Crime and Policing Bill
Explanatory Notes
Information relating to the Crime and Policing Bill, which was
introduced in the House of Commons on 25 February 2025.
Contents
-
Bill
factsheets
-
Impact
assessments
Over the last 14 years, community policing has been downgraded,
with neighbourhood officers pulled off the beat to fill shortages
elsewhere, weakening connections with the communities they serve.
Trust in the police has been undermined by failures in vetting
and the appalling misconduct of some officers.
Powers to combat antisocial behaviour and shoplifting have been
weakened, leaving our town centres exposed. The justice system
has been allowed to grind to a halt.
That is why the government is introducing the Crime and Policing
Bill to:
- tackle the epidemic of serious violence and violence against
women and girls that stains our society
- equip police with the powers they need to combat antisocial
behaviour, crime and terrorism
This bill supports the government's Safer Streets Mission to
halve knife crime and violence against women and girls in a
decade and rebuild public confidence in policing and the criminal
justice system.
Measures in the Crime and Policing Bill will take back our
streets by:
-
Cracking down on crime and antisocial behaviour that blights
our streets by:
- introducing respect orders to better enable police and
others to tackle persistent antisocial behaviour
- introducing a specific offence of assaulting a retail
worker
- repealing section 176 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime
and Policing Act 2014 which downgraded the police response to
so-called low value shop theft
- increasing the maximum penalties for offences relating to
the sale of weapons whilst introducing a new offence of
possessing a bladed article with intent to use unlawful
violence
-
Giving the police the powers they need to better tackle
criminal activity by:
- taking tougher action on drugs through an expansion of
drug testing on arrest
- giving the police the powers they need to tackle theft by
creating a new power to enter a premises without a warrant to
search for and seize stolen goods, such as phones located
using GPS tracking technology
- giving the police greater access to the Driver and
Vehicle Licencing Agency database to identify criminals
- banning articles used to commit serious crime such as SIM
Farms and electronic devices used in vehicle theft
-
Rebuilding public confidence in policing and the wider
criminal justice system by:
- giving chief offices of police forces the right to appeal
the result of misconduct boards to the Police Appeals
Tribunal
- granting firearms officers subject to criminal
proceedings anonymity up to the point of conviction
-
Tackling violence against women and girls by:
- strengthening the management of offenders in the
community and introduce enhanced notification requirements on
registered sex offenders, including a bar of them changing
their names where there is a risk of sexual harm
- giving victims of stalking the right to know the identity
of the perpetrator
- introducing a new criminal offence of administering a
harmful substance (including spiking)
-
Protecting children and vulnerable adults by:
- implementing recommendations from the Independent Inquiry
into Child Sexual Abuse including by introducing a new duty
to report child sexual abuse
- creating new offences of cuckooing and child criminal
exploitation
- introducing new offences related to the taking of
intimate images without consent
- making grooming behaviour a statutory aggravating factor
-
Ensuring the police and intelligence services have the powers
they need to protect the British people from terrorism and
hostile state threats by:
- introducing a new youth diversion order, helping to
manage the increasing number of young people arrested for
terrorism-related activity
- implementing other changes to terrorism legislation
recommended by the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism
Legislation
The Crime and Policing
Bill in Parliament
Bill factsheets
Impact assessments
