Antisocial Behaviour
Tuesday, 10 November 2026
Contributions
Ayoub Khan (Birmingham Perry Barr) (Ind)Independent
I beg to move, That this House has considered the matter of anti-social behaviour. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Butler. I refer Members to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I thank colleagues from across the House who have helped to make this debate possible, especially the hon. Member for Bermondsey and Old Southwark (Neil Coyle), who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on antisocial behaviour. I thank colleagues at Resolve, who work with victims, housing providers, councils and the police to help to address this issue. I also thank the French students from OMNES who have attended this debate to see how democracy works. I was driven to secure this debate primarily by the people I represent—the residents of Birmingham Perry Barr—who are all proud to call our area home. However, for all its charms, the area also suffers from issues that successive Governments have failed to address. Among the worst of those issues is antisocial behaviour such as street drinking, begging, threatening behaviour, fly-tipping, criminal damage, noise nuisance and vandalism. For many, those are part of everyday life. Only a small minority of people commit such acts, but everyone feels their effects. The facts back that up. Resolve estimates that more than 5 million incidents of antisocial behaviour occur in this country every year. Even worse, that figure is only an estimate, as the overwhelming majority of people who experience an incident do not even report it. According to Home Office statistics, up to 93% of incidents go unreported.
Monica Harding (Esher and Walton) (LD)Liberal Democrat
The hon. Member is making a powerful speech. Does he agree that the reason incidents go unreported is that the public do not have faith that they will be dealt with?
I will come on to the hon. Member’s point, but that is part and parcel of exactly why the problem occurs. People feel desensitised towards reporting matters, because little is ever done. The problem is only getting worse. In a survey conducted by Resolve this year, 63% of respondents who had encountered antisocial behaviour in the previous three years had never reported it to anybody. Last year, that figure stood at 56%. Even worse, of those who experienced the behaviour at first hand, 28% said that it made them feel unsafe locally, 15% had considered moving because of it and 6% actually had moved. Antisocial behaviour is happening in broad daylight, and too many people have so little confidence in the system that they no longer see the point in asking for help. Some would rather move out and start afresh than rely on local authorities and agencies helping them out. That is where we are failing. Victims are being asked to place their faith in a broken system where agencies dodge responsibility, access to justice is slow and the quality of support for victims is, unfortunately, a postcode lottery. I welcome the introduction of stronger powers to tackle persistent offending. The Crime and Policing Act 2026 introduced respect orders, tougher penalties for breaches of certain notices and wider powers to tackle reoccurring disorder. However, new powers on paper do not make our streets safer; local agencies need the resources to enforce them and to give victims confidence that reporting will lead to action. Luckily, solutions exist, and frontline professionals across the country are already delivering results in challenging circumstances—for example, Resolve, which comprises many such expert voices, has made six recommendations, which this Government must take seriously. We must start by putting victims at the heart of our response. They deserve consistent support and reassurance that somebody is taking responsibility for their case. Too often, police forces, councils and housing providers hold different pieces of information about the same individual or incident, but struggle to co-ordinate their responses. A single national agreement would enable those agencies to work together more effectively, identify patterns of behaviour and intervene earlier. We must also address the unacceptable delays in our civil justice system. The victims of persistent nuisance and intimidation are often left waiting months, sometimes years, for civil proceedings to conclude. The creation of a dedicated housing court would streamline such cases, reduce delays and ensure that justice is delivered before further harm is done. However, none of those measures will succeed unless we make it easier for people to report what they see on their streets. That means creating a simple, standardised reporting system, and allowing victims to report anonymously and access help with cases. Also, we cannot afford to simply wait for disruptive behaviour to emerge before taking action. That is why we need greater investment in early-intervention measures aimed at supporting vulnerable individuals, engaging young people and addressing the underlying causes of antisocial behaviour. We need to direct sustained funding to community safety partnerships. Those organisations understand the challenges facing their neighbourhoods, and bring together the agencies best placed to resolve them, but they cannot deliver long-term solutions without proper support. Those practical reforms would make an enormous difference, but alongside them we must look at the bigger picture and put an end to the austerity that causes people to lose pride in the places that they call home. Youth clubs, sports facilities, community spaces and mental health services must be protected and seen as the essential services that they are, rather than as optional extras.
Matt Western (Warwick and Leamington) (Lab)Labour
The hon. Gentleman is making a powerful speech. Does he agree that, as well as shrinkage in youth facilities and clubs, the absence of police officers on the beat in our communities means that antisocial behaviour has increased, particularly with vehicles—loud music, speeding—including the e-scooters and bikes being ridden around our towns, on our pavements and perhaps even up one-way streets? That has never been addressed because there have been no officers on the streets.
We certainly need extra policing in the west midlands region and the city of Birmingham—I will come to that. In my constituency, ever since Labour brought our city into bankruptcy, the absence of those services has been felt every day. We must work to restore what has been lost. As I said, our police forces have also been deprived of the resources to tackle the issue. For that, the Government must take their share of the blame. West Midlands police have 540 fewer police officers and 500 fewer police community support officers than in 2010. Accounting for population growth, however, we are 1,200 police officers short of the number projected 20 years ago. Unfortunately, at a time when the need for safer streets is only rising, Labour has left our police force £43 million short every year.
Edward Morello (West Dorset) (LD)Liberal Democrat
The hon. Gentleman has proposed a lot of positive solutions, and he rightly raises the issue of police funding. Dorset police is one of the worst funded police forces in the UK, and certainly the worst funded for PCSOs. Dorset police are trying to police 1,000 square miles. Does he agree that, until we address the central Government funding formula and give local forces the funds they need to provide the services that local communities require, we will never have an effective deterrent against antisocial behaviour?
I wholeheartedly agree with the hon. Member. By way of example, 70% of the police forces up and down this country are operating with numbers equivalent to what they were in 2010. Some areas, such as the west midlands and his constituency, are not getting their fair share. We need to bring those numbers up enough to make a tangible impact. Labour has left the West Midlands police force short by £43 million every year, meaning that we could now lose another 80 officers unless we reverse that trend. Our police forces will be forced to prioritise more serious crime, leaving antisocial behaviour as an afterthought. Causes of antisocial behaviour that are unique to each area also need rooting out. In Birmingham, one such cause is obvious: supported exempt accommodation. Birmingham houses 33,000 vulnerable people from across the country, with a fifth of the city’s units situated in my constituency. Although we must not stigmatise those who need care—we must offer them a place to rebuild their lives—residents in my constituency have repeatedly raised concerns about antisocial behaviour associated with poorly managed exempt accommodation, including even violence and property damage. When providers fail to properly support and supervise their residents, the problems play out in surrounding streets and leave neighbourhoods to suffer the consequences. The character of our streets is being actively degraded by poorly run exempt accommodation, yet the Government have done nothing to tackle the root cause. Labour councillors can blame the city council all they like, but they did nothing when they were in charge six months ago, because they know it is on the Government to end the crisis. The Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023 promised us the powers to finally control the numbers of exempt properties in our city, but for over two years this Labour Government have done nothing but delay them, and now they are saying that we will not even get the powers until autumn next year. We also need the resources to crack down on rogue providers and to support tenants. That is why we had the SEA pilot scheme, a unit that recovered millions in overpaid housing benefit and completed thousands of antisocial behaviour investigations. The scheme made a real, tangible difference, and yet the Government cut off its funding six months ago. Without urgent assistance, supported exempt accommodation will continue to drive antisocial behaviour in our streets. The Government know that, yet they continue to turn a blind eye—it is absurd. Instead of supporting the SEA pilot scheme, I understand that the Government are seeking a public inquiry into supported accommodation, which is likely to cost millions of pounds. It is absurd because everyone knows what the problem is. We do not need a public inquiry to understand the issue; we need the Government to implement the legislation that has already been passed. However, we all know what will happen: they will to use the inquiry as an excuse to delay when they already know what the solution is. With colleagues, I will launch today a petition for the residents of Birmingham demanding that this Government implement the legislation rather than leaving it on a shelf to gather dust. I hope the Minister might be able to tell us today that that petition will not be necessary.
Sir John Hayes (South Holland and The Deepings) (Con)Conservative
It is indeed an absurdity that we know what is happening in towns in my constituency, such as Holbeach, Long Sutton and Sutton Bridge, but the police are often tied down by bureaucracy in dealing with it. They need to be able to act quickly and decisively. Thugs and yobs are terrorising the community and what is seen as low-level crime can cause unbelievable distress to law-abiding people, so let us inject some common sense into the system, act quickly and decisively, and punish the guilty.
I thank the right hon. Member for his intervention. He is eloquent and persuasive, as always, and I wholeheartedly agree with him. The police are forced to prioritise more serious crime because of the lack of resources. Ultimately, if we do not resource the agencies properly with a proper strategic plan, matters will get worse. I hope the Minister can tell us today that the petition will not be necessary, that the legislation that has already been passed will be enacted, and that city councils up and down this country will be given the powers they need, but I fear that that is unlikely. To conclude, perhaps most of all we need to change the way we treat antisocial behaviour, and appreciate that it is not low-level crime. It is destructive not in the same way as a violent or serious crime, but in the way it makes people and places feel unsafe. In many cases, it does not count as a criminal offence, but let there be no doubt: these are crimes against the community that drain the morale of our residents. I sincerely ask the Minister to commit to delivering Resolve’s six recommendations, and perhaps to meeting Resolve and me so that we can discuss how to properly address the scourge of antisocial behaviour once and for all and ensure that victims’ voices can be heard. People deserve the right to feel safe in the places they call home. It is the Government’s responsibility to make that happen.
Dawn Butler (in the Chair)Labour
I remind Members that they should bob if they wish to be called in the debate.
Given the number of Members who wish to speak, I will impose a two-minute time limit. I call Brian Leishman.
Brian Leishman (Alloa and Grangemouth) (Lab)Labour
It is a pleasure to have you in the Chair, Ms Butler. I thank the hon. Member for Birmingham Perry Barr (Ayoub Khan) for securing this debate. Across Alloa and Grangemouth, there is an understandable frustration with antisocial behaviour that negatively impacts communal spaces, neighbourhood communities and public transport. Many of my constituents rightly feel a sense of injustice about the fact that the perpetrators have been allowed to act in the manner they have with few to no consequences. My constituents have been let down, but let me be clear: the fault does not lie with our overstretched police officers. Police Scotland has been savagely cut following years of sustained SNP Government underfunding, which naturally leads to increases in issues like antisocial behaviour. Giving evidence to Holyrood’s Criminal Justice Committee, the Scottish Police Authority admitted that policing is “under severe strain” and that public trust and confidence in the service is “decreasing”. The authority said it would continue to make the case to the SNP Government for “strategic investment” and to aim to show the “devastating consequences of flat cash.” Let us be under no illusion: if the force’s settlement remains unchanged in cash terms, jobs will be lost. Even though the SNP promised that officer figures would remain above 17,234, the quarterly figures show that there were 16,322 full-time equivalent officers on 30 June 2026. Officer numbers in Scotland are at their lowest level since June 2024. These SNP cuts are hollowing out Police Scotland, drastically reducing community policing across the country. Visible local police are essential in stopping crime, reducing antisocial behaviour and improving overall community safety. In two decades in government, the SNP has relentlessly cut vital public services, whether it be healthcare, education, local councils, our fire service or Police Scotland, leaving our communities far, far from safety.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith (Chingford and Woodford Green) (Con)Conservative
It is always a pleasure to serve with you and under you, Ms Butler; I welcome you to your role. As we have only two minutes, I will make one point: antisocial behaviour is arguably the most serious crime the public see. Most of the time, they do not see all the details of murders and things like that because those are not on their streets. The thing that is on their streets is the behaviour of others that wrecks their quality of life. Shoplifting, for example, has to be taken far more seriously by police because it disrupts and destroys the lives of pretty much all those who want to go on to the streets. It destroys the likelihood of us keeping high streets and being able to give a proper service to the public. We had a problem with shoplifting in Chingford and Woodford Green, but there are things that can be done. We all blame the police for not being there, the troubles they have and the bigger policies, but I want to centre on what happens locally. In my constituency, we focused on the main high street, Station Road, which has been torn apart by shoplifters. These individuals are not turning up ad hoc because they are short of a bit of cash; many of these incidents are gang related—they are organised crime. Boots, for example, gets raided endlessly because shoplifters can get thousands of pounds-worth of goods off the shelves and walk out with nobody interrupting them. We called together all the bigger stores that bring people on to the high street and discovered that they were not reporting the crime to the police, who said they did not know it was going on, so we forced the stores to do just that. We then said that the deal was that the police must be on the street and arrest people immediately they commit this crime. Crime began to fall on the high street because we played a part by getting cameras up and doing facial recognition. I say to all Members here today that there is more we can do to put pressure on the police, the shops and others to do more about antisocial behaviour. It is a terrible crime that destroys lives and people’s hopes. We must put pressure on Government to rectify that.
Deirdre Costigan (Ealing Southall) (Lab)Labour
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Butler. I thank the hon. Member for Birmingham Perry Barr (Ayoub Khan) for securing this debate. Since being elected to represent Ealing Southall, I have spent much of my time campaigning for two things: more police on our streets and more powers for those police to take action against antisocial behaviour. I am delighted that the Government are investing in neighbourhood policing, with an additional £262 million for London. There is no point, however, in having more police on the streets if they do not have the powers they need to act. In Ealing Southall, we have seen officers arrest people who are then out again the next day. All too often, the police are just moving people from west Ealing to Southall. That is why I have long championed Labour’s new respect orders, which give the police the power to take action against persistent offenders, with those who breach an order facing up to two years in prison or unlimited fines. It is a significant change; instead of moving persistent offenders from one end of the town centre to the other, the police can take action against them. I was delighted to welcome the Minister to Southall just a few weeks ago to launch those new powers, and I will be checking with the police over the next few weeks who they have put on a respect order. However, there is more to do. I am campaigning for a dedicated town centre policing team for Southall; other town centres have one, but we do not because of an anomaly in how crime and antisocial behaviour data are dealt with, so I have asked the Met police to look at that issue again. I am also campaigning to get the shutters pulled up on Southall police station; they have been pulled down for 10 years, which does not send the right message locally. Finally, we need to look again at how we support recovering drug users. We put them on the methadone programme, but that means they have to come in and out of town centres almost every day to collect prescriptions, do urine tests and go to pharmacies. There is a new drug called Buvidal, and although it costs more money, we should look at its impact on town centres, as people will not need to go in and out as often. Tackling antisocial behaviour is not just about moving people from one end of the town centre to the other. We need to bring in the new respect orders that the Government have championed. That is what people in Ealing Southall deserve, and that is what I will continue campaigning for.
Alison Bennett (Mid Sussex) (LD)Liberal Democrat
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Butler. In his closing remarks, the hon. Member for Birmingham Perry Barr (Ayoub Khan) said that antisocial behaviour is not low-level crime, as it makes people feel unsafe and drains confidence from the community. That is certainly true in Mid Sussex, where we have our issues with car cruising and with e-bikes and e-scooters right across the constituency.
Jim Dickson (Dartford) (Lab)Labour
On car cruising, which is being fuelled by TikTok and other social media platforms, we have cars running fast up and down main roads in my constituency, creating noise nuisance and huge danger for residents. The police are on to this issue, but they say they need preventive measures. I have asked Kent county council whether it will introduce speed cameras, but it has said no. Does the hon. Lady agree that councils need to step up?
Order. Interventions need to be short and snappy.
I agree with the hon. Gentleman. I want to focus my remarks on town centres, and the need to have civic pride and facilities that people want to visit and enjoy being in. The story of the Martlets shopping centre redevelopment in Burgess Hill is too long to cover in the next minute and a half. However, despite the best endeavours of successive councils over many years, there are derelict buildings there. On Saturday afternoon, when I walked across the town centre with one of my children, she pointed out that there were smashed windows. Then, when we walked back, she told me that one of the smashed windows was open. We looked up and could see masked youths in the shuttered building, which used to contain a little supermarket. That level of neglect for facilities is bad for communities, and it is bad for the people of Burgess Hill. Burgess Hill has done everything it can to try to get its town centre redeveloped. However, the levelling-up bids failed under the last Government, and the town is not eligible for Pride in Place funding, as far as we can tell, so that money has not been forthcoming. We are hopeful that a joint venture bringing together public and private sector money may actually get the town centre redevelopment off the ground but, as it stands, the morale of people who live in Burgess Hill is low. The town council has done what it can by bringing the Park Centre back into use, providing youth facilities. The Burgess Hill Creative Community has taken up an empty unit in the Martlets shopping centre, where people can come together and do a variety of good, creative projects. People want the town centre to be one that works. Obviously, the policing presence is really important, but if we do not get the skeleton right—the civic pride and buildings that work and that people love and want to go to—we will attract the wrong kind of people: a handful of people who want to make life a misery for the vast majority of law-abiding citizens, who are there for their town and to support their community.
Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Clapham and Brixton Hill) (Lab)Labour
I thank the hon. Member for Birmingham Perry Barr (Ayoub Khan) for bringing forward this important debate. I begin by commending the work of Action on ASB!, a community campaign set up in Brixton to push for action on crime and antisocial behaviour, and made up of residents who simply want their neighbourhood to feel safer. As with other Members, antisocial behaviour—on high streets and tubes and at train stations right across our neighbourhood—keeps coming up in my casework and correspondence. Residents on Nursery Road describe public urination, defecation and aggression. On Bernay’s Grove, people have found human waste on their doorsteps. On Electric Avenue, constituents tell me about drug use and soliciting at the Brixon high street end. On St Rule Street, residents report parties, drug taking and intimidating behaviour. On the Roupell Park estate, people tell me about bullying and disrespect towards older residents. Antisocial behaviour is also a huge hindrance to businesses and those who work really hard to keep them going. My constituents raise these issues year after year, but they have given up on reporting, because the process is too long and feels like it does not yield results.
John Milne (Horsham) (LD)Liberal Democrat
Just this morning, one of my Horsham constituents contacted me about the risk of a “Why bother?” attitude—why bother to report anything if nothing ever gets done? But in Kilnwood Vale, residents and local councillors Hannah Butler and Sam Raby refused to accept that reckless street racing is just something to put up with, and we now have a CCTV camera. Does the hon. Member agree that we have to prove to local residents that we are listening and that it is worth bothering?
Lee Anderson (Ashfield) (Reform)Reform UK
Why have you got an intervention written down?
Order.
I thank the hon. Member for his intervention. He is absolutely right: we do have to show them that these interventions are working, not least because it adds to the data on how much policing is needed in the area. If people do not report these things, and do not feel like there are results, nothing can really move forward. I welcome the Government’s commitment to neighbourhood policing. The Government say they met their first target in January this year, but my constituents are not seeing or feeling that police presence on their streets in a meaningful way. For example, when the corner shop next door to my constituency office was robbed at knifepoint, our officers were probably being deployed to arrest pensioners holding up signs in central London. I would like my constituents to feel the effect of the proper community policing pledged by this Government, with the delivery of real neighbourhood policing officers sped up in places like Brixton, where the problems are long standing and well documented. I would also like to see my local council, Lambeth, properly funded to tackle the addiction and homelessness crisis we face. We must get the root of the matter. We need to see a holistic approach to antisocial behaviour, because we simply cannot police our way out of this problem. I also truly believe that a difference can be made with a standing multi-agency group that brings together the police, the council, health services, housing and outreach teams, so that people are talking to each other and not working in silos—an issue I see time and again, with different bodies trying to tackle this problem, but no one talking to each other. That is not working, and is only exacerbating my constituents’ concerns about not being properly listened to and being made to feel that they are going round the same roundabouts. Clapham and Brixton Hill should be a place where everyone feels safe. My constituents are asking to be listened to and to see change and, as someone who has called the area my home for my entire life, so am I.
Robbie Moore (Keighley and Ilkley) (Con)Conservative
My inbox is flooded with correspondence from concerned constituents about a string of issues related to antisocial behaviour across Keighley and Ilkley: masked people in balaclavas riding e-bikes on pavements; quad bikes doing doughnuts in public spaces; deliberately loud cars racing through the centre of Keighley and along the bypass; a group of teenagers that has made Keighley bus station somewhere people now want to avoid; laughing gas cannisters, nitrous oxide, being used illegally by those driving under its influence and then thrown out of the window. People are seeing this every single day, and it is having a negative consequence on our area. It should not continue. In areas like Dalton Mills, justice is not prevailing. In 2022, 100 firefighters attended an arson attack. Some £50 million of damage was caused, with £130,000 of impact to local businesses and lives put at risk, yet the perpetrator got a suspended prison sentence—a slap on the wrist. That only gives the green light for further attacks to take place; there is no deterrent at all. One of my constituents said to me: “I rarely, if ever, see any…form of authority addressing these issues.” That brings me to the Government’s narrative of increasing neighbourhood police numbers to 13,000. Police officers have put to me that new recruits are not coming into their force; there is simply a reshuffling of the deckchairs, where officers who are already doing a good job elsewhere within their local force are reallocated to neighbourhood police work. Can the Minister tell me how many additional new recruits have joined our neighbourhood police teams, and specifically how many have been added in West Yorkshire? Where police officers have been reallocated from their teams, what analysis are the Government doing of whether there has been a negative impact elsewhere?
Josh Newbury (Cannock Chase) (Lab)Labour
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Butler. Antisocial behaviour is a recurring concern for residents in my constituency. I raised this issue in June last year and since then, I have continued to hear from constituents about the effect it is having in our town centres and public places. A crime that is not reported, investigated or followed up can quickly become a crime that is repeated. The response to antisocial behaviour should be measured not just by the number incidents recorded, but by whether people feel confident in reporting it and whether they see action. Two young men from Hednesford spoke to me about groups gathering in town centres and parks and how intimidating that can feel. When I welcomed pupils from Kingsmead school to Parliament, they raised concerns about phone thefts involving e-scooters. Cannock Chase district council has used public spaces protection orders to address persistent problems, including the rising antisocial use of vehicles and e-scooters, as well as street drinking. The Linkway retail park in Cannock offers a positive example. Staffordshire police identified it as a hotspot for car meets, racing and excessive noise. Officers issued warning letters to drivers identified through CCTV and held targeted patrols at peak times. Police community support officers also removed stickers that were advertising the meets. That led to a significant reduction in complaints. However, there had to be a nuanced response because for years before those issues arose, there had been respectful and well-managed car meets—a reminder that, as we target antisocial behaviour, appropriate use of public spaces should be supported. Partnership working does not remove the need for visible neighbourhood policing. I welcome Staffordshire police’s announcement of 53 additional officers, but the force also change PCSO shift patterns in June so half of them now finish at 7 pm and half of them at 9 pm. That has led to concerns among my constituents over whether PCSOs will be available when antisocial behaviour is happening. The neighbourhood policing guarantee should be judged not only by the number of officers recruited, but by whether communities see a consistent and effective police presence. I hope the Minister can speak about whether the Home Office will look at the impact of changing shift patterns on neighbourhood policing, particularly how we can ensure that the guarantee delivers visible, accessible policing in town centres and residential areas during the hours when antisocial behaviour is most likely to occur.
It is indeed a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Butler. I thank the hon. Member for Birmingham Perry Barr (Ayoub Khan) for securing this debate, and I thank his students for coming to witness it. I suspect that if they come back in 10 years’ time, we will still be debating antisocial behaviour because nothing ever gets done in this place. Antisocial behaviour destroys families, communities and, ultimately, the country. About four years ago, I went to Singapore with the Home Affairs Committee—I am sure the Minister was on a similar flight. I noticed that there was no graffiti, antisocial behaviour or crime. I also did not see a police car or officer all week. Does anybody know why? It is because the consequences of antisocial behaviour in Singapore are a little bit more severe than in this country. My town centre, Sutton-in-Ashfield, is full of yobs, drunkards and people on drugs. The police do turn up, but they do absolutely nothing because they think it is a waste of time. They move the people on, and then they come back the following day. One of my solutions for the Minister is this: if those yobs who keep returning are living on state benefits, we should stop the benefits. It is the same with social housing. People in some of my council estates are creating all sorts of problems for their neighbours. If they are living in social housing and living a life on benefits, and causing problems in my community, why do we not just kick them out of their social housing, stop the benefits and create some real repercussions? A lot of my residents think it is a waste of time to report antisocial behaviour to the police and the council, especially when my Ashfield district council—people have probably seen it in the news recently—is being run by criminals like Councillor Tom Hollis, who has a string of convictions, including lots of antisocial behaviour, under his belt. The solutions are simple. Stop the benefits for these people who are causing problems in our town centre. If they live in social housing, kick them out of the houses. Minister, this is really simple stuff—simple.
Dr Peter Prinsley (Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket) (Lab)Labour
It is a pleasure to serve under you in the Chair, Ms Butler. I thank the hon. Member for Birmingham Perry Barr (Ayoub Khan) for securing this important debate. One difficulty we face when discussing antisocial behaviour is that too often we underestimate how serious it is. A group of young people gathering outside a shop, shouting in the street late at night or repeatedly causing disturbances in a neighbourhood might seem like a minor incident and perhaps be dismissed as young people simply being young people. But in my constituency we have seen how serious these situations can become. The former Moreton Hall prep school in Bury St Edmunds, which has stood empty since 2020, is the site of vandalism and fires. Last July, an arson attack on that building resulted in about 100 people being evacuated from neighbouring houses. What might begin as young people gathering around an abandoned building can become something far more dangerous, for those involved and for the wider community. For residents living nearby, that is not a minor matter. Persistent antisocial behaviour erodes the very sense of security that makes a community feel like home. I serve on the Home Affairs Committee and have seen just how important the renewed focus on neighbourhood policing is. This is a real opportunity to change how we approach antisocial behaviour. Neighbourhood policing is about rebuilding relationships between the police and the communities that they serve. It is about having officers who know their neighbourhoods, recognise the warning signs and intervene before relatively minor incidents become something far more serious. That gives residents confidence that when they report antisocial behaviour, somebody listens. Let us move away from the idea that antisocial behaviour is somehow inevitable. It is not inevitable and certainly is not something that communities should simply have to put up with. I am sure that, with effective neighbourhood policing and a willingness to take this concern seriously, we can make a real difference.
Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)Democratic Unionist Party
It is a real pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Butler. A big thank you to the hon. Member for Birmingham Perry Barr (Ayoub Khan) for coming forward with this debate. The police record more than 1 million incidents of antisocial behaviour every year across the United Kingdom. Antisocial behaviour plagues many of our communities. The consequences are not just financial, although costly damage is caused to both public and private property. This behaviour is also causing people to feel intimidated and unable to enjoy their own neighbourhoods. To be fair to the Minister and the Labour Government, they are doing some good things. They have renewed their commitment to tackling antisocial behaviour by introducing tougher restrictions and dedicated operations to target town centres, for example.
Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Ind)Independent
People in my constituency are concerned about town-centre antisocial behaviour and rightly expect action. To give credit where it is due, Devon and Cornwall police saw a 10% reduction in antisocial behaviour in the year to May, helped by targeted Home Office-funded hotspot patrols. Does the hon. Member agree that although there is more to do, that represents welcome progress?
I certainly do. Street drinking and e-scooter misuse are also being addressed. The newly introduced respect orders provide further powers for both police and local councils to take action against persistent offenders. I encourage and welcome that. Enforcement is essential, but we must also work to understand what causes antisocial behaviour, because that is the real issue. For adults involved in antisocial behaviour, mental health problems and drug misuse are cited as the key drivers. In relation to children and young people, who tend to be the main source of antisocial behaviour, it has been found that unstable home environments, lack of education and peer pressure are significant contributors. Uniquely, in Northern Ireland we must recognise that there remains a continuing threat posed by paramilitary groups, which can exploit vulnerable young people and accelerate antisocial behaviours. We must do more to support parents in their responsibilities, ensuring that they know where their children are, particularly during the evenings, and are able to encourage their children to take responsibility for their actions. I commend the churches in Strangford for what they do. They have youth groups and clubs and encourage young people to come in. They try to keep them off the streets if at all possible. May I also make a plea on behalf of street pastors? They are very active right through my constituency. They do great work to reach out and help young people, and no one can ignore their impact. Newtownards in my constituency experienced antisocial behaviour over the summer. These incidents have a lasting impact on the wider community. Residents report feeling less confident about going out, fearing intimidation or harassment. Parents with young children are increasingly reluctant to use local parks, while others avoid walking in the evening because they do not feel safe. The public should not have to live in fear because of the behaviour of a minority. When it comes to increasing enforcement powers, given the success of some of the powers in England in Wales, I ask the Minister—who is always responsive, and I thank her for that—to engage with the Northern Ireland Assembly, the Minister for Policing and Justice and the Police Service of Northern Ireland. We can defeat antisocial behaviour if we do it together.
Naushabah Khan (Gillingham and Rainham) (Lab)Labour
It is a real pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Butler. Antisocial behaviour is not a minor nuisance; left unchecked, it frays the fabric of our communities and leaves people feeling unsafe in the places that they live. In my constituency it covers a lot of ground, but for the purpose of today’s debate, I want to focus on e-scooters and e-bikes being used in a harmful way. The bikes I am talking about are not the legal e-bikes most people might picture; many have been modified well beyond that. Some are capable of doing more than 70 mph, and they are being ridden along pavements and in and out of people who are doing their shopping.
Helen Maguire (Epsom and Ewell) (LD)Liberal Democrat
At a recent roundtable I held with police, they talked about how illegal e-scooters and e-bikes were facilitating crime and antisocial behaviour. When I was canvassing in my constituency, the issue of young people in balaclavas zooming around on e-scooters and intimidating families and children also came up. Does the hon. Member agree that the Department for Transport’s current consultation on the hired e-bike scheme should be extended to include all illegal e-scooters and e-bikes, to address their role in antisocial behaviour?
I do agree. The law is fairly clear: a private e-scooter or an overpowered e-bike cannot be ridden on a public road. The difficulty is how easily they can be bought. Couple that with the reality of an individual riding at speed, a police officer on foot and the risk to the rider themselves in a high-speed pursuit, the challenge in tackling this issue becomes glaringly obvious.
Ms Julie Minns (Carlisle) (Lab)Labour
My hon. Friend is touching on the issue of illegal e-bikes. Members will be aware that I presented a ten-minute rule Bill earlier this year that would have brought in a ban on their sale. Does she agree that the single biggest thing we could do to help our police is to ensure that these bikes never touch our streets in the first place, by restricting their sale?
I agree that we need to look at the sale of these bikes much more closely. Conversion kits that can turn an ordinary peddle bike into something more powerful can be ordered online for less than £300. Complete machines are sold on the basis that they are for use on private land, when everyone knows where they actually end up. Young people are able to buy them with little standing in their way. I welcome the steps that the Government have already taken to strengthen legislation in this area; however, I ask the Minister to consider two things. The former Department for Business and Trade committed to responding to its product safety consultation within 12 weeks of it closing in June. That deadline has now passed by some two months. Will the Minister press colleagues to publish the response without further delay and make the case from the Home Office that restricting the sale of conversion kits would ease the burden on our police? The second thing is enforcement. At the moment, there is no consistent national approach, and results vary a great deal from one force to the next. Where an approach has worked, it has been well planned and properly resourced. In London, the Met has targeted hotspots using intelligence, tested bikes at the roadside with rolling roads and put officers on e-bikes of their own. It has seized more than 2,500 illegal bikes this year, and phone theft in the west end has nearly halved. I would be grateful if the Minister could say whether the Government will look at a national framework for enforcement, based on best practice evidence, and push for it to be properly funded, so that my Gillingham and Rainham constituents can see the same results on their high streets.
Alison Hume (Scarborough and Whitby) (Lab)Labour
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Butler. Tackling antisocial behaviour is vital to restoring pride in our communities, but for too many people in Scarborough, pride in where they live has been replaced by anxiety, frustration and fear. Increasingly, antisocial behaviour is concentrated around a small number of premises in the town centre that provide emergency temporary accommodation. The impact on nearby residents and businesses has been profound. One constituent, Brian Witty, told me, “It’s making my life a complete misery—my cameras are going off all night with people mooching about drinking, taking drugs, alcohol and fighting…I can’t have my grandchildren over because of the foul language and cannabis use.” Another constituent, Rachel, said: “Incidents are taking place every single day on the streets surrounding these properties, not just sporadically. We can’t use our garden anymore. We can’t even leave our windows open on hot days because of the noise and the smell.” Guests of another accommodation provider requested refunds after experiencing sustained disruption during their stay. Since raising those concerns with site operators, including a company called Homemore, I am pleased to say that meaningful improvements, such as 24-hour on-site security, have been made. Although the challenges remain, those measures have begun to make a positive difference. To be clear, I do not oppose emergency accommodation being located in Scarborough, but we are seeing an over-concentration in one town out of a large county: 103 people were recently placed in emergency accommodation across North Yorkshire, and 58 were in Scarborough. We do not mind taking our share, but does the Minister agree that, although vulnerable people deserve safe accommodation, the communities that host them deserve fairness too?
Chris Murray (Edinburgh East and Musselburgh) (Lab)Labour
For years, the story of bonfire night in Niddrie and Craigmillar has been one of disorder. In 2023, 62 officers were injured when fireworks were fired at the police. Heartbreakingly, fireworks also caused the death from stress of a baby red panda at Edinburgh zoo. After that, local people and the police decided that families should not have to be afraid on 5 November, and they launched an incredible operation. Thankfully, last Thursday, Niddrie was quiet. First and foremost, I thank the police—local PS Graeme Carolan and the local team, and the police officers who came up from England to help on patrol. That shows the value of cross-UK solidarity for our communities. I also want to thank Jeannie Robertson-Frazier and Donna Ruth from Sandy’s community centre, Kirsty Haigh from Edinburgh Food Social, and Cheryl Neill and Suzanne Douglas from Places for People’s Hays community hub. The good news in Niddrie is remarkable, because it is unusual. Policing in Musselburgh is a disgrace. I get almost daily emails from constituents reporting intimidation, harassment, supermarket theft and smashed-up restaurants. I have launched petitions, hosted coffee mornings, worked with the police and written countless letters to Scottish Ministers, yet precious little has been done. Our police do amazing work, but they are let down by the SNP. Although Edinburgh is Scotland’s capital, the E division that covers it has only 20 officers per 10,000 people—a third below the Scottish average. The SNP loves to make comparisons to England and Wales when it suits it, but the English average is 24 officers per 10,000 people; in Musselburgh it is only 16. It is inexplicable to me that the Scottish Government have had an extra £18 billion from this Labour Government, yet none of it has made its way to frontline policing. My constituents are paying the price. Solving antisocial behaviour is not rocket science: we just need more police.
Rachael Maskell (York Central) (Lab/Co-op)Labour (Co-op)
It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Ms Butler. There were 3,707 reported cases of antisocial behaviour in York over the last year, out of 14,500 reported offences—shoplifting comes in at about 1,700. It is a serious issue in my constituency, as my community organising over the summer has shown. It includes young people using e-bikes, shoplifting, and groups of young people just gathering with nothing to do. We need to talk about not just addressing the issue but preventing it. That is where I want to focus Ministers’ attention. Our youth services were decimated in 2011, and we are paying a heavy price for that. Cash-strapped local authorities struggle to meet their statutory responsibilities, let alone provide those essential services on top. If we invest early, we can see incredible results. York youth partnership is working in a multi-agency way to address the issues that young people face. We are getting youth hubs from the Department for Work and Pensions, and the Government are putting money into bringing people into a different space after offending, but I want prevention to be at the heart of our approach. When I talk to the police, they say it is a job for the local authority; when I talk to people in the local authority, they say it is somebody else’s work. We need to put the investment in. I want to see our local authority working with the police on reformulating all these services. Whether they are covered by the DWP, falling out of education or causing antisocial behaviour on our streets, these young people are the same young people. We need a formulation that will bring all of them into a productive space, giving them opportunities for the future.
Taiwo Owatemi (Coventry North West) (Lab)Labour
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Butler. I thank the hon. Member for Birmingham Perry Barr (Ayoub Khan) for securing this debate. Antisocial behaviour is one of the most significant issues in my inbox. One of the areas impacted in my constituency is Spon End, Sherbourne. That is truly heartbreaking, because there is so much to look forward to in Sherbourne. The area is going through significant regeneration: the City Centre South development, which has regenerated 250 affordable homes; Naul’s Mill underpark; and the opening up of the River Sherbourne, which showcases the heritage and beauty of the area. It is also home to Langar Aid, a charity that, last year, provided more than 1 million meals to the most vulnerable people across our country. Sadly, all that is overshadowed by antisocial behaviour. Recently, I held a coffee afternoon with residents in the area, and I visited one of the local schools. What I heard was truly shocking: drug dealers targeting vulnerable people near schools, people passing out and defecating on the streets, and e-scooters and e-bikes being driven recklessly. There was one incident where a man under the influence walked into a local primary school during pick-up time, and all the kids could see it. Following that incident, I held a roundtable with Langar Aid, Change Grow Live, Coventry city council, West Midlands police and Coventry and Warwickshire integrated care board to address it. I understand that two arrests have been made by the police, but there is so much left for us to do. I want to ask the Minister three clear questions. First, what support is being provided to schools to ensure that they have an allocated police contact for incidents like this? Secondly, is the Minister considering expanding respect orders outside of high streets and city centres to more hidden areas such as Spon End in my constituency? Finally, when will my constituents start to feel the impact of investment in local policing on their streets?
Noah Law (St Austell and Newquay) (Lab)Labour
When I was elected, it was on the back of three pledges, one of which was to work to revitalise our towns. A key aspect of that is tackling antisocial behaviour in St Austell. Although Cornwall has a lower crime rate than the national average, around 405 incidents of ASB have been recorded in St Austell in the last year, which makes it the second most common category of recorded crime, underlying why tackling it remains such a priority for residents. St Austell ranks fifth among the nine towns in the area for recorded crime, but the town centre faces a challenge of the perception, as well as the reality, of those ASB incidents, which so often relate to drugs and alcohol. I commend the work of Safer Cornwall, Cornwall council’s ASB and rough sleeping teams, and St Austell police. The summer blitz that took place last year delivered 1,500 hours of police foot patrols across the focus areas, including St Austell, with 590 arrests for retail crime and 79 for street crime. In August, police and partners also served full closure orders on two addresses in the area. But there is much more to do: throughout my community conversations in the last few months, it was clear that we need to tackle the upstream causes of antisocial behaviour. On youth services, enforcement alone cannot give young people something to do and somewhere to go. The Government have published the first national youth strategy in more than a decade, backed by more than £500 million of investment. Cornwall has secured £1.5 million for two Young Futures hubs. Ramping up funding to tackle drug and alcohol abuse is vital; it was slashed under previous Governments by more than half in real terms. I want to be candid: although we need to take a humanitarian approach, we must also take a firm approach. That is why we must be sensible and strategic about the provision of supported accommodation, and have tough conversations with Cornwall council. I was pleased that it has been reviewing its approach in recent years. Will the Minister come back to St Austell in her current role, bringing to bear the full might of Government behind my pledge for St Austell?
Amanda Martin (Portsmouth North) (Lab)Labour
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Butler. I hear regularly about antisocial behaviour from my residents across Portsmouth North. For many, it seriously affects their quality of life and their ability to feel safe in their own home. I will give one example. Residents on one road contacted me after enduring months and months of appalling behaviour: motorbikes racing up and down, car wing mirrors being smashed, doorbells being rung late at night, properties being damaged, shouting in the street and, unbelievably, human faeces being dumped on the road—just imagine being woken in the middle of night, wondering what damage you might find in the morning and feeling anxious about simply opening your door. Those residents simply wanted to live peacefully in their own homes. They were angry and exhausted, and above all, they felt that no one was listening. No one should have to live like that. What made matters worse was that, initially, no one seemed to take responsibility. Residents were passed from one service to another, including by our elected councillors—it was someone else’s problem. They and I found that incredibly frustrating. People should not have to navigate a maze of agencies just to feel safe.
Does the hon. Member agree that one reason we have seen an increase in antisocial behaviour in our country is the amount of illegal migrants who are being dumped in hotels and HMOs?
No. I brought the residents, the council, the police and other services together in a meeting at my office. We agreed a plan of action. The perpetrators were dealt with and, importantly, the problem has not returned—but why did it take so much effort? Why should residents have to reach the end of their tether before agencies sit down together and sort things out? This is not an isolated problem. Across Portsmouth, concerns are growing about the antisocial use of electric bikes and e-scooters, as others have noted. Residents are worried about vehicles being ridden, the speeds they are ridden at and their use in criminality, putting pedestrians and other road users at risk. I warmly welcome the Government’s action on named neighbourhood police officers and on strengthening powers to seize and crush, without a warning first, such vehicles being used antisocially. We need those powers to be used consistently, however, and we need a public campaign on the legal and illegal use of e-bikes and scooters, and to stop their purchase in the first place. That brings me to respect orders. I welcome their introduction. They give the police, councils and social landlords additional tools to tackle persistent local offenders, including restricting access to particular areas and being able to require individuals to change their behaviour, but such powers are useful only if they are used. The Minister previously told the House that police in Hemel Hempstead had identified 30 potential cases ready for the introduction of respect orders, and we have now seen the first orders granted in Gloucestershire. That is action—but can the Minister tell me how many applications have been made by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight constabulary, and how many of those have been granted? What practical support is being given to ensure that our local police and councils make full use of their powers? Ultimately, this is about people being able to sleep peacefully, feel safe when walking down the street and have confidence that when they report antisocial behaviour, someone will do something about it. It should not be the case that our residents have to shout louder than the perpetrators before someone listens. New powers must mean action—and safer streets and communities—not simply strong words.
Leigh Ingham (Stafford) (Lab)Labour
It is a genuine pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Butler. I thank the hon. Member for Birmingham Perry Barr (Ayoub Khan) for securing this debate. Recently, I held one of my regular coffee mornings in Silkmore in Stafford, and residents raised a wide range of issues, but a common theme emerged from the discussion: people want to see more visible policing in their communities. They want to know that their concerns will be taken seriously, and that officers understand the area that they serve. The same theme came out during the independent business roundtable in Stafford town centre. Business owners spoke passionately about the contribution they make to the high street, but they also talked about the negative effect that antisocial behaviour is having in our town centre. Favourites such as Webb, Lucas & Stubbs optometrists now have an automatic lock fitted on the door to ensure that staff are safe, and Salter Street Toys and Models is reconsidering how to run its business, telling me that the thing that often makes the most difference is a visible police presence, with PCSOs around regularly. Neighbourhood policing has faced considerable cuts over many years. Communities have felt the loss of that local presence, and that is why I welcome the renewed focus on neighbourhood policing under this Labour Government. One thing that struck me from my conversation with residents, however, is that they are not simply asking for more police or tougher enforcement; they want us to address the underlying causes of the problems. This summer in Stafford, we sadly had an issue of antisocial behaviour involving young people in the town centre. I am a former youth worker, so I am aware that people often reach for young people when it is ASB, and I do not like the two always being conflated—but with this issue, that was true. In Stafford, we had the third worst cuts to youth services in the country. Those were decisions made by Conservative Administrations prior to our involvement. My residents know that to turn things around in the long term we must consider how we create opportunities and strengthen the communities that young people are growing up in. That is why I am campaigning for a youth centre in Stafford like the one that my hon. Friend the Member for St Austell and Newquay (Noah Law) has coming to his constituency.
Max Wilkinson (Cheltenham) (LD)Liberal Democrat
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Butler. I will start by reflecting on the comments of the hon. Member for Ashfield (Lee Anderson), who suggested that we should make more people homeless in order to tackle antisocial behaviour. I suggest to him that homeless people may be more likely to engage in antisocial behaviour and annoy his constituents.
Will the hon. Member give way?
I will at the end of this point.
No you won’t.
I will. The hon. Member also expressed his admiration for Singapore, where smoking in public is regarded as antisocial behaviour—I wonder whether his party leader might have views on that. Given the hon. Member’s own past conduct in Parliament—the behaviour that he engaged in with House of Commons staff—he might reflect that he might be out of pocket to the tune of several thousands of pounds if Singapore-style laws were introduced in the UK. I will now give way.
I thank the hon. Member for giving way. I am not worried about losing my job here; I have a GB News job that pays very handsomely. On his point about me trying to make people homeless, if there is a feral family living next door to me, my friends, my relatives or my constituents, I have absolutely no problem at all with kicking them out and letting other residents have a peaceful life.
It is instructive that the hon. Member is boasting about his second job in this debate. As Sir Mark Rowley told us last week, we have fewer police officers per head than France, Germany, Italy or Spain—in fact, fewer than most of Europe. In that context it is little wonder that people the length and breadth of the country repeatedly tell us their concerns about antisocial behaviour. Higher police visibility, facilitated by higher numbers, will clearly help us to fight antisocial behaviour. The Office for National Statistics tells us that an estimated 41% of people experienced or witnessed antisocial behaviour in the year ending June 2026, up from 36% the previous year. All too often antisocial behaviour sucks the life out of our towns and city centres. In residential areas, too, it makes going about daily life a misery.
Steve Darling (Torbay) (LD)Liberal Democrat
In Torbay the town centres tend to be a focus for antisocial behaviour, often involving the drugs and alcohol challenges of street-attached people. Does my hon. Friend agree that we need to take a strong enforcement approach and, equally, to ensure that there is wraparound support for those who want to exit that world?
My hon. Friend makes an important point. The answer is, of course, more community policing. After years of Conservative-led cuts to police numbers, people want visible, trusted local police officers who know their area and have the time and presence to prevent crime, not just to respond to it. For that to be effective, the police must be visible in the communities they serve. Thanks to the decimation of proper community policing, we have seen a drastic decline in frontline police counters. In Bedfordshire the number of counters has reduced by 78%, in Surrey by 60%, in the west midlands by 58%, in West Yorkshire by 53% and in Greater London by 52%. That decline must be reversed by the installation of a police counter in every community across the country, as the Liberal Democrats have called for. They could be in community hubs such as libraries, shopping centres and town halls—convenient, accessible locations. That is how we will start to rebuild trust and improve police visibility in response to crime.
I absolutely concur with my hon. Friend that we need more community policing and more visible policing. I have already made the point in the House that we need warranted officers on streets rather than at their desks or in call centres. Does he agree that the more the public report incidents of antisocial behaviour that they do not report at the moment, the more action we will get on it? Perhaps the Minister might think about how we can encourage the public to report the incidents they see.
I commend my hon. Friend’s comments to the Minister. Confusing legal frameworks make many instances of antisocial behaviour difficult to police. E-bikes, which have already been mentioned, are a common complaint in towns and city centres up and down the country, including in my constituency. Public concern is growing over the dangerous misuse of illegally modified high-speed e-bikes on pavements and in pedestrianised areas such as the High Street and the Promenade in Cheltenham. This is a particular concern to older people and parents with young children, but it can certainly alarm anyone—I speak from personal experience. It is antisocial behaviour in itself, but the suspicion is that these e-bikes are regularly used by drugs gangs and in county lines. The legal framework for e-bikes is confusing, outdated and rarely enforced. As the hon. Member for Gillingham and Rainham (Naushabah Khan) mentioned, high-power conversion kits and illegal bikes are readily available online with almost no regulatory oversight. That would be a good starting point for Ministers wanting to introduce measures to tackle antisocial behaviour. We must tackle illegal e-bikes, including by giving police forces updated training to spot, intercept and confiscate them. Will Ministers look at how these proposals might tackle antisocial behaviour? We must also recognise that a huge quantity of serious crime has moved online, as Sir Mark warned last week. The latest strategic assessment from the National Crime Agency warned that rapid technological change is the primary driver in serious organised crime, with the threat set to increase. That change is diverting resources away from frontline policing, producing poorer outcomes for victims of other crimes, including antisocial behaviour. A dedicated online crime agency would ensure that online crime was treated with the seriousness that it merits and would free up officers’ time to focus on neighbourhood crime, including antisocial behaviour. That online crime agency would be funded by a new online crime levy on the big tech and artificial intelligence companies whose platforms enable the most serious crimes that Sir Mark warned about last week: child sexual abuse, fraud and money laundering. It would stop neighbourhood police being dragged off their streets to deal with those forms of online crime, which in many cases they are not trained to deal with. Just last week, Sir Mark warned that the police risk heading for failure if reforms do not empower officers to keep up with modern criminals operating online. Will Ministers consider that proposal, which the Lib Dems have set out before, to establish an online crime agency in order to improve community response on our streets? The Government have made positive steps on some of these issues through their neighbourhood policing guarantee, but the proof will be in its delivery, especially given the upcoming police reform legislation. They must get those reforms right, with a proper focus on community policing, or they risk placing communities at greater risk and harming public confidence in the system. If the merging of forces means that officers become more distant from the communities they serve and less able to respond to local crimes, the Government will be making a serious mistake. Worryingly, the agenda being set by the Home Office seems to run counter to the devolution direction being set by the Prime Minister, particularly in respect of the number of boundaries that will be set and accountability to regional mayors. When will we find out how police reform fits in with the Prime Minister’s flagship agenda?
John Lamont (Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk) (Con)Conservative
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Ms Butler. I congratulate the hon. Member for Birmingham Perry Barr (Ayoub Khan) on securing this important debate, and I thank all 17 right hon. and hon. Members from all parts of the United Kingdom who have taken part in it. We all recognise the descriptions and anecdotes we have heard today. Antisocial behaviour is a widespread issue that we all face: the noise from fireworks, the glance over the shoulder on the walk home, the quiet bus journey spent trying not to attract attention—for victims and witnesses alike, it inspires nothing but stress and fear. It stops pensioners walking to the shops, bus drivers feeling safe in their cabs and families feeling secure in their own homes. As the dark nights creep in, it erodes people’s confidence in their communities and in this Government’s ability to protect them. The latest crime survey for England and Wales estimates that 41.4% of people experienced or witnessed antisocial behaviour last year, up from 36.7% the year before. Behind those figures are real people who need to see real change, not simply another promise. I am sure that the Government will point to the Crime and Policing Act, much of which we supported, and to the respect orders introduced last month—a number of Members have mentioned those—but legislation is only the starting point. The test is whether people will notice any reduction in the chaos on their streets. I am not confident that that change will be felt. We all want reassurances that the Government have this problem in hand, but reported cases of antisocial behaviour continue to rise, and with police officer numbers falling, people rightly question how the Government will use the Act’s new antisocial behaviour data powers to help forces target their already stretched resources more effectively. How will the Government effect change without the officers to enforce it? Police numbers have been in decline since the Government took office. At the same time, the Government have facilitated the early release of prisoners. The Conservative party has committed to providing 10,000 more police officers and 200,000 additional hotspot patrols, because we recognise that respect orders alone can mean something only if there are officers trained and ready to use them.
My hon. Friend is making a strong point about police resources and how they are allocated to trouble spots. There is also the issue of police morale. When the police are burdened by bureaucracy and cannot act decisively and quickly, they feel inhibited in taking the action the public expect them to. Does he agree that we need to look at a new protocol for this kind of policing, driven by Government and implemented locally, that would mean that criminals are caught and punished and that the public feel safer?
My right hon. Friend makes an excellent point. I think the police do an amazing job—certainly in my constituency, they work as hard as they possibly can to keep communities and residents as safe as they possibly can—but, as he highlights, morale is a big concern. The police are far too stretched. They are dealing with very stressful situations and worry about doing the best they can. In rural communities like mine and his, they cover a huge area, which compounds the stress. We need universality of standards and support to ensure that police officers are able to do the job we expect. We need new officers, because without them, antisocial behaviour will continue to escalate. One form of antisocial behaviour that we have not heard much about today but concerns many people is cannabis smoking. In England and Wales, drug use and dealing are among the most commonly experienced or witnessed forms of antisocial behaviour. It is often shrugged off as harmless, yet a King’s College London review of 63 studies involving more than 265,000 people found that cannabis users were more likely both to commit violence and to fall victim to it. Users were around twice as likely to have committed a violent act. That is why the Conservative party has called for police intervention—a formal caution or immediate justice intervention for a first offence, and prosecution before a magistrate for a second offence—when someone is seen smoking cannabis in public. Public drug use cannot be tolerated.
Some of the figures in the press in the last week or 10 days indicate that there has been a massive rise in the number of over-50s taking cannabis and cocaine; it is not always young people. Does the hon. Gentleman share my concern that those in that age group are participating more than ever and that there has to be a focus on them, too?
The hon. Member makes an excellent point: it is much more prevalent. I am certainly much more aware of it when I walk down the street, and I am getting more and more complaints from constituents who are experiencing it in the home setting because they are smelling it from neighbouring flats or houses. I will come to that. We have heard from a number of fellow Scots about the problems that we are facing in Scotland, but it is disappointing that there are no SNP MPs in the Chamber to talk about the antisocial behaviour that I am sure many of their constituents are experiencing. Policing and prosecution are devolved, but my constituents in the Scottish Borders feel the problem of antisocial behaviour, too. A 2024 World Health Organisation study of 44 countries found that the rate of cannabis use among 15-year-old boys was highest in Scotland. That should shame us all. Since 2016, police in Scotland have been able to issue a recorded police warning for cannabis possession instead of reporting it to the procurator fiscal. In 2021, that was extended to all drugs, including those in class A. The Crown insists that that is not decriminalisation, but that is not how it smells to any of my constituents sitting in their living rooms or playing with their children in their gardens. Hardly a week goes by without residents—families with young children, older people, those recovering from illness at home—contacting me about their neighbours’ cannabis smoke filling their homes. They report to it the police and the housing association, but they have come to expect that nothing will be done, because they know that the Crown Office is unlikely to prosecute. Whatever the legal technicalities, for those residents, that feels like effective decriminalisation. A law not enforced is not a law at all. People are losing faith that anyone will stand up for them. With a new Lord Advocate in post since June, now is the time to review that approach so that police and housing associations have the backing they need to act. Yet as we heard from the hon. Member for Alloa and Grangemouth (Brian Leishman), under the SNP, Police Scotland now has fewer officers than when it was created in 2013. In a rural area such as mine, officers are often expected to travel miles to deal with incidents. Will the Minister join me and the other Scottish Members who have spoken in pressing the Scottish Government to take a stronger approach to drug use in residential areas and ensure that rural communities have the police officers they need? Antisocial behaviour in train and bus stations was raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Keighley and Ilkley (Robbie Moore). This week, Borders Buses wrote to me about antisocial behaviour in the Galashiels transport interchange, which is the gateway to the Borders railway. It gives a very useful worked example of what is happening in many bus and train stations across the country. Border Buses operates across all of Scotland, including in Glasgow, yet some of the worst antisocial behaviour it faces is in the Scottish Borders. Timetable leaflets have been set on fire, the customer service hub has had to be closed, and the customer service adviser had to be moved to another floor of the building for their own safety. As the nights draw in, Border Buses is asking for a visible security presence and warns that, if things do not improve, they may have to consider withdrawing from the transport interchange altogether. For the many people in the Borders who do not drive, that would be a devastating loss. That is the true cost of antisocial behaviour: it robs communities of the services that people depend on. Border Buses staff at the interchange are crucial to local transport links, yet the Scottish Government’s new measures to tackle antisocial behaviour on buses do not include incidents at the train station itself. It is also important to recognise that many of the incidents of antisocial behaviour involve older people with mental health difficulties who have fallen through the gaps in social care, rather than young people, which is a point that the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) made. Will the Minister join me in thanking Border Buses’ drivers and staff for their dedication and support, as well as in asking for stronger support and protection for those working in bus and train stations, such as those working in the Galashiels transport interchange? There is no simple solution to antisocial behaviour, but without enforcement, we risk it simply becoming accepted. Our constituents are not asking for much. They want to feel safe in their homes and on their streets. They want to know that when they report an incident, something will happen. The Government are not delivering that yet and it is our job to make sure that they do.
The Minister for Policing and Crime (Sarah Jones)Labour
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Butler. I congratulate the hon. Member for Birmingham Perry Barr (Ayoub Khan) for securing this debate. The number of Members who are here reflects how important this issue is to all of our constituents. In an ever more dangerous world, with many things for our constituents to worry about, antisocial behaviour sits at the core of what makes them feel unsafe; it therefore has to be at the core of any Government’s response. I was the shadow Policing Minister when we were in opposition. I embarked on an antisocial behaviour tour to understand why the then Government called it low-level when its effects were so pernicious across so many of our neighbourhoods. We committed to act in opposition, and we have done so in government. I am proud of the changes that we have introduced. Like everyone else here, I have constituents who will say that we have not gone far enough—that we have not seen the results and need to go further, faster and do more. I wholeheartedly agree, but we have introduced some good changes that are starting to bear fruit. First, we have the deliberate policy to shift police from behind desks into neighbourhoods. We think that more police should be on our streets, so as well as providing funding for new officers to fill neighbourhood roles, we are encouraging the 12,000 officers who currently sit behind desks to think about whether they can be deployed in more front-facing roles. We believe it is right to do that, and we have changed the funding structures so that police chiefs can make those decisions. It will take time, but that policy is starting to bear fruit, with nearly 4,000 more police in our neighbourhoods. In 2010, when the previous Labour Government left office—before the coalition Government came in, introduced austerity and made policing cuts—the public were more satisfied with policing than they had ever been. In large part, that was due to people seeing neighbourhood policing.
Will the Minister give way?
Will the Minister give way?
I will give way to the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon).
The Minister is giving comprehensive answers on the Labour Government’s plans. I suggested that we recognise, as I know the Minister will, the good work done by street pastors and churches, through the youth clubs and groups that they organise, across the whole United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Could the Government do more to engage with the street pastors, churches and faith groups that have a plan to help our young people?
I will come on to talk about prevention, in which our faith leaders absolutely have a powerful role. Many Members talked about respect orders. Those came into force on 26 October, and I am delighted that some are already in place—that is good to hear. Although I do not have all the numbers for all the forces, the first respect orders have been issued. For Members who are not aware, respect orders can be put on anybody, anywhere, not just in our town centres. They apply to persistent antisocial behaviour offenders. A previous conviction is not required for someone to be a persistent offender. Housing associations, councils, transport companies and the police can apply for an order. The order can put on an individual whatever conditions are considered appropriate, such as requiring that they do not come on to a certain street. They may require a person to have treatment for drug or alcohol addiction, as well as other more positive interventions. If those conditions are breached, that is a criminal offence.
As the Minister has heard from Members across the Chamber, social media often plays a part in this problem. I mentioned Holbeach in my constituency, which has suffered from antisocial behaviour. Sometimes, the offenders are very young people indeed, who are communicating on the internet and boasting about what they are doing. Can she apply what she just described to that social media activity, so that the authorities can take action early, before the community suffers the consequences of what is being boasted about?
The online space is a work in progress. Criminality online goes across all kinds of different crimes. The right hon. Gentleman is right to say that some young people talk about what they are going to do before putting it into practice, and of course, we have to change our processes to make sure that the police can see that and intervene. Respect orders are beginning to be used. Other changes were also introduced under the Crime and Policing Act 2026; for example, in areas subject to a public spaces protection order, fines can now be £500 instead of £100. Those changes may appear small, but they are significant and will make a difference. Every area has to have an antisocial behaviour lead. On the need for agencies to work together, which was talked about, every area also has to have an antisocial behaviour strategy that has been made in collaboration with the different agencies. We have extended the dispersal period for which someone can be directed to leave an area from 48 hours to 72 hours.
Of the changes that the Minister has listed, one that has worked brilliantly in my city is the removal of face coverings at protests. Would she encourage other forces to do the same? Everyone should have a fair right to protest, but they should not come with a balaclava and bring thuggish behaviour to other people’s cities.
My hon. Friend will know that Lord Ken Macdonald has done a review for the Home Secretary on protests more widely. The issue of intimidation at protests is very pertinent to that review, and we will soon publish our response. It is also the case that some police forces have PSPOs that ban face coverings and balaclavas in an area. That is another approach that some areas are taking, and it is one that I welcome. I will not list them all, but we have introduced a raft of other changes through the 2026 Act that are explicitly designed to target antisocial behaviour. We will also gather more data, because one of the issues with antisocial behaviour is that we do not quite understand the data. Some of it is reported to local authorities and some to the police, so we do not quite understand the nature of the problems. We are gathering that data together. Lots of Members talked about the trouble we are having across so many communities with e-bikes and e-scooters, which is a debate that we have had numerous times. We have changed the law so that the police can seize them without having to give notice, which is important, but we are looking at what else we can do with this problem—and I recognise that it is a problem. I am going to have a series of roundtables, and I am talking to MPs about both the challenges and the solutions. Some solutions will sit within other Departments—whether that is what was formerly called the Department for Business and Trade, or the Department for Transport—and some will sit within the Home Office, so we are looking at how we can have a collective approach to that challenge. Some Members talked about persistent shoplifting offenders. It is the case that about 8% of the offenders are responsible for about 50% of the crime, and we will soon be able to announce some work on those prolific offenders in particular. Many Members talked about the underlying problems associated with some of this antisocial behaviour. When we look at prolific offenders, we often find drug addiction, homelessness and other challenges that we need to face collectively. We are considering how we target and support that cohort in a similar way to our rough sleeping cohort that the Prime Minister is so keen to champion. We need to think not just about housing but about the other support that those people need, and we are also trying to take that approach here. Prevention was mentioned by many people, and I think it is really important. It plays a part in our respect orders and in our prolific offenders work, as well as the wider Government action on youth work and other support, including mental health support. All of these are core things. A lot of antisocial behaviour comes from people who are not getting the support that they might have received 10 or 15 years ago, so it is incredibly important that we look at that side of things.
Will the Minister give way?
I do not think I should, because I need to give the hon. Member for Birmingham Perry Barr the opportunity to respond. I will conclude by saying that antisocial behaviour is not a low-level problem. It is awful. I see it in my community, and we are absolutely committed to tackling it. We have introduced a raft of measures, but we need to go further and I will carry on this conversation to see what else we can do. All Members present today know that it is a top priority for our constituents, and we should act appropriately.
I thank every right hon. and hon. Member who contributed to this important debate. The theme seems to be that antisocial behaviour is not a low-level crime, and that it comes in many different forms—from e-scooters to intoxication, abandoned buildings on the high street and the like. It is also obvious that police presence is an important factor, and people recognise the importance of deterrence. Having the right police numbers will certainly assist with deterrence, so the Government need to look at how they can improve our police numbers. That work must also go with the early intervention programme. We have to take a holistic approach, as these silo-type approaches do not really offer benefit. I hope the Minister will meet me to discuss and resolve some of these matters. I finish with the comment made by the hon. Member for Ashfield (Lee Anderson) when he addressed the students here. I promise them that they will see a difference in 10 years, because the vast majority of Members believe in hope over division. I am confident that, working together, we will be able to resolve many of the challenges that we face. Motion lapsed (Standing Order No. 10(6)).
Source: UK Parliament Hansard API. Debate ID: 5434255.