Cutting Crime
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● The first job of any government is to keep its people
safe, which is why we have made it our absolute priority to
put more police on the streets, cut crime and protect the
public.
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● We have recruited over 13,500 new police officers as
part of our manifesto commitment to put 20,000 extra police
on the streets – and we are backing them with funding of
almost £17 billion this year. We support them in using their
powers effectively and lawfully to prevent and detect crime.
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● We have also launched a first of its kind Drugs
Strategy backed by record investment – which means we can
shut down county lines, cut off the supply of drugs by
criminal gangs, build a world-class system of treatment and
recovery for those addicted to crack cocaine and heroin, and
reduce the recreational use of drugs.
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● Everyone deserves the security and confidence that
comes from having a safe street and a safe home which is why
cutting crime is central to our mission of levelling up
across the UK – our ambition is to cut homicide, serious
violence, and neighbourhood crime, particularly in the
worst-affected areas
Preventing Crime
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● We are also determined to prevent crime happening in
the first place. We are committed to ensuring young people
have a brighter future and through the £200 million 10-year
Youth Endowment Fund we are funding what works to reduce
serious youth violence.
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● The Government’s work on prevention is rightly
concentrated on those areas most affected by crime and takes
an evidence-led approach to reduce neighbourhood crime,
serious violence and homicide through:
o ‘Grip’ funding for the police to allow them to carry out
targeted and visible patrols to deter crime where there is the
greatest risk of serious violence;
o the Safer Streets Fund, providing resources for new and
traditional interventions to improve the safety of public places;
and
o providing multi-year funding for the network of Violence
Reduction Units, bringing together local partners to drive down
violence by tackling the particular drivers of violence in their
area.
Violence against women and girls
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● Crimes which disproportionately affect women and
girls such as domestic abuse, sexual violence, stalking, and
Female Genital Mutilation can have a profound and
long-lasting impact on victims and have absolutely no place
in our society.
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● In December 2021, the Government published the first
national Criminal Justice System scorecards. The scorecards
increase public transparency of how the police, Crown
Prosecution Service and courts tackle crime, allowing us to
improve the way rape and other serious offences are handled.
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● Through the Rape Action Plan we will be aiming to
increase the number of cases reaching court, reduce the
number of victims withdrawing from the process, and
ultimately prevent more crime by putting more rapists behind
bars.
Key facts
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● Law enforcement partners are cracking down ruthlessly
on criminals and gangs. Through their use of stop and search,
the police made nearly 80,000 arrests and removed almost
16,000 offensive weapons from our streets in 2021 alone. We
have seen the closure of over 1,500 county lines, 600
operations against organised crime groups, and more than
220,000 drug seizures.
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● Stop and search is up by 22 per cent compared with
2019-20, representing more than 126,000 more stop and
searches, helping protect the public by increasing the risk
for criminals of being caught – and taking weapons and drugs
off the street.
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● Crime overall – excluding fraud and computer misuse –
is down 13 per cent in the year ending December 2021 compared
to the year ending December 2019, with neighbourhood crime
down by 25 per cent. However there is still work to do –
especially on homicide.
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● There were 691 homicides recorded by the police in
the year ending December 2021, an increase of 14 per cent
compared with the previous year ending December 2020 (604).
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● In the year ending December 2021, the police recorded
a 13 per cent rise in recorded violence against the person,
compared to the year ending December 2020, partly driven by
improvements to the recording of stalking and harassment
offences which rose by 21 per cent.
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● Of all sexual offences recorded by the police in the
year ending December 2021, 37 per cent (67,125) were rape
offences. This was a 21 per cent increase from 55,592 in the
year ending December 2020. Other sexual offences increased by
22 per cent to 116,462 compared with 95,156 the previous
year.
● The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act will ensure that:
o the most serious sexual and violent offenders will spend longer
in prison;
o the maximum sentence for assaulting an emergency worker has
been doubled and whole life orders to those who commit
premediated murder of a child will be extended; and
o the police have new stop and search powers to target those
convicted of offences involving knives or offensive weapons, with
Serious Violence Reduction Orders being trialled by police forces
to bear down on homicide and serious violence.
● We are also tackling repeat offending by known criminals and
the £18 billion cost of these crimes to society each year by:
o investing almost an extra £900 million to combat drugs, taking
the total funding over £3 billion in the next three years – the
biggest funding increase in 15 years. Our 10-year Drugs Strategy
aims to cut off the supply of drugs to criminal gangs, expand
treatment and rehabilitation for those with a drug addiction and
reduce the recreational use of drugs;
o ensuring more prison-leavers secure employment, as this means
they are less likely to continue committing crime;
o providing basic, temporary accommodation so those leaving
prison do not end up on the street where they are around 50 per
cent more likely to reoffend; and
o GPS tagging 10,000 burglars, robbers and thieves over the next
three years, to deter offending and help police pin criminals to
the scene of their crimes.
