Rural Crime

Chris Bloore Excerpts

Thursday 27th February 2025 Westminster Hall

[Chris Bloore (Redditch) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms McVey. I congratulate the hon. Member for North Cornwall (Ben Maguire) on securing this vital debate. He gave such a comprehensive overview of the many challenges facing our rural communities that I will perhaps make my speech slightly shorter than planned.

Although my constituency is named simply Redditch, some Members will have noticed that I often refer to it as Redditch and the villages. That is because although the Boundary Commission for England has found it fit to change the layout of my constituency on many occasions, it has yet to update its title. In addition to the town of Redditch, my constituency is vast and contains many beautiful rural communities and villages. Tomorrow I will be walking with local councillors in Dodderhill parish, and I know the issue of rural crime will feature heavily in those important conversations when we speak face to face with constituents.

Fly-tipping remains one of the biggest concerns of my residents, local businesses and farmers, with many selflessly cleaning up after the thoughtless actions of others and the organised dumping of waste by nefarious actors. As the hon. Member for Mid Buckinghamshire (Greg Smith) mentioned, the 2023 Countryside Alliance rural crime survey showed that fly-tipping was the most reported rural crime in our communities, and 73% of respondents said it was on the increase.

A 2024 National Farmers Union survey found that more than half of respondents had experienced small-scale fly-tipping on their farm, and more than a quarter had experienced large-scale fly-tipping. Fly-tipping on private land is often under-reported because the responsibility for dealing with it rests with the private landowner and is not subject to mandatory data reporting. Will the Government reconsider that situation, so that we can understand the true scale of fly-tipping on private land across the country?

I welcome the Government’s decision to introduce in 2026 mandatory digital waste tracking to prevent bad actors from getting away with fly-tipping in our communities. Currently, there is no comprehensive method for tracking the waste produced in the United Kingdom. Existing systems are fragmented across the country and utilise a mix of digital and paper storage. The Government’s initiative will enhance the regulation of waste management by transforming how environmental regulators monitor compliance and prioritise their regulatory activities. It aims to help to prevent waste-related crimes such as fly-tipping. Hopefully, if we know where waste is coming from, we will be able to take punitive actions against the organised crime networks that are exploiting our rural communities and costing my local businesses millions of pounds.

Of course, many other rural crime issues will come up on the doorstep tomorrow, from car theft and tool theft, which has already been mentioned, to burglaries, farm machinery being stolen—often made easier by our proximity to the motorway network—and the continued incidents of antisocial crime that continue to worry my residents. That is why I welcome the Home Secretary’s commitment to ensure that rural communities will see the benefits of the Government’s promise to enhance our neighbourhood policing teams.

I finish by thanking our existing policing teams and Harvington, Norton and Dodderhill parish councils for their hard work in combating rural crime and ensuring that our beautiful villages remain great places to live.

Violence against Women and Girls

Chris Bloore Excerpts

Wednesday 27th November 2024 Westminster Hall

[Chris Bloore (Redditch) (Lab)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Poplar and Limehouse (Apsana Begum) on securing this debate.

This week in the main Chamber I highlighted the vital work carried out in my constituency by independent sexual violence advisers, who are on the frontline tackling increased violence against women and girls. However, not everyone is able to access support when they need it the most. Black and minoritised women, including women with disabilities and from LGBT+ communities, often face further barriers when reporting crimes to the police and accessing support from statutory services, including discrimination, language barriers or immigration status.

There is a real need for lived experience to inform the designing of services to ensure that they are run by and for marginalised women, to provide the vital culturally specific support that is often lacking in mainstream services. That support is desperately needed because, for example, deaf women are twice as likely to experience domestic violence as hearing women, and deaf children are three times more likely to than their hearing peers. Many of the perpetrators of that violence are also deaf, meaning that survivors are often left isolated, even within their own community.

SignHealth is the only by-and-for deaf domestic abuse service, and it provides all its support in British Sign Language. However, deaf domestic abuse services are generally small-scale, often with limited staffing and geographical reach—the ultimate postcode lottery. It is vital that deaf women and children have access to support from professionals who speak BSL as a first language, and I hope to see that sort of accessibility consideration in the Government’s plans for tackling violence against women and girls.

Research from the Domestic Abuse Commissioner found that by-and-for services are six times less likely to receive statutory funding, which leads to minoritised women being locked out of support. They recommended that a minimum total of £178 million from the overall funding settlement is ringfenced for specialist services, led by and for marginalised women. I know that the Minster is the biggest champion we could have in the Department. I hope she will work with organisations such as Refuge to ensure that specialised services are available for all women.

[Sir Mark Hendrick (in the Chair)]

I commend Members on keeping their speeches brief. We now move on to the Front-Bench contributions.

Oral Answers to Questions

Chris Bloore Excerpts

Monday 25th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Monica Harding (Esher and Walton) (LD)]

18. What steps her Department is taking with police forces to tackle violence against women and girls.

[Chris Bloore (Redditch) (Lab)]

20. What support she is providing to local organisations to help tackle violence against women and girls.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Jess Phillips)]

The scale of violence against women and girls in our country is intolerable, and the Government will treat it as a national emergency. As part of this mission, we are bringing together Ministers from right across Government so that every Department does its bit, from prevention work in schools through to relentless pursuit of dangerous perpetrators. On top of that work, we have already begun strengthening the police response to domestic abuse. We will mark the next 16 days of activism with further announcements on our work to tackle spiking, stalking and other VAWG crimes.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jess Phillips]

A number of different risk assessment tools are used, whether DARA or Dash—the domestic abuse, stalking, harassment and honour-based violence risk assessment—which has a more historical grounding and is used more widely. I want the hon. Lady to know that it is impossible to read any domestic homicide review in our country for the past decade and not think that risk assessments, and how well they are used and operating, is something that we should look at.

[Chris Bloore]

Will the Minister join me in thanking the incredible staff at the Sandycroft centre in my constituency, who offer life-saving support for vulnerable people in times of crisis? Will she visit the centre with me to hear from CEO Lee McKenzie and the independent sexual violence advisers, who are on the frontline tackling increased violence against women and girls?

[Jess Phillips]

As it is very local to me, I take a particular interest in the Sandycroft centre. Such centres are invaluable to vulnerable women, and I would be delighted to visit him and Lee—it would be a 15-minute drive.