Antisocial Behaviour

John Lamont Excerpts

Tuesday 10th November 2026 Westminster Hall

[John Lamont (Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk) (Con)]

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.

[Sir John Hayes]

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?

--- Later in debate ---

[John Lamont]

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.

[Jim Shannon]

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?

[John Lamont]

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.