Written statement on Response to consultations on tackling crime and anti-social behaviour - Nov 14

Policing Minister (Chris Philp): I am pleased to set out to the House the Government’s response to three consultations that have informed provisions in the Criminal Justice Bill which is being introduced in the House of Commons today.

Government response to the public consultation “Strengthening the law enforcement response to serious and organised crime”

The Home Office ran a public consultation from 24 January to 21 March 2023, which sought views on two legislative proposals to tackle serious and organised crime. Following the consultation, the Criminal Justice Bill will give effect to two legislative measures, as follows:

1. Creation of new offences to criminalise the importing, making, adapting, supplying, offering to supply and possession of specific articles for use in serious crime. These articles are:

• vehicle concealments used to conceal goods and people;
• templates used to 3D-print firearm components; and
• pill presses.

2. Strengthen and improve the functioning of Serious Crime Prevention Orders (SCPOs) by:

• Increasing the number of bodies which can apply to the High Court for an SCPO in the absence of a conviction to include the National Crime Agency, the police, British Transport Police, Ministry of Defence Police, and HM Revenue and Customs;
• empowering the Crown Court to issue an SCPO on acquittal;
• introducing an express power to include electronic monitoring as a condition of an SCPO; and
• prescribing a set of notification requirements for all SCPOs.

Law enforcement agencies frequently encounter articles which they suspect are being used in serious crime but which they are unable to act on under existing legislation. The Government must continue to give law enforcement agencies the tools and powers they need to disrupt and dismantle organised crime groups and those who knowingly enable them. These measures will help law enforcement agencies to frustrate the activities of the most harmful criminal groups operating in the UK. They will target the facilitators who support and profit from serious and organised crime and improve our ability to manage and disrupt the highest harm offenders.

Government response to the consultation “Review of the Computer Misuse Act 1990”

It is essential that the UK has the right legislative framework to allow us to tackle the harms posed to our citizens, businesses and government services online. As part of this, the Home Office initiated a review of the Computer Misuse Act 1990 (CMA), and subsequent Call for Information and a public consultation. The consultation ran from 7 February to 6 April 2023.

We have been considering the information provided to us by that consultation and are now publishing the results. In summary, these are:

• There was broad support for a new power to allow law enforcement agencies to take down domains and IP addresses especially in the event of non-compliance with a voluntary arrangement. However, several respondents argued that voluntary agreements should be used initially or there would be a risk that court-based routes would take primacy and organisations would only respond to takedowns and seizures under the statutory arrangements. After further engagement, we believe the voluntary arrangements will continue to be the primary route for action.
• There was support for a power to allow a law enforcement agency to require the preservation of computer data, although several organisations did raise concerns that data storage is costly and that any long-term data storage requirements would impact on organisation’s finances, reducing UK competitiveness.
• There was less agreement on the proposal for a power to take action against a person possessing or using data obtained by another person through a CMA offence raised concerns with respondents. Some correspondents stated that harm would occur if an offence of copying data were to be created, as this would stop intelligence and law enforcement agencies from being able to proactively protect people from significant harm and that there would be a lack of protection afforded to security researchers carrying out good faith security research.

The Criminal Justice Bill includes the necessary powers to enable law enforcement agencies to apply to the court for a domain name suspension order or an IP address suspension order.

When publishing the consultation, we also responded to three wider issues which arose in the Call for Information which previously ran in 2021. These related to the levels of sentencing, statutory defences to the CMA offences, and whether the UK has sufficient legislation to cover extra-territorial threats. We have been working with a range of partners on these since the consultation, including setting up a working group that includes law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, the cybersecurity industry and system owners to consider in detail the issue of statutory defences. We will update Parliament on this wider work at the appropriate moment.

Government response to the consultation “Community Safety Partnerships review and anti-social behaviour powers”

The consultation on the Community Safety Partnership Review and Anti-Social Behaviour Powers which ran from 27 March to 22 May 2023, in support of this Government’s commitment to tackling crime and anti-social behaviour swiftly and robustly.

In March 2023, we launched a plan to crack down on anti-social behaviour, restoring people’s confidence that unacceptable behaviour will be quickly and visibly punished. We made a commitment to consult, via the Community Safety Partnership Review and Anti-Social Behaviour Powers consultation, on views strengthening the powers used to tackle anti-social behaviour under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. The majority of respondents flagged that expanded powers would help to tackle anti-social behaviour more effectively, allowing the relevant agencies to better resource and implement longer term strategies, and agreed that the proposed measures will help to provide agencies with the necessary confidence to use these powers more frequently and consistently. This consultation was informed, and its findings are supported, by Home Office Analysis and Insight (HOAI) research into police perceptions of ASB powers.

The consultation also tested proposals to strengthen the accountability of Community Safety Partnerships. Community Safety Partnerships were introduced by the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and bring together local partners to formulate and deliver strategies to reduce crime, disorder and anti-social behaviour in their communities.

Part Two of the Police and Crime Commissioner Review, conducted by the Home Office in 2021, found that whilst the importance of local partnerships such as Community Safety Partnerships was widely acknowledged, they were not being used as effectively as they could be, resulting in a recommendation that the Home Office undertake a full review of Community Safety Partnerships across England and Wales: the Community Safety Partnership Review. It also found that Police and Crime Commissioners were unclear of their role in the anti-social behaviour case review process and that there was a disconnect between Police and Crime Commissioners police and crime plans and local anti-social behaviour strategies developed by Community Safety Partnerships.

I am very pleased, therefore, to unveil a package of measures through the Criminal Justice Bill to strengthen the powers available to the police and other local agencies to tackle anti-social behaviour. The measures will also help to improve and clarify the ways in which Community Safety Partnerships and Police and Crime Commissioners work together, including enhancing strategic alignment between Community Safety Partnerships and Police and Crime Commissioners to deliver more effective outcomes for the public in tackling crime and anti-social behaviour.

A copy of each of the Government responses is available on gov.uk and will be deposited in the Libraries of both Houses.