am not
criticising the force; the police have had to face
under-resourcing from the Government. It isn’t any wonder that if
we take 20,000 police officers off the streets, there will be an
increase in crime—that is logical. It is not really difficult to
come to terms with or understand. The system is completely and
utterly broken. This is about how we put that right.
To conclude, I simply praise police officers. We have to think
about how we can address the huge issues affecting small and
bigger businesses on the high street, because they are facing a
ridiculous situation. This is going to be very difficult, but we
need more police, we need more youth provision, and we need
people to be held to account for what is happening on our high
streets. Only when that happens will we begin to see a reduction
in antisocial behaviour.
10.03am
Mrs (Birmingham, Erdington)
(Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Ms McVey. I
thank the hon. Member for Keighley () for securing this important
debate.
For many of my constituents, the sad reality of living in Tory
Britain is that antisocial behaviour is increasing in our town
centres, and there has been a loss of confidence in the police.
The Government have hollowed out neighbourhood policing, allowed
vulnerable young people to be drawn into crime, and let
confidence in the police and the criminal justice system
collapse. Criminals are being let off, and victims are being let
down. In my constituency-wide survey, the main concerns raised
were policing and tackling crime, which constituents tell me is a
massive issue. We need more police on our streets to make us feel
safe. Young people no longer have faith in the police, and one of
my constituents told me that a lot of people do not report crimes
because they do not think the police will even bother to come
out.
Antisocial behaviour is increasing in my communities in
Erdington, Kingstanding and Castle Vale. A constituent told me
that Erdington High Street at times feels lawless. Another told
me that his 70-year-old father carries a personal attack alarm
when he goes on his morning walk. A third is scared to walk with
his dog in the local park. It is shameful that, after 13 years of
Conservative Government, anywhere we look in Britain, nothing is
working.
Erdington High Street is the beating heart of my community. Last
August, Birmingham City Council and I put in a bid to the
Government levelling-up fund for £11 million, which would have
totally transformed our town centre and gone a long way to
reducing antisocial behaviour in our area. But the Tory
Government let us down yet again, rejecting ours and the four
other Birmingham bids. While Erdington will not receive a single
penny from the Government’s £2.1 billion fund, despite ranking in
the top 10% of deprived areas in the country, the Prime
Minister’s own affluent constituency received £19 million.
At the same time, I have been campaigning relentlessly alongside
local residents to oppose an application to open an eighth
betting shop on our high street. Sadly, the Government decided to
back the gambling bosses and overturn local wishes. I am helping
thousands of constituents with casework; I am holding meetings
with local retailers concerned about antisocial behaviour on the
high street; and I supported two great bids to the Government
levelling-up fund that Ministers shamefully rejected. Sadly,
Erdington feels left behind.
Councils are committed to tackling antisocial behaviour in town
centres, but it is essential that the Government adequately
resource policing and community safety officers to enforce
restrictions put in place. It is no good saying the Government
have put 20,000 police back on the streets when, 13 years ago,
they literally hollowed out those services. I am doing my bit.
Can the Minister tell me why the Government are not doing
theirs?
10.07am
(Pontypridd) (Lab)
It is an honour to speak in this morning’s debate and serve under
your chairship, Ms McVey. I am not usually one for superstition,
but I must say that this debate is incredibly timely. Sadly, only
last weekend, my community was hit by a particularly violent bout
of antisocial behaviour in our town centre of Pontypridd, while
last night, another incident of unprovoked violence occurred in
our town. At the time of preparing my comments for this debate, a
distressing video of last Friday’s violent brawl is circulating
online in which one individual can be seen laying on the floor
literally having his head kicked in.
This is the sad reality of our high streets, but let me be clear:
Pontypridd is not ordinarily a violent community. Antisocial
behaviour is a blight on communities up and down the country—my
area is not alone. Today’s debate is about an important national
issue that our constituents rightly expect us to take seriously.
But for me, this is also a persistent local issue, as my
constituents are sick and tired of being intimidated by
antisocial behaviour.
Last weekend, I was shocked and saddened to learn of such an
incident taking place in a part of town that is
usually—especially on market day—bustling with activity, as
locals shop around for a bargain or enjoy a bite to eat at one of
our many offerings. It is precisely because Pontypridd’s town
centre is so often a vibrant place that I have my constituency
office just seconds away from where the market traders set up
their stalls.
Following recent events in Pontypridd, I want to place on record
my heartfelt thanks for the swift actions of South Wales police
and our local Pontypridd policing team, including Chief Inspector
Helen Coulthard, Inspector Leigh Parfitt and Constable Liam Noyce
among many others. South Wales police does phenomenal work to
keep us safe, especially when much of its work happens
thanklessly and tirelessly behind closed doors. However, the
frustrating reality is that South Wales police is doing the best
it can with extremely limited resources.
Embedded, preventive neighbourhood policing is such a vital part
of keeping our streets safe. But let me be clear: after more than
a decade of Tory budget cuts to policing across the UK, we have
weakened our country’s capacity to deal with antisocial
behaviour, both in a preventive capacity and, too often, when
responding to it. I need not remind colleagues that this UK Tory
Government have cut police officer numbers across the UK by
thousands. Across the UK, charges have collapsed, antisocial
perpetrators are getting away with their behaviour, and criminal
damage and arson attacks have skyrocketed. We can, and we must,
do better.
Proper neighbourhood policing is vital, but another important
part of preventing antisocial behaviour is, of course, the
adequate provision of youth services to get teenagers away from
the streets. Shamefully, funding for those sorts of services has
also been cut to the bone thanks to 13 years of Conservative rule
in Westminster. Our communities up and down the country are
facing undeniable funding pressures. Youth services have been
completely slashed, which increases the chances of antisocial
behaviour, and with neighbourhood policing on its knees,
perpetrators are more likely to get away with their disgraceful
behaviour.
I am proud to say that in Wales our Labour-led authority, despite
the impossible challenge thrown at it by the UK Tory Government,
is trying to make a difference for its communities. Indeed, we
are fortunate that on Ponty high street, at the site of our old
YMCA building, our town centre will soon boast an incredible £4.4
million arts and youth centre zone. The project will deliver true
community spaces and provide much-needed youth services for a
generation. I am also lucky to be well supported by a fantastic
business improvement district. Pontypridd BID has been vital in
championing antisocial behaviour prevention measures, where the
UK Government funding has barely scratched the surface. But as
with local authorities across the nation, it is overstretched and
having to do more with less and less.
Colleagues will be aware that I am a proud and vocal champion for
fair funding for Wales. The inadequacy of the Barnett funding
formula is very much a topic for another day, but it is an
important truth that the UK Government have a responsibility to
support ASB-related projects across the UK. I put on record my
thanks to the Welsh Labour Government, who with the limited
powers available to them have committed to more police community
support officers, and I look forward to welcoming the officers on
the streets of Pontypridd this summer.
I also look forward to hearing the Minister’s responses to my
points, and I sincerely hope that there is a strategy to tackle
antisocial behaviour once and for all. We need an ambitious
strategy to tackle it, but the Department has clearly failed thus
far to act appropriately, which is having serious consequences
for people across the UK. I sincerely hope that the Minister is
listening and I look forward to her remarks.
10.12am
(Strangford) (DUP)
It is a pleasure to speak in this debate, and I thank the hon.
Member for Keighley () for leading it. In the short
time that he has been here, he has had many Westminster Hall and
Adjournment debates on similar issues to this one. They are
critical issues—the issues that people contact us about most—so
it is good that he has set the scene. I thank him for his
commitment to bringing such issues to Westminster Hall and the
main Chamber for consideration. He deserves credit for that.
I am pleased to speak in the debate, because I have—as others do;
I am not different from anybody else—such pride in the town
centres in my constituency; Newtownards, Comber and Ballynahinch
are the largest towns there. I have mentioned before that my main
constituency office is in the town centre of Newtownards, and the
sense of community there is so real. It is an area where people
learn to know everyone. Of course, the fact that I have lived in
the area for all but four years of my life, and have had a fairly
long life, means that I know it well. I know the people well and
get to know the people who come in. I have become incredibly
proud of the area’s reputation.
It is good to see the Minister in her place. She will not have to
answer any of the questions that I will pose, because she has no
responsibility for them. I always give a Northern Ireland
perspective, if I can, because what I say replicates what others
have said, and what those who will speak afterwards will say. In
Northern Ireland, we are no strangers to having different rules
and different council policy. One issue that has become prevalent
in more recent years is the antisocial behaviour of youths in
Newtownards town centre. We deal with issues of antisocial
behaviour every week, unfortunately, and they are critically
important for my constituents, be the issue under-age drinking or
graffiti.
A problem that has recently resurfaced in parts of my
constituency is sectarian graffiti. The perpetrators of a recent
spate of graffiti were identified, and they were only teenagers.
Does the hon. Member agree that that behaviour can often be
generational, and that angle should be given greater
consideration?
As always, the hon. Lady makes a very apt intervention and I
thank her for that. In my town of Newtownards, on the Ards
peninsula, we have recently witnessed gang warfare, for want of a
better description, in which graffiti has been prominent. It has
been specific to many people and has been unhelpful, dangerous,
vindictive and cruel. She is right to highlight graffiti and the
role that needs to be played. At times, we ask: who is
responsible for removing the graffiti? It is a very simple issue,
but one that crops us. We usually find that the building’s owner
paints over it, or if the graffiti is specific and nasty, the
council can come out and remove it. So that becomes an issue.
Other problematic issues in my constituency are loitering, loud
music and, in some rare cases, drugs. There is absolutely no
place for that in our local communities. There is a street in my
constituency called Court Street where there are a few derelict
houses. On most weekends, there will be youths inside those homes
drinking and blasting out music until the early hours; not to
mention that the glass in the properties had to be broken at some
stage, so there is a real health threat to the young people, too.
The police and local councils have boarded up the windows
numerous times, as have the owners. A local councillor who works
in my office has been contacted out of hours and rung the police
numerous times to make them aware of what was happening, but
there does not seem to be any strategy to tackle the issue. We
need better co-operation between local councils and police to
ensure a better response, first, on the issue of building control
and who is responsible for making the building safe, and
secondly, so the police can give appropriate warnings and take
relevant action, should this not stop.
I wish to put on record my thanks to the Police Service of
Northern Ireland back home for what it does and, in particular,
to the community police officers who do such great work. They
interact with community groups, organisations and individuals,
and that interaction has been incredibly helpful; on many
occasions, it addresses the antisocial issues, and it builds the
confidence and the relationship between the general public and
the police. It also gives the police a better idea of who is
involved.
Another issue in the town that has proven to be a major problem
is suspected under-age drinking and drugs in local parks and
leisure centres, which is also potentially dangerous for young
children. I have highlighted that many times back home. Discarded
bottles and sometimes other items, for want of a better
description, are left in the children’s playground. It can be a
mess of broken glass, takeaway wrappers, litter, cigarette butts
and other things, and can also be dangerous.
Lastly, I have no doubt that in some cases parents are completely
unaware of where their children are. I am a parent of three boys.
They are well grown up now and I have six grandchildren, but we
are no strangers to the fact that our children, in the past,
fabricated, or could have fabricated, their whereabouts and what
they were doing, because sometimes they did not want us to know.
Parents can play a huge role in ensuring that their children are
responsible and, if they are out and about on weekends, not
creating a risk for themselves or other people by behaving
antisocially.
I have a great relationship with my local policing team, which
will frequently carry out patrolling checks in hotspots to deter
any antisocial behaviour. In an intervention, the hon. Member for
Totnes () referred to police hubs.
That is one of the things we should look at. It was a wise and
helpful intervention, which I think can make a difference. Could
the Minister comment on that? I have mentioned before the
relationship between councils and local police; there needs to be
greater power for the two to work together. For example, councils
should be able to renovate buildings that are being abused, and
make real use of them to boost the local economy, forcing
antisocial behaviour out.
I want to mention something that I think will be helpful for the
Minister and which operates across the whole of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. We have a very
active street pastors group. I have been involved with them from
the very beginning, when a lady called Pam Williamson came to see
me. I had always had an interest in them. It started because all
the churches came together to address a social issue. It is the
sort of reaching out that I love to see—I know that you would as
well, Ms McVey. The churches see that they can do something
practical on the streets. It was a local group, but it expanded
from Newtownards across to Bangor, and down the Ards peninsula to
Comber and elsewhere. It is really active and it brings together
so many good people with good intentions, who go out at night and
reduce antisocial behaviour. The figures have dropped, and that
is one of the reasons why. The Minister may wish to refer to that
in her speech, and the hon. Member for Keighley, who introduced
this debate, may wish to refer to it in his wind-up.
I have seen what the group do. They offer people a bottle of
water or a pair of sandals. They help young people who are
unfortunately inebriated and do not know what they are doing, and
get them home safely. How critical that is for ladies, women and
young girls! It is critical for people to have someone there when
they are feeling emotionally vulnerable. How important it is to
ensure that parents know where their children are! Those are the
things that street pastors do. I am a great supporter of street
pastors. I think that all Members present have street pastors in
their area who do marvellous work. They are an instrument that we
can all use, because they have a deep interest in the
community.
Mrs Hamilton
I absolutely agree. I have street pastors in my constituency.
This is not their fault, but the problem with street pastors is
that, because we lack the police and people from other local
agencies to work with them, it is becoming unsafe at certain
times of the day and night for them to do their valuable work.
Given the lack of police and other services on the high street,
does the hon. Member feel that the environment is safe enough for
street pastors?
I thank the hon. Lady for her intervention. It is difficult for
me to answer that, because I cannot speak for other areas. I can
speak only for mine, and I must say that in my constituency, the
police are never too far away. The issue for street pastors is
that they are not police. That is probably why they are
approachable, which is one of their advantages. I know from my
constituents that they have probably saved people from abuse and
physical and other harm, and that they have got people home
safely. Street pastors have a working relationship with the
police, but they are not the police. They are there to help, and
I think people recognise that; the street pastors’ years of
involvement in this work on the streets of Newtownards, Bangor,
the Ards peninsula, Comber and elsewhere in my constituency have
shown that to be the case. The hon. Lady is right; street pastors
need to be safe, but in my area, I think they are.
I conclude with this: these issues are prevalent in all
constituencies across the United Kingdom. An antisocial behaviour
plan has recently been introduced in England, which it seems will
tackle the worst of antisocial behaviour in England. I am
grateful to the Minister, for whom I have the utmost respect.
What discussions could she have with our Department of Justice
back home? I believe wholeheartedly that we can do things much
better together, because this is a national issue. That is why
the debate is important, and that is why I am speaking in it—not
that I can necessarily add anything more for the Minister to
reply to. I just wanted to let her know that we have some ideas
in Northern Ireland. It is good to exchange those ideas, and
thereby do better for everyone.
(in the Chair)
We move now to the Front-Bench spokespeople.
10.24am
(Motherwell and Wishaw)
(SNP)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship for the first
time, Ms McVey. I congratulate the hon. Member for Keighley
() on securing this important
debate. I will not stand here and say that everything is
wonderful in Scotland. We have already heard from the hon. Member
for Rutherglen and Hamilton West (), and there are issues in
my constituency, too, many of them linked to local housing
issues. In North Lanarkshire Council, police and local housing
officials work closely together to solve those problems.
In spite of that, the Scottish Government actually recognise how
much antisocial behaviour can, as many hon. Members have said
this morning, blight people’s lives. The Scottish Government
remain committed to tackling all forms of antisocial behaviour
via legislation, and fixed penalty notices for things such as
littering, which is another bad antisocial behaviour issue. I am
reliably informed that there is no Scottish equivalent to section
59 of the Anti-social Behaviour and Policing Act 2014, but we
have our own Act—the Antisocial Behaviour etc. (Scotland) Act
2004—and some stringent operating procedures for police.
As in other parts of the United Kingdom, it is not always
possible for police in Scotland to attend every incident of
antisocial behaviour, because there is simply no capacity after
13 years of austerity. Importantly, according to the Scottish
Community Safety Network, 12-year-olds living in the 20% most
deprived areas, as measured by the Scottish index of multiple
deprivation, are more likely than those in the 20% least deprived
areas to have engaged in antisocial behaviour. As the hon. Member
for Wansbeck () asked, is antisocial behaviour about boredom? In some
cases, it is simply about not having a decent life chance because
of poverty.
Those living in more deprived areas, socially rented housing and
urban areas are more likely to think that antisocial behaviour
and neighbourhood problems are issues in their area. However,
perceived levels of antisocial behaviour differ from actual
levels, and that is a real issue as well. There is a lot of
perception about antisocial behaviour. What is antisocial
behaviour for one person is not always antisocial behaviour to
someone else, and we need to look at things differently in some
areas.
I reiterate that the root of the problem is a lack of resources
for police, local authorities and organisations that help. In my
area of Scotland, there are still street football leagues. The
police in Scotland act differently, it is fair to say. They are
much more community-based; there is a much wider sense in which
they use consent to police their areas, and they work much more
closely with local authorities. However, some of the great work
they have been doing has been affected by real-terms cuts to
funding, which is a huge pity.
In spite of the UK Government’s austerity cuts, Scotland still
has a higher number of officers with better pay than at any time
during the last Administration, and more police per head of
population than England and Wales; that is a priority for the
Scottish Government, and will continue to be. We have increased
the number of police officers in Scotland, and they get paid
about £5,000 more per annum as a starting salary. Also, fewer
police officers resign voluntarily in Scotland because their
conditions are better. The UK Government should look at that.
It is important that people look to not just the police to solve
antisocial behaviour issues, but proper local organisations that
work with police and other agencies. The hon. Member for
Strangford () talked about street pastors; we know what good work
they do across the UK. Churches in my area are also involved in
that good work. The whole thing comes down to money. I am
probably the oldest Member present. I can remember when there was
a zero-tolerance approach to any crime in New York; I believe it
was in the 1980s. I think we all recognise, as we should, that
small crimes can lead to larger crimes. We should not simply
label that as antisocial behaviour at the outset. As well as
providing support for victims, we need to provide outlets for
younger people, who are mainly, but not always, the ones
exhibiting antisocial behaviour. We need to look at what we do,
take a zero-tolerance approach, and work with organisations to
try to prevent such behaviour.
The hon. Member for Wansbeck was right to say that boredom leads
to a lot of antisocial behaviour, but we cannot tackle antisocial
behaviour at its root without adequate Government funding.
Government funding in England will lead to Barnett consequentials
for Scotland, so will the Minister talk about how the Government
will improve funding to help to fight this scourge across the
United Kingdom?
10.31am
(Croydon Central) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms McVey, and
I am delighted that the hon. Member for Keighley () was able to secure this
debate on an incredibly important topic. Perhaps we can forgive
him for some of his colourful attacks on his Labour party
colleagues because sometimes there is a direct correlation
between an MP’s majority and the scale of their exaggerations
against their opponents. However, the hon. Gentleman made some
good points, and I agree 100% that antisocial behaviour is a
plague that haunts many of our communities.
It is a shame that the Government have only recently woken up to
the challenges of antisocial behaviour. I have attended debates
at which Ministers have described antisocial behaviour as low
level and not something they had chosen to prioritise in the
past, and if Members look at the strategies that the Government
have published in recent years, they will see that antisocial
behaviour barely got a mention. The Labour party takes antisocial
behaviour seriously. It is not low level; it is ruining
lives.
I note that the shadow Minister says the Labour party takes
antisocial behaviour extremely seriously. I am interested in her
views on the selection of Labour party candidates for local
elections. Does the Labour party think it appropriate to select
candidates with previous convictions, such as a two-year
suspended sentence, to stand for election to positions of
responsibility?
I do not know about that particular case, but I do not think it
acceptable that over the past 13 years the Government have not
taken antisocial behaviour seriously and that the lives of people
across the country have been ruined as a result. The hon.
Gentleman is perhaps sad that he did not become a police and
crime commissioner when he stood for election—I am sure he would
have done an excellent job—but he cannot deny, and did not deny
in his speech, the damage that has been done to our town centres
and our communities over the past 13 years.
People across the country know exactly what antisocial behaviour
feels like. They know what changes in their neighbourhood when
community respect is worn down, and they know what broken Britain
feels like. Parents worry about their children playing in the
park or being targeted online. Pensioners worry about scams.
Small businesses worry they will be targeted by thieves or
vandals. Knife crime plagues communities, women feel less safe on
the streets and antisocial behaviour ruins lives without
consequence.
Labour’s driving mission is to deliver safer streets. If a family
does not have a big house with a garden, the kids play on the
streets, or hang out in the parks or the town centre, and it is
vital that people feel they are safe enough to enjoy their local
area. Criminal damage to shops, schools, leisure centres and
businesses has increased by more than 30% in the past year alone.
That is an extraordinary figure. There are 150 incidents of
criminal damage to non-residential buildings a day. Antisocial
arson went up 25% last year. Knife possession is up 15% on
pre-pandemic levels. More than 6 million Brits are witnessing
drug deals on their streets. That is 6 million people seeing drug
dealing and drug taking on our streets.
Some town centres have been particularly hard hit by vandalism,
harassment and abuse. Do not be fooled by the Government’s
announcement today that they have met their arbitrary police
recruitment target of 20,000. The Tories should hang their heads
in shame that they decimated policing. Replacing some of the
officers cut by the Government is not a victory. A press release
will not suddenly make the public see police officers on the
streets who are not there. Nobody will be fooled.
My hon. Friend the Member for Wansbeck () made a powerful speech about how people just want to
see action; they want something done when a crime is committed.
He rightly paid tribute to the police in his area. They are
trying to do the right thing, but they do not have the resources.
How insulted will they be when they hear the Home Secretary say
in her speech today that the police need to stop concerning
themselves with political correctness and get on with basic
policing? It is nonsense that the police are not doing the things
we want them to because of the way they approach their job. They
are trying but they are massively overstretched. We have seen
such cuts that it is very difficult for them to do the things
that we all demand of them. They will not praise the Home
Secretary for what she says today.
In her shocking 300-page report on the Met, made it really clear that
visible neighbourhood policing is crucial to restoring confidence
in police. Neighbourhood policing has been slashed. There are
10,000 fewer neighbourhood police and PCSOs on our streets today
than there were eight years ago. The population has also
increased, so we have fewer officers per person in this country
by some margin than when the Tories came to power.
Charge rates are plummeting, victims are dropping out of the
process in record numbers, the Conservative Government scrapped
the major drug intervention programme that the last Labour
Government had in place, and support services for kids have been
decimated. YMCA says that £1 billion has been taken out of youth
work across the country. As my hon. Friend the Member for
Wansbeck mentioned, the police spend hours, if not days, dealing
with mental health cases, simply because there is no one else to
pick up the pieces. Community penalties have halved and there is
a backlog of millions of hours of community payback schemes, not
completed because the Government cannot even run the existing
scheme properly.
Far from punishing perpetrators of antisocial behaviour, the
Government are letting more and more of them off. The
Conservatives weakened Labour’s antisocial behaviour powers 10
years ago, and brought in new ones that are barely used. They got
rid of powers of arrest, despite being warned not to, and they
introduced the community trigger, which is sadly something most
people have not heard of. When polled, the public say there is no
point in investing in improving the community if it is just going
to be vandalised by criminals. It is impossible to level up
without tackling crime.
Labour announced months ago our action plan to crack down on
antisocial behaviour that blights communities. Respect orders
will create a new criminal offence for adults who have repeatedly
committed antisocial behaviour and are ignoring warnings by the
courts and police. Labour will introduce new town centre patrols,
and a mandatory antisocial behaviour police lead for every local
neighbourhood, as part of our neighbourhood police guarantee,
with 13,000 extra neighbourhood police and PCSOs.
We should, of course, pay tribute to the Welsh Government, as my
hon. Friend the Member for Pontypridd () did, for committing
more PCSOs, because they are the eyes and ears on antisocial
behaviour and can stop things escalating. They can find out the
problems, they know people’s parents, they know where people
live, and they can go round communities to stop antisocial
behaviour escalating. The hon. Member for Keighley’s force, West
Yorkshire police, has the second highest proportion of PCSOs by
population in England, which I am sure he is pleased about.
We will bring tough action against town centre drug dealing, with
tough powers for the police to shut down crack houses, and local
neighbourhood drug teams to patrol town centres and lead
data-driven hotspot policing targeted at common drug-dealing
sites. We will introduce a national register of private
landlords, and a duty for local partners to tackle antisocial
behaviour, with mandatory antisocial behaviour officers in each
area.
Under a Labour Government, if somebody wants to commit vandalism
or dump rubbish on our streets, they had better be prepared to
clean up the mess. We will bring in fixed-penalty cleaning
notices and tough penalties for fly-tippers, and establish
clean-up squads, where offenders will clear up litter,
fly-tipping and vandalism that they have caused. The next Labour
Government will not let another generation of lost boys and girls
grow up without hope. That is why Labour will introduce full
prevention and diversion programmes, with new youth mentors for
the children and young people most vulnerable to crime, and
access to mental health professionals in every school.
What are the Government proposing to do about the 13 years of
neglect? Recently they called for hotspot policing, faster
community payback, and stronger powers of arrest. That sounds
familiar—because it is exactly what Labour has been calling for,
and is already in Labour’s plans. However, the Government have
left out the most important part, which is putting our
neighbourhood police and PCSOs back on the streets. They are not
investing in that. Labour’s plans to support victims have also
been neglected. On the community trigger that is not working, the
Government have decided to rename it, and they have re-announced
plans on youth support that the Levelling Up Secretary announced
more than a year ago.
The Government have said that 500 young people will get
one-to-one support. There were 1.1 million incidents of
antisocial behaviour last year. Supporting 500 people just will
not cut it. The Government are still not changing their weakened
enforcement powers on antisocial behaviour, and neighbourhood
policing is not even mentioned in their action plan. The Minister
knows that hotspot policing cannot be a replacement for
neighbourhood policing. Neighbourhood teams made up of officers,
PCSOs and specials are the eyes and ears of our communities. They
are the Catherine Cawoods of policing. They know what is going on
in their communities, and are trusted to understand and fix
problems.
I hope that the Minister can answer a few questions. What is the
plan for the police workforce now that the uplift programme has
finished? Will she back Labour’s plan to put 13,000 more police
officers, PCSOs and specials back in our neighbourhoods? Will she
support Labour’s respect orders, so that the police can have the
powers that they need to arrest and deal with persistent
antisocial behaviour, and can she confirm whether cutting the
number of PCSOs by half was a deliberate policy measure or just
an accident of no planning?
Where the Conservatives have dismantled neighbourhood policing,
Labour will bring it back. Where the Conservatives have weakened
antisocial behaviour powers, Labour has a tough new plan to
tackle it. Where the Conservatives forgot about our young people,
Labour will prioritise them. Labour will revive the reassurance
that if you are a victim of a crime, something will be done.
10.42am
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home
Department ( )
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms McVey. I
thank my hon. Friend the Member for Keighley () for securing the debate. He
knows, as we all do, that these issues matter to a great many of
our constituents in all parts of the country. Antisocial
behaviour is a menace that must be reckoned with. It causes
untold distress, concern, frustration and fear. It ruins people’s
enjoyment of public spaces, and at worst it destroys lives and
gnaws at the fabric of communities. It is totally
unacceptable.
Town centres should be bustling and energetic, but they should
also be safe. My hon. Friend mentioned Keighley bus station.
Transport is crucial. People should be able to walk to get a bus
or train, and his work in that area is really important. The
Government are committing a large sum of money—an extra £2.5
million—for a pilot to extend transport safety officers.
Conservatives feel very strongly about such issues.
No one should feel threatened when walking alone at night or
during the day. Nor should they have to dodge litter or drug
paraphernalia on the streets, endure persistent unruly behaviour
or excessive noise, or see their local areas disfigured by
graffiti and vandalism. Those are just a few of the many examples
Members have raised of how antisocial behaviour manifests.
Different areas have different problems, as is clear from
Members’ contributions, but a recurring theme is the harm done to
the physical environment and the impact on decent, law-abiding
citizens, who suffer as a result of the actions of a selfish
minority. Antisocial behaviour affects lives.
Will the Minister give way?
Miss Dines
I will make a little more progress first. Antisocial behaviour is
not low level or minor, and I do not accept the characterisation
that the Government view it as somehow petty. That is an
unfortunate narrative. I am sure that we all agree that
antisocial behaviour is very impactful on people’s everyday
lives. We need to attack it head-on.
In relation to the police uplift, today’s debate is obviously
very timely, for two reasons. At 9.30 this morning, just as my
hon. Friend the Member for Keighley was rising to start his
remarks, the latest statistics on the police uplift programme
were published. Let me confirm to hon. Members what those figures
tell us. I am delighted to say—we should be proud—that from the
end of March 2023, 20,951 additional police officers have been
recruited from funding from the police uplift programme. That
brings the current police officer head- count in England and
Wales to 149,572, an increase of 3,542 compared with 2010.
The upshot is that there are now more police officers in England
and Wales than at any point in history. The Opposition
spokesperson, the hon. Member for Croydon Central (), is inaccurate in saying that
that is not the case. We will have more police on the beat to
prevent violence—more police out about in their communities,
solving burglaries and, yes, tackling antisocial behaviour on the
ground. It is of course for police forces to determine how they
use their own money and the additional officers at their
disposal. Let me say in response to some of the contributions we
have heard that West Midlands police has closed 20 police
stations and chosen to spend £33 million of its money
refurbishing a head office. But there is no doubt that the police
have a crucial role to play in tackling antisocial behaviour. A
responsive and visible police presence can have a strong
deterrent effect as well as helping to provide reassurance for
communities.
This debate is timely for a second reason: it was only at the end
of last month that the Government published their bold and
ambitious action plan to tackle antisocial behaviour. The
difference between our plan and Labour’s is that ours actually
has some depth, narrative and detail. The hon. Member for Croydon
Central will remember that detail and figures are really
important.
As has been made clear today, constituents all over the country
are sick and tired of antisocial behaviour. The Government hear
their concerns and we are determined to step up the response. Our
action plan will give police and crime commissioners and local
authorities and their agencies the tools to stamp out antisocial
behaviour across England and Wales. It targets the callous and
careless few whose actions ruin public spaces and amenities on
which the law-abiding majority want to depend.
The Minister mentioned the impact of antisocial behaviour on
communities and she also mentioned transport. A big problem that
we have is the antisocial noise from the exhausts of modified
cars racing up and down our bypasses and through our town
centres. Last April, the former Transport Secretary, the right
hon. Member for Welwyn Hatfield (), announced a pilot of noise
cameras to capture that antisocial behaviour, but we have heard
very little since. Will the Minister go back to the Transport
Secretary to find out what is happening with the noise cameras
and see whether they can be rolled out across the UK, because
that antisocial behaviour is a major problem in Pontypridd and
Taff-Ely?
Miss Dines
I am certainly willing to do that. Anecdotally, there are similar
issues in my constituency of Derbyshire Dales, and I have written
to the Transport Secretary myself in that regard. There are
pilots, and I think there is a consideration as to whether there
should be more.
The Government’s action plan outlines a radical new approach and
is split across four key areas. There will be stronger punishment
for perpetrators. The Opposition say that the Government have
disregarded that, but that is not the case; the Government are
going to bring forward stronger punishment for perpetrators. The
hon. Member for Motherwell and Wishaw () mentioned experiences of
zero tolerance in the USA. There are historical and academic
reasons why that is of interest and why it works in some areas
and not in others, but the Government will introduce stronger
punishment for perpetrators in this country.
We are cracking down on illegal drugs, making offenders repair
the damage that they cause, increasing financial penalties, and
evicting antisocial tenants. Drugs are harmful to health,
wellbeing and security, and they devastate lives. That is why we
have decided to ban nitrous oxide, known as laughing gas, which
is currently the third most used drug among 16 to 24-year-olds.
How many of us have stumbled across the canisters broken on the
ground? That really is antisocial behaviour. The Government will
put an end to the hordes of youths loitering in parks and
littering them with empty canisters.
Furthermore, under our new plan, the police will be able to
undertake drug testing of suspected criminals in police custody
for a wider range of drugs, including ecstasy and
methamphetamine—medical testing is moving onwards. They will test
offenders linked to crimes such as violence against women and
girls, serious violence, and antisocial behaviour. We will ensure
that the consequences for those committing antisocial behaviour
are toughened up. Our immediate justice pilots will deliver
swift, visible punishment for those involved. Members who have
contributed are right that we need to see more officers on the
street, and the Government are delivering that.
Offenders will undertake manual reparative work that makes good
the damage suffered by victims. I am pleased that the Opposition
agree with that plan, which is part of their own plan.
Communities will be consulted on the type of work undertaken, and
the work should start swiftly—ideally, within 48 hours of notice
from the police. Whether it is cleaning up graffiti, picking up
litter or washing police cars while wearing hi-vis jumpsuits or
vests, people caught behaving antisocially will have to make
swift reparations to the community.
The upper limits of on-the-spot fines will be increased to £1,000
for fly-tipping, which I know is a scourge for many Members
present, including my hon. Friend the Member for Keighley.
Another notable absence from the Labour party’s plan is proper
figures. Facts and figures are really important, so we have
announced that the fine for fly-tipping will be increased to
£1,000, and to £500 for litter and graffiti. We will support
councils to hand out more fines to offenders, with the money
going back into local authority investment on activities such as
cleaning up and enforcement, which is essential.
Nobody should have to endure persistent antisocial behaviour from
their neighbours, which is why we plan to halve the delay between
a private landlord serving notice for antisocial behaviour and
eviction. We will also broaden the scope of harmful activities
that can lead to eviction and make sure that antisocial offenders
are de-prioritised for social housing.
Secondly, we are making communities safer. We are funding an
increased police and other uniformed presence focused on
antisocial behaviour in targeted hotspots where it is most
prevalent. Initially we will support 10 trailblazer areas, before
rolling out the hotspot enforcement across all forces in England
and Wales. Hon. Members have mentioned their areas. Northumbria,
West Midlands and South Wales police and crime commissioners will
be piloting the enhanced hotspot response in 2023-24.
We will also replace the 19th-century Vagrancy Act with tools to
direct vulnerable individuals towards appropriate support, such
as accommodation, mental health or substance misuse services. We
will criminalise organised begging, which is often facilitated by
criminal gangs to obtain cash for illicit activity. We will
prohibit begging where it causes blight and public nuisance, for
example, where there are cashpoints, in shop doorways or when
people are approached directly by someone in the street. We will
also give police and local authorities the tools to address
situations where rough sleeping is a public nuisance, such as the
obstruction of doorways or the build-up of debris and tents,
while ensuring that those who are genuinely homeless are directed
towards appropriate help. We will build local pride in places by
giving councils stronger tools to revitalise communities, bring
more empty high street shops back into use, and restore local
parks.
Youth have been mentioned by the hon. Members for Wansbeck
() and for Pontypridd (), and prevention and
early intervention is of course important. It is an issue on
which we can all agree. We need to have young people properly
engaged to steer them away from crime, which is why the
Government have committed to the third strand of our plan:
prevention and early intervention. Around 80% of prolific adult
offenders begin committing crimes as children.
We are funding 1 million more hours of provision for young people
in antisocial behaviour hotspots and expanding eligibility for
the turnaround programme, which will support 17,000 children—not
just 500, as has been suggested—who are on the cusp of the
criminal justice system. Our £500-million national youth
guarantee also means that, by 2025, every young person will have
access to regular clubs, activities and opportunities to
volunteer. It would be useful if all Members, including
Opposition Members, read the Government’s antisocial plan,
because it addresses many issues raised by all parties. Because
we are funding 1 million more hours of provision for young
people, that really is going to be a turnaround for them. We are
working with youth offending teams, the Probation Service and
local authorities to intervene very early on behalf of children
at particular risk.
Fourthly, we will improve accountability. A new digital tool will
mean that members of the public have a simple and clear way to
report antisocial behaviour and receive updates on their case. We
have also launched a targeted consultation on community safety
partnerships, with the aim of making them more accountable and
effective.
I am particularly interested in the points made by the hon.
Member for Strangford () from a Northern Ireland perspective. He is always
insightful. Although the Government are putting such a lot of
money into making streets safer, that is only possible with the
assistance of the community. Sometimes the state is not very good
at it, but the community is. It is only with the assistance of
those working in the community—such as street pastors, who were
mentioned by the hon. Member for Birmingham, Erdington (Mrs
Hamilton)—that we can move forward.
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Keighley for securing the
debate and everyone who has participated. We can all agree that
antisocial behaviour is a scourge, but it is all about how best
to address it. I suggest that the Government, in a properly
costed and thought-through way, have addressed the issue. It has
been underlined again today just how enormously important
tackling antisocial behaviour is to people up and down the
country. The Government hear and understand those concerns, and
we are acting on them. As I have set out, we are implementing a
very wide-ranging, carefully thought-out plan that is backed by
proper statistics, thought and planning. It is also backed by
£160 million of funding, and it will bring benefits to every part
of England and Wales, including town centres. As ever, our focus
is on doing what is right for the decent, hard-working and
law-abiding majority. We will do everything in our power to
protect them from harm and to deliver them the safe and peaceful
streets they deserve.
10.55am
I thank all hon. Members who have participated in this important
debate. Like them, I thank my local neighbourhood policing team.
We all know how hard those teams work on the ground and that they
face many challenges across our town centres, cities and
villages.
It is very good to hear from the Minister that today we can
announce that 20,951 extra police officers have been recruited
since 2019—an uplift of 3,542 since 2010. I also thank the
Minister for recognising the challenges that I have faced in
Keighley bus station. I know that she will follow that through
with interaction with West Yorkshire police in working out how to
get to grips with some of those examples and other challenges
that we all face. Without a doubt, it is important that the
Government are being strong by introducing increased penalties,
tougher sentences and swifter interaction between arrest,
conviction and sentences coming to fruition.
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Totnes () and the hon. Member for
Strangford () for mentioning policing hubs, the importance of
engaging police officers with constituency meetings, and a
community buy-in and community partnership approach that works
with our local authorities. Some antisocial behaviour issues are
related to challenges that partnership-led approaches can deal
with. I thank them for mentioning that, and I also thank the hon.
Member for Rutherglen and Hamilton West () for mentioning the
specific issue of street drinking.
Of course, the hon. Members for Wansbeck (), for Pontypridd () and for Birmingham,
Erdington (Mrs Hamilton) all have Labour police and crime
commissioners. It is disappointing to hear that the Labour PCC
for the West Midlands is spending £33 million on refurbishing the
office at Lloyd House rather than protecting 20 police stations.
I see that in my constituency as well: a lack of prioritisation
of what police officers should be focusing on because of a lack
of direction and approach from our West Yorkshire Mayor, who does
not have the right strategy.
It was disappointing that the Labour spokesman, the hon. Member
for Croydon Central (), could not answer my question
about whether political party candidates’ previous convictions
should be properly referenced. It is disappointing that the
Labour party is putting up candidates who have previously had
suspended prison sentences. On that note, I thank the Minister
very much for her time in this debate on an important issue that
we all want to raise.
Question put and agreed to.
Resolved,
That this House has considered the matter of antisocial behaviour
in town centres.
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