Safety of Emergency Workers

Sarah Jones Excerpts

Wednesday 11th November 2026 Westminster Hall

[The Minister for Policing and Crime (Sarah Jones)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Twigg. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth North (Amanda Martin) for securing this debate. Can I just say what a wonderful MP she is? We see each other in multiple settings, because she is very busy campaigning on many different issues, and we are all very lucky that she is in this Chamber, as was said by the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon).

My hon. Friend has brought to the House an issue that should unite us all. However, as she eloquently described, it has not, and that shames those MPs and councillors who do not see the world as most of us do. I will focus my remarks on the specifics that she raised, but I also want to discuss the abuse of emergency workers more widely.

My right hon. Friend the Member for Rhondda and Ogmore (Chris Bryant), who is now Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, introduced the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 as a private Member’s Bill. He campaigned on this issue for a long time, and it is good that we have the legislation on the statute book. However, we must ensure that it is doing what we need it to do, which is why we updated it through the Crime and Policing Act 2026 to ensure that it applies in all settings. My right hon. Friend did a powerful bit of campaigning to get the original legislation across the line back in 2018.

Members have made powerful points about the wider issue of the assault of emergency workers. As my hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton North East (Sureena Brackenridge) said, nobody should be abused because of the uniform that they wear. That should be our starting point, and we should accept nothing less. The hon. Member for Strangford talked about mental health support for those who are abused, which is a very important part of the policing jigsaw. We will introduce a more powerful covenant through legislation. We currently have a policing covenant that is similar to the armed forces covenant, but we want to strengthen it to secure mental health support for police officers who find themselves in very difficult situations and who will inevitably struggle as a result.

We heard about some disasters in which Members’ constituents have had to face real tragedy, including the Penlee lifeboat disaster and the fire at Dunwich heath, both of which were real reflections of the harm and danger that we ask emergency workers to step into. I myself have been this year to three funerals of police officers who died in road incidents, which is catastrophic, and a total of seven have died this year.

There was some debate about the risks that firefighters take. I am very interested in and supportive of the FBU’s position on the support that our firefighters need, particularly in respect of carcinogens and whether there is a direct correlation, and whether compensation schemes should be set up. Such schemes are now available if someone dies from mesothelioma, which is linked to asbestos, so if there is a direct correlation for our firefighters, it is right that we look at those issues.

My hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth North said that true public service is putting on a uniform, answering an emergency call and helping someone you have never met. That is what happened in Portsmouth during the events of 6 September, which she has raised today, when emergency services and their partners responded to the small boat arrival in Eastney. They were there to protect life, to maintain public safety and to carry out their duties. Instead of being allowed to do that, officers were injured and emergency service vehicles were damaged. Hampshire police subsequently confirmed that seven police officers had been injured and treated at the scene, and we have heard some of those stories.

We have also seen reports of RNLI volunteers being subjected to abuse and their personal details circulated online. These are people who give their time to save others, and their families should not have to wonder whether a rescue at sea will bring a threat to their front door. The RNLI’s task is to save lives; immigration policy is the Government’s responsibility. We must never allow the two to be confused or allow lifesaving crews to become targets for anger about that policy.

Our response must be practical as well as unequivocal. First, criminal behaviour must be investigated, and those responsible brought to justice. As my hon. Friend said, there is absolutely nothing wrong with having a genuine concern about illegal immigration—people have good reason to be frustrated with what has happened and a right to demand secure borders—but that is very different from criminal behaviour, which must be investigated. Secondly, emergency services need effective arrangements to identify threats, share information and protect their people. My hon. Friend asked about that and she is absolutely right. Thirdly, we must tackle online targeting and intimidation, rather than treating it as separate to the risks on our streets. I want very briefly to touch on each of those points.

Hampshire and Isle of Wight constabulary has investigated the disorder at Eastney. It has reviewed extensive video evidence and charged individuals with violent disorder, and it would be inappropriate for me to comment on individual cases or prejudice ongoing court proceedings. The absence of an arrest on the day does not mean that offending will go unpunished. Police need to investigate who was responsible, secure the evidence and take action, and the number of arrests that take place on the night does not reflect the full police response—it is really important for me to say that.

Of course, operational decisions are down to the police. The Government’s responsibility is to provide the legal framework and support effective policing. We expect criminal conduct to be investigated robustly, and we expect the safety of emergency workers to be taken seriously. There are already specific protections for emergency workers. Common assault or battery used against an emergency worker acting in the exercise of their functions can attract a maximum sentence of two years’ imprisonment. More serious violence can be prosecuted under offences carrying higher maximum penalties. Those protections are not confined to paid employees; the statutory definition includes people providing search and rescue services, for example.

Turning to the right to peaceful protest—I am aware of the time—I must emphasise the word “peaceful”. It does not provide a licence to assault a police officer, threaten a paramedic, damage a rescue vehicle or obstruct a lifesaving response. We have seen groups of men dressed in black with their faces concealed seeking to intimidate communities and those carrying out vital public duties. That behaviour is thuggish and unacceptable. Wearing particular clothing alone is not an offence, but masks must not be used to embolden threats, violence or intimidation, and the police have a range of powers to address that conduct. We are seeing that play out not just in the protesting field, but through some public spaces protection orders, where the police can intervene in particular locations.

The police can impose conditions on processions and assemblies and ask for the removal of face coverings, and they can use dispersal powers where appropriate. They have to use those powers lawfully. I know that there will be Members who are concerned about getting the balance right between protest and criminality, and about how the police can intervene. We asked Lord Macdonald to review the entire protest and hate crime landscape. We are considering his report and will respond to it in due course. I think all Members here will be interested in the balance that he believes we need to strike and what we need to do to get there.

We do not have time to talk about online intimidation as much as I would like. The Online Safety Act 2023 is there up to a point, and I know that Members across the House and the Government are considering whether those powers in the criminal law adequately address the malicious publication of personal information. We need to look at that, and my hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth North is absolutely right to challenge us on it.

I thank my hon. Friend for giving emergency workers in Portsmouth and across the country a voice in this House. Today, the country fell silent in memory of those brave souls who gave their lives so that we may live in freedom and safety. Theirs is a legacy of selfless sacrifice, and it lives on in the public servants we have been discussing today—the devoted men and women who protect us and answer the call when it comes. They deserve our thanks, respect and protection.

Antisocial Behaviour

Sarah Jones Excerpts

Tuesday 10th November 2026 Westminster Hall

[The Minister for Policing and Crime (Sarah Jones)]

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.

[Jim Shannon]

Will the Minister give way?

[Robbie Moore]

Will the Minister give way?

[Sarah Jones]

I will give way to the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon).

[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?

[Sarah Jones]

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.

[Sir John Hayes]

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?

[Sarah Jones]

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.

[Amanda Martin]

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.

[Sarah Jones]

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.

[Monica Harding]

Will the Minister give way?

[Sarah Jones]

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.

Law Enforcement: Biometrics, Facial Recognition and Similar Technologies

Sarah Jones Excerpts

Wednesday 4th November 2026 Written Statements

[The Minister for Policing and Crime (Sarah Jones)]

I am today announcing the publication of the Government’s response to the public consultation on a new legal framework for law enforcement use of biometrics, facial recognition and similar technologies in England and Wales.

The consultation sought views on which types of data, technologies and activities should be covered by the framework, who the framework should apply to, and what safeguards and oversight should be in place to protect privacy and other rights. It received over 13,800 responses from members of the public, academics, industry, regulators, civil society groups, the police and others.

Analysis of responses showed support for a new statutory framework for use of technologies such as facial recognition by the police and others. Respondents emphasised the importance of strong safeguards, transparency, accountability, effective independent oversight and the protection of individual rights.

That is why the police reform Bill will introduce a new framework to underpin use of biometric and overt surveillance systems for law enforcement and some safeguarding purposes, by the police and other public bodies. The framework will ensure that policing can innovate in a repeatable and consistent manner, supporting adoption of emerging biometric and overt surveillance technologies that improve policing effectiveness and public protection. New powers will be supported by a statutory code of practice, and a new independent oversight body will monitor and enforce compliance.

Consultation responses also raised questions about private sector uses of biometric technologies. The police reform Bill will therefore also contain complementary measures to ensure that rules for private sector uses of technologies such as facial recognition for the prevention and detection of crime are consistent with law enforcement use, where this is appropriate.

A copy of the Government’s response and supporting materials will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses and published on gov.uk.

[HCWS449]

Illegal Off-road Bikes: North-east

Sarah Jones Excerpts

Wednesday 4th November 2026 Westminster Hall

[The Minister for Policing and Crime (Sarah Jones)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Barker. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Darlington (Lola McEvoy) for securing a very timely and important debate.

I will start by making the basic point that I absolutely recognise the challenges my hon. Friend describes. As an MP in Croydon, I have very similar challenges, and there are similar challenges across the country with this emerging nasty problem with off-road bikes, e-bikes and e-scooters. It is probably safe to say that every MP in the country has a challenge with them.

It was a privilege to meet my hon. Friend and her constituent to talk about the awful death of her mother. It was an impactful experience that made me think about the need for us to act and do more. I hope that those who have lost loved ones or been injured, and the MPs who have had conversations with them, can be reassured that we are looking very carefully at this challenge in the Home Office and across Government.

On the wider issue of funding and how we tackle these challenges, I am acutely aware, as my hon. Friend said, of how important it is to have police presence in our communities, and I am very aware of the wider challenges in the north-east with police funding and numbers.

[Luke Myer (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) (Lab)]

Will the Minister give way?

[Sarah Jones]

I know exactly what my hon. Friend is going to ask me, but I will happily give way.

[Luke Myer]

The Minister will be sick of me raising this, but I promised my constituents that I would continue to bang on about it. I urge her to remember Cleveland police in all the conversations she has around police funding, and of course the wider north-east, which hon. Members have mentioned.

[Sarah Jones]

The funding situation for Cleveland at the moment is that we have secured the money to cover the mutual aid costs that Cleveland has borne—just over £5 million. Durham and Cleveland have both applied for what we are calling exceptional finance for next year and are both through to the next stage, where the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy does an analysis of the challenges. It will look at the financial resilience of the organisations and the context within which they operate, so both those forces will be going through to that. We are doing a lot of internal work on the funding formula, which we will say more about soon, but the exceptional finance will be for this financial year. The year starts in January, but the announcements will be made in December, so we are looking at those issues now. Obviously, within the funding window, it is important to say that local police are operationally independent, so it is for them to make the decisions on the tactics they want to pursue.

There have been many questions about what we can do at a national level to support the tackling of this challenge.

[Dame Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West) (Lab)]

I emphasise that my constituents want to see extra resource and devolved powers to our local authorities to address the scourge of e-bikes, as my hon. Friend the Member for Darlington (Lola McEvoy) eloquently put it. I also want to make the Minister aware, if she is not, that a consultant at the Royal Victoria Infirmary told me that the hospital’s 36% rise in open leg fractures in the last three years is due to increased e-bike use. There is a cost to young lives and to the NHS. Is she working with her Department of Health and Social Care colleagues to look at the costs and at how they can be addressed by the policy she can put in place?

[Sarah Jones]

That is a shocking statistic. We will certainly take that away and see whether that is replicated elsewhere. We will ask our NHS colleagues to see whether there is data on that and how it is gathered, but that would be useful.

On what more we can do, I am having a series of conversations with MPs and I will do a couple of roundtables. I know a lot of MPs are interested in this space—I understand there is a WhatsApp group—and want to give their views. We have obviously taken some steps, such as the powers to seize these vehicles and not have to give notice, and the powers to extend dispersal orders, as well being able to dispose of these vehicles quicker than before.

On the point my hon. Friend the Member for Darlington made about PSPO breaches, we have increased fines to £500. It is not the answer to everything, but it is at least something, going from £100 to £500. We are looking at a number of different areas, and all the things that have been suggested are things we are looking at. I cannot promise that there will be magic money and, although I would like to, I cannot wave a wand and give all police forces extra money to tackle this problem, but we are very much looking at this challenge in the round and I know that the Home Secretary is very interested in this area, too.

There are legal changes we can think about, which obviously involve the need for legislation and to go through that process, so what are the things we could do sooner rather than later? How much can we corral police forces that carry out big operations that take these vehicles off the streets and dispose of them, and look at that nationwide? There are issues around training for officers, which we are looking at. My hon. Friend the Member for Darlington talked about the dangers of pursuing someone, but to be able to pursue, officers need a level of driving training. We need to look at whether there is an issue with the number of officers we are training. I talked only today with the new inspector of His Majesty’s inspectorate of constabulary and fire and rescue services, who has just started his new role—he was the head of the College of Policing—about the things in this space that we can think about doing.

There is obviously a big piece of work to be done across Government about the rules for how these things can be used. The point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Darlington about people not understanding that a lot of this is illegal is absolutely right. The existing legal situation is messy when it comes to what someone can and cannot do, and we need to work across Government to address that.

[Lola McEvoy]

I would have liked to have addressed a few easy wins, but in the interest of time maybe the Minister could address them now. One issue is that a lot of people who are caught are under 18 and do not have a driving licence. Is there any avenue to addressing that through the parenting orders? For example, if someone’s child is caught riding one of these on the road, there could be knock-on consequences for their driving licence.

We had an incident in Darlington where parents were ringing up the police and asking when they could get the confiscated vehicle back. It is not the same thing as when a teacher confiscates a child’s phone for using it in school; these bikes are illegal and dangerous and have no place on the road. We need to differentiate that for parents by applying some consequences, if we cannot do it for the young people themselves.

[Sarah Jones]

My hon. Friend raises a good point about what to do with under-18s. We have just introduced respect orders, which are useful in this space because people who are consistently antisocial and driving these bikes are prime suspects for respect orders, which can result in a criminal offence—people can end up in prison if they breach their conditions. But respect orders do not apply to the under-18s. We need to look at our under-18s and make sure that, whatever the antisocial behaviour is, there is deterrence and interventions, as well as support where the child is vulnerable and may need it. I will take that away and commit to looking into it.

We need to look across Government and the consider the different laws that exist around these vehicles. In the Home Office, we need to be thinking about what bit of legislation, what change, or what corralling in policing we can do, and how we can send out messages about what is and is not legal. We are considering all of these issues in the Home Office. Now is the time to have these conversations, and we are looking at what we can feasibly do.

There is a general point around bikes and antisocial behaviour, which is that post covid there has been a big increase in antisocial behaviour that policing has not kept on top of, largely because of resources. This is a symptom of that. We have to make it clear to our communities that there is a way to behave and a thing to do, and that there will be consequences if people do not stick within the law. The message to all our fair, law-abiding citizens should be, “You are abiding by the law, and we are grateful for that. These other people will not get away with what they are doing.”

I am thinking about what the quick wins are, what longer-term wins we need through legislation and how we can make sure this is not seen as in any way acceptable.

[Lola McEvoy]

I thank the Minister for being so generous with her time. Something that comes up a lot on the doorstep when we talk about this issue is that it is the same small group, and everybody knows who it is. They might say, “Everybody knows who it is and they are always driving these bikes in and out the house.” Obviously, I do not know because they will not tell me who it is, so there is an issue there with the neighbourhood policing.

Is there any support that the Minister could give police around repeated multi-problem hotspots and families, where it is known by the community? This is driving down public confidence in the police, as well as how people feel on a day-to-day basis, as has been raised by many hon. Friends across the House. It is making people feel intimidated, scared and miserable, as well as being a danger. Can the Minister address that?

[Sarah Jones]

My hon. Friend makes a good point. There is the wider issue here of the years of austerity that ripped away services that supported parents and families to be the best they can be, whether Sure Start or the various iterations of family interventions over the years that have been ripped away. The police can do only so much. There is an infrastructure issue around our other public services. That is something we will look at.

I want to touch briefly on PCSOs because they have been raised a couple of times. Certain powers are given to PCSOs by each force. Different areas do different things with their PCSOs. Some, for example, are able to use drones, but others are not. On a basic level, they cannot arrest people or carry weapons. There are certain rules about what PCSOs can do, but within that local forces have some flexibility. I will take away the questions about that. I am always keen to encourage more PCSOs and their use as much as possible. I am very happy to take that away and look at it.

[Lola McEvoy]

Let me put on record the stellar job being done by PCSOs on the beat in Darlington, across the north-east and in every other constituency. I am sure that everyone will agree with that. PCSOs take huge personal risk for very low pay, and they work often gruelling shifts.

One PCSO—she would not like me to name her—was incredibly brave when she found two people on an off-road bike. She followed them, jumped them and got the bike; but when they turned around and realised that she was on her own, they got the bike back and assaulted her. It is deeply disturbing that that is the level we are at in the lovely town of Darlington. It is not right that the balance is so skewed in favour of those who do not respect the law. Will the Minister keep her in mind when increasing the powers of PCSOs?

[Sarah Jones]

I will certainly keep that in mind. There are lots of extraordinary examples of PCSOs showing great bravery and being really important crime-prevention agents as well as fighting crime in our local communities. It would be wrong of me not to say that three police officers have died in my hon. Friend’s region over the past year. We pay tribute to them and what they have given for their country. We will continue to do that, and we are very grateful for what the police do.

I absolutely hear and am having lots of conversations about the need to look at this challenge, recognise it and see it. The Home Secretary recognises and sees it, and we are very much in the market for the things that we can do. It is, therefore, a very helpful time to have this conversation and debate. I thank all hon. Members who have contributed and encourage them to keep talking to me and others in the Home Office. I will convene some roundtable sessions, and we need a proper cross-Government session as well. I thank my hon. Friend for raising such an important matter.

Question put and agreed to.

Oral Answers to Questions

Sarah Jones Excerpts

Monday 26th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Kirsteen Sullivan (Bathgate and Linlithgow) (Lab/Co-op)]

4. What steps she is taking to help reduce levels of abuse experienced by retail workers.

[The Minister for Policing and Crime (Sarah Jones)]

Abuse and violence against retail workers ballooned under the last Government. The Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers and others campaigned for action. We promised to take action, and we have: the Crime and Policing Act 2026 introduces a new offence of assaulting a retail worker, punishable by up to six months’ imprisonment, an unlimited fine, or both.

[Kirsteen Sullivan]

In 2021 my colleague Daniel Johnson MSP introduced landmark protections for Scottish shop workers, following a campaign by USDAW and the Co-operative party, but legislation is not enough. Community policing has declined in Scotland, and my constituents in Winchburgh, Armadale and Bathgate report rising retail crime and abuse of shop workers. Ahead of legislation commencing in England, what discussions has the Minister had with the Scottish Government to learn from Scotland’s experience, and what investment has she made in frontline policing to protect shop workers and communities?

[Sarah Jones]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right that alongside legislation, we need to ensure that we have the police in our communities and neighbourhoods to tackle crime. We have put 3,800 new police—extra police—in our neighbourhoods since we came to power. The collaboration between police and shop workers is having really good results in a lot of our town centres, and I encourage the Scottish National party Government to look at ensuring the same in Scotland.

[Helen Maguire (Epsom and Ewell) (LD)]

5. What plans she has to bring forward legislative proposals to support police to tackle the illegal use of e-bikes and e-scooters.

[The Minister for Policing and Crime (Sarah Jones)]

We all recognise the concern about the illegal use of e-bikes and e-scooters. We have taken action through the Crime and Policing Act 2026. Police no longer need to issue a warning before seizing vehicles that are being used antisocially. We have also reduced vehicle disposal timeframes to seven days, so we are taking action, but we are very much in the market for seeing what else we can do.

[Helen Maguire]

I welcome the new police powers to seize illegal e-scooters and e-bikes that, quite frankly, are out of control. In Epsom and Ewell, Operation Scramble seized 15 vehicles and made six arrests in two days, but some police are hesitant to engage in pursuits because of concerns for wider public safety. It is clear that the police cannot address this issue alone. With Christmas approaching, will the Minister commit to a national awareness campaign to ensure that the general public understand the law around e-scooters, and appreciate that they are legal only if they are part of a rental scheme or are being used on private land?

[Sarah Jones]

I thank the hon. Member for her thoughtful question. We hear what she says about e-bikes. We are having conversations with the College of Policing and others about how we can ensure that the police can respond in the way that they want to. In a big operation last month, the Met arrested 187 people and seized 157 vehicles in a crackdown on e-bikes, and Met police are using Sur-Ron bikes in that operation, so we are very much having conversations with colleagues to see what more we can do.

[Ms Julie Minns (Carlisle) (Lab)]

Cumbria police do really good work tackling the use of illegal e-bikes, but with ever-growing numbers of them hitting our streets every single week, Cumbria’s police, fire and crime commissioner and I believe that the single biggest help that we could give the police would be to ban the sale of illegal e-bikes, as my ten-minute rule Bill proposes. What discussions has the Minister had with colleagues in the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade about regulation to achieve that?

[Sarah Jones]

I thank my hon. Friend for her work on this issue. We are talking to the Department for Transport about exactly what we need to do to tackle the scourge of e-bikes and e-scooters. Every MP in this place will be facing the same challenge, and I hope that everybody would agree that we cannot allow this kind of behaviour to continue. We are looking at what else can be done. We have changed the powers in the Bill to move us in the right direction. I am talking to the police about what more support they need, and we will continue to have those conversations across Government.

[John Grady (Glasgow East) (Lab)]

6. What progress her Department has made on reducing levels of knife crime.

--- Later in debate ---

[Alex McIntyre (Gloucester) (Lab)]

15. What steps she is taking to tackle antisocial behaviour.

[The Minister for Policing and Crime (Sarah Jones)]

This Government are determined to tackle antisocial behaviour across England and Wales. From today, we are calling time on persistent offenders of ASB with the introduction of respect orders, honouring our manifesto commitment and cracking down on ASB.

[Graeme Downie]

Around 1,000 constituents in Dunfermline recently told me in a city centre survey that they were concerned about coming into the city centre, to places such as the bus station and the Kingsgate shopping centre, because of antisocial behaviour. Will the Minister agree to work with the Scottish Government on the respect orders to ensure that lessons can be learned on both sides of the border, so that people can feel safe in Dunfermline and across England, Scotland and Wales?

[Sarah Jones]

I am very happy to work with anybody who is committed to tackling antisocial behaviour. The Government have introduced not just respect orders, but extended dispersal directions. We have raised the maximum fixed penalties for public spaces protection orders from £100 to £500. We are passing legislation, putting neighbourhood police into our neighbourhoods and tackling antisocial behaviour.

[Gill German]

My recent Pride in Place survey in Rhyl found that antisocial behaviour such as street drinking and fly-tipping is putting many people off visiting their own town centre. With respect orders coming into force today, what guidance is being given to police to make good use of them against repeat offenders so that people want to visit their own town centre again?

[Sarah Jones]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and I suspect that a lot of similar conversations are happening on Pride in Place boards across England and Wales. In north Wales we have seen an increase of some 60 officers in neighbourhoods since 2015, which will make a very big difference. I have talked to every police force across the country, written to all the chief constables and met all the different agencies that are part of respect orders, and everyone is lined up to do this work. Guidance has been published, and I look forward to seeing the first court cases—hopefully this week.

[Alex McIntyre]

Far too many residents in Gloucester tell me about persistent antisocial behaviour in the city centre, and they are fed up with it. We are seeing a situation where people get off the bus and are immediately confronted by street drinkers, and the local corner shop is selling alcohol to them when they can barely stand up. The police are doing what they can but, given the challenges facing Gloucestershire constabulary, can the Minister outline what more can be done to tackle the antisocial behaviour blighting our city centre?

[Sarah Jones]

I went last week to Newcastle-under-Lyme, Southall and Hemel Hempstead, and I have been talking to all the police forces across the country. I expect my hon. Friend’s police force to take these powers in the manner in which they are intended—as a useful tool to help the police, local authorities, housing associations and other agents to tackle antisocial behaviour and introduce respect orders. We are increasing funding across the country. Importantly, we are also reforming policing to put local policing at the heart of everything we do, so that the public get the service they expect.

[Mark Pritchard (The Wrekin) (Con)]

Illegal car cruising is a real blight on communities, causing noise pollution and terrifying local communities, including pedestrians and legal road users alike, on private and public roads. Will the Minister look again at the legislation to see whether this particular crime—it is a crime—can be penalised in a different way? At the moment, the generic legislation for antisocial behaviour is not catching enough people and is not a deterrent.

[Sarah Jones]

I am happy to look into whether respect orders might cover the crimes that the right hon. Member talks about and help in this space. Of course we need to ensure that we have more police in our communities, and we will always look at the legislation to see whether there is more that we can do to come down hard on these kinds of behaviours, which make our constituents and our communities really not feel safe in their own environment. We will continue to work on that.

[Alison Bennett (Mid Sussex) (LD)]

I would like to add to what the right hon. Member just said about car cruising. Along the A2300 approaching Burgess Hill, car cruising is causing misery to residents, with noise waking people up through the night. It is really intimidating more rural residents as they try to come from rural lanes on to the A2300. I am told by one local farmer that people are coming from as far afield as the Netherlands to get involved. A public space protection order is in place and Sussex police are doing what they can. Please, what else can the Government do to deter and break up illegal car cruising?

[Sarah Jones]

I recognise what the hon. Member describes. I have talked to the police about what more we can do in this space. I encourage everybody to report crimes as soon as they see them, because the police can put automatic number plate recognition cameras in place to retrospectively give people fines if they are breaking the law by car cruising. I know the police are looking for the resources to ensure that they can tackle these things. More neighbourhood policing, looking at shift times, and all these things can help.

[Josh Babarinde (Eastbourne) (LD)]

Too often, antisocial behaviour on our streets comes with a racist edge, and tackling it starts with naming it, something that shamefully the wannabe Chancellor, the right hon. Member for Newark (Robert Jenrick)—I have informed him that I would be referring to him—could not do this weekend when asked whether calling the Leader of the Opposition a “Nigerian scammer” is racist. Will the Minister say what he could not, and outline what the Government are doing to tackle racist antisocial behaviour?

[Sarah Jones]

Of course that comment is racist. We know that race and religious hate crime is rising and we are very concerned about that. We have taken some legislative action when it comes to protests, around things like cumulative impact and places of worship. We have our social cohesion plan, “Protecting What Matters”, and we have invested record amounts of money—sadly, we have had to do so—to protect religious spaces for the Jewish community, the Muslim community, and those of other faiths including Sikhs. We have put in £250 million to protect our Jewish communities. There is more to do, but we are certainly in agreement that that was racist, and we need to tackle all forms of hate crime.

[Dr Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton) (Lab)]

This month has tragically seen a fatal shooting in East Acton. I know that, as they used to say on “Crimewatch”, these things are incredibly rare, but at a community meeting I went to, which also involved the council and the police, it still felt very raw. There is consternation that the gangs, violence and exploitation unit, which has been instrumental in solving previous murders, is being wound up. I wonder whether the Home Secretary, or one of my other hon. Friends in the Department, could meet me and the borough west commander to find a way forward.

[Sarah Jones]

My hon. Friend is right that statistics are not the answer to everything, but gun crime has gone down in the last year in the new stats that have come out, so we are making progress. She is right, of course, to be concerned about the awful incident in her constituency. I am always happy to meet her and others to talk about such matters. We are putting funding into tackling county lines, into knife crime concentration funds and into our violence reduction units. All that funding is helping us to make progress when it comes to both knife crime and gun crime.

[Mike Martin (Tunbridge Wells) (LD)]

Businesses, constituents and pets in Tunbridge Wells suffer from destructive and often cruel catapult attacks. It is a problem that many of us across this House have seen in our inboxes. Kent police and Tunbridge Wells borough council are working together to manage the problem, including looking at public space protection orders. Can I ask the Secretary of State whether she has considered restrictions or a ban at a national level in order to strengthen the hand of local police forces and local authorities such as mine in Tunbridge Wells?

[Sarah Jones]

The hon. Member cannot ask the Secretary of State, but he can ask the Minister for Policing. He raises a legitimate problem. We recently had a roundtable on catapults and the harm that they are doing, and we are looking at what more we need to do. Respect orders will work in this space as well, and it is worth him talking to the police on that front, because we want to ensure that we are doing everything we can. We have seen some particularly nasty catapult attacks in particular areas of the country, which we want to see an end to. Respect orders might be an answer.

[Mary Creagh (Coventry East) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend the Policing Minister for her visit to Coventry last month to see the brilliant work done by the Labour council’s trading standards officers, in partnership with Coventry police, to tackle crime and antisocial behaviour on Foleshill Road, and the public spaces protection order for Edgwick Park, which has cleared that park, which is next to a school, of the drug dealers who used to blight it. Will she say what more respect orders can do to tackle this level of low but persistent antisocial behaviour that blights our streets?

[Sarah Jones]

It was a pleasure to visit my hon. Friend’s constituency and see the good work being done and the partnerships being forged. She asks what more respect orders can do. They are there to help tackle vandalism, public drunkenness, aggressive begging, irresponsible dog owners—I think all of us agree that is very irritating—and noisy or abusive behaviour. The Environment Agency can also use them for fly-tipping and persistent fly-tippers, so there is a whole raft of measures for which we can use respect orders. I look forward to seeing the results.

[John Milne (Horsham) (LD)]

Following recent changes, police are now able to seize vehicles that are used antisocially without first issuing a warning. This is potentially a way for police in my constituency to deal with illegal street racing meets on the A24 and the A264 from Kilnwood Vale down to Southwater. Can the Minister confirm whether this new power is proving to be effective, and how many vehicles have been seized thus far?

[Sarah Jones]

It is very early days, so I am unable to give the hon. Member the numbers at this point, but they will be collected by constituency. I encourage him to keep in touch with his local police to see what the numbers are. He is absolutely right that the power to seize a vehicle without giving warning is a powerful tool.

[Tom Hayes (Bournemouth East) (Lab)]

9. What progress she has made on reforming the police funding formula.

[The Minister for Policing and Crime (Sarah Jones)]

My hon. Friend is a persistent campaigner on this issue and I salute him for his work. We are committed to a review of the funding formula. We have started internal work on it and I will be updating the House as soon as we have considered the recommendations from the independent review of police force areas.

[Tom Hayes]

I thank the Minister for that response. I want more funding for policing, as well as the fairer allocation of it, to tackle the issues blighting Bournemouth, whether illegal e-bike use or ketamine use. I thank the Minister for agreeing, in writing today, to meet constituents whose lives have been deeply affected by that drug. I understand why police reform and funding formula reform go hand in glove, but can I urge the Minister, as we move forward with those reforms, to do everything she can to minimise the number of consultations needed to achieve fairer funding for Dorset? The longer we have to wait, the longer Dorset is at a disadvantage.

[Sarah Jones]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question. It was a delight, as a Minister, to get a letter from the Cabinet Office saying, “You don’t have to do as many consultations as you used to.” Hopefully, we can get things moving a bit quicker than the previous Government managed. I think they promised police reform for over 10 years and never delivered, so I hear what he is saying and we will keep working as fast as we can.

[Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)]

The Metropolitan Police Commissioner is clear that, despite recent welcome funding increases from the Government to the capital city grant, to be able to police protests and events in London he has two pretty invidious choices on his hands: he either has to take police officers out of constituencies like mine—and the Policing Minister’s—to police those protests and events, or he has to cut back on just-in-case police officers, so there is a huge risk if an event flairs up. Which does the Policing Minister think is the better option?

[Sarah Jones]

I meet the commissioner regularly and we talk about these issues all the time. I should point out to the House that this Government are funding the police to record levels. Hundreds of millions of pounds extra are going to the Metropolitan police, with £2 billion extra going into policing since we came to power. The National Police Chiefs’ Council has just agreed rules on abstraction rates, which I know is a big challenge. I have had a lot of conversations with the commissioner about managing the risk of protests and maintaining officers in our communities. I think he has got the right balance at the moment, but we will, of course, continue to monitor that.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Matt Vickers (Stockton West) (Con)]

It has been an incredibly hard few months for Cleveland. Local people are not interested in point scoring, but they do want answers. Cleveland has the highest recorded crime rate in the country, yet the latest Home Office data reveals that it has 17 fewer police officers than it had a year ago. Can the Minister explain why?

[Sarah Jones]

The hon. Member knows of, and shares, our horror at what happened to the two Cleveland police officers recently—it was an honour to attend their funerals, which I know he did as well—and I will therefore not respond with a political point.

We have been talking regularly to both the chief constable and the police and crime commissioner in Cleveland. Following that incident, we agreed to give an extra £2 million to contribute to tackling serious and organised crime, and today we agreed to provide a further £3.2 million to meet the additional costs that have been incurred. We are also considering Cleveland’s application for exceptional funding. I hope that the hon. Gentleman will welcome that additional funding for Cleveland and will work with us to ensure that it has the resources it needs.

[Damien Egan (Bristol North East) (Lab)]

12. What steps her Department is taking to support the provision of local policing.

[The Minister for Policing and Crime (Sarah Jones)]

Our police reform plans will embed highly localised policing. We have already delivered 3,800 extra neighbourhood police to our communities, and in Avon and Somerset we have delivered 71 since 2025.

[Damien Egan]

In recent years shoplifting has become an increasing issue for many of the high streets in my constituency, and our shop workers are having to deal with increasingly frightening and dangerous situations. In the light of that, we look forward to seeing meaningful progress towards the Government’s ambitious targets for the expansion of neighbourhood policing. What practical steps are the Government taking to boost local police numbers and neighbourhood policing in the Bristol area?

[Sarah Jones]

As I have said, neighbourhood police numbers in Avon and Somerset have risen by 71 since 2025. We are also introducing a raft of measures to deal with shop theft, such as the removal of the £200 threshold, and investment in new technology to help the police and retailers to work together so that crime can be reported and people can then be charged. There has been huge progress in many parts of the country where retailers and police are working together. During the two years in the run-up to the general election, shop theft went up by 60%, but it is now on the turn, falling by 2% this year. We are making progress with those extra police, but there is still a great deal more to do.

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

West Mercia police have changed the hours of police community support officers, introducing an 8 pm finish in order to save money. Unsurprisingly, that has led to an increase in antisocial behaviour in my constituency after 8 pm. The police are very thin on the ground: Ellesmere’s safer neighbourhood team consists of one police officer—who I do not think works 24/7—and just two PCSOs. Our officers and PCSOs do a fantastic job, but they are far too thinly spread. Will the Minister meet me so that she can understand the challenges facing rural policing and the resources that are required in places such as Shropshire?

[Sarah Jones]

We are delivering more neighbourhood police to our communities, and we are encouraging the police to use data as much as they can to determine where they go, which means that, as often as possible, they go to the areas where crime is occurring. The purpose of our police reforms is to answer some of the challenges that the hon. Lady has raised. At present we have 43 forces who are having to look up towards serious and organised crime, international and national fraud and online crime, and having to look down towards their local communities, and they are doing neither very well at the moment.

[Samantha Dixon (Chester North and Neston) (Lab)]

13. What steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to tackle violence against women and girls.

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[Rishi Sunak (Richmond and Northallerton) (Con)]

T5. I recently met hard-working gamekeepers and farmers in the Yorkshire dales concerned about the recent uptick in antisocial behaviour and criminality. I am grateful to the North Yorkshire chief constable for his support and responsiveness in addressing these concerns. However, does the Minister agree with me about the importance of tackling crime in remote rural areas and of effective cross-border policing to tackle criminals who are crossing police boundaries?

[The Minister for Policing and Crime (Sarah Jones)]

I join the right hon. Member in recognising the important work that our police do in rural communities. It is exactly because we want to tackle these problems that we are introducing police reform to embed highly localised policing in our rural areas as well as our urban areas.

[James Naish (Rushcliffe) (Lab)]

T4. I have met doctors at the Queen’s medical centre in Nottingham about the rise in acquired brain injuries among young people due to e-bike accidents. There have been 10 cases since April this year. Nottinghamshire police has already seized 208 such bikes this year, so officers are trying to act, but what more can the Department do to give the police the resources they need to tackle this genuine concern?

[Sarah Jones]

I thank my hon. Friend for bringing these awful cases to my attention. We have changed the law to make it easier to seize those bikes, and we are looking at what more we can do. We are working with the Department for Transport to see what changes it needs to make, and we will continue to do that.

[Olly Glover (Didcot and Wantage) (LD)]

T8. A business with which a constituent liaises missed out on work as a result of senior officials in the Ghanaian Government being denied business visas, which is believed to be due to their salaries being too low. That work then went to another country. Will the Minister meet me and my constituent to discuss the requirements for business visas and how a more sensible policy could help UK businesses be more competitive?

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[Sarah Pochin (Runcorn and Helsby) (Reform)]

T10. Many of my communities in Runcorn and Helsby are plagued by antisocial and threatening gangs of youths on illegal e-motorbikes. Will the Minister please give the police the powers and the training to stop them? Most importantly, will the Government back officers when they do stop them, as incidents can happen and injury might occur?

[Sarah Jones]

We support the police with the powers that they need. I am looking at training to make sure that enough people are being trained in what we need.

[Lizzi Collinge (Morecambe and Lunesdale) (Lab)]

T7. Between 2023 and 2025, we saw an 82% drop in net migration. This week, the Chancellor will lay out his Budget and there will be lots of chatter about headroom, tax take and fiscal rules. Given that Government estimates show that the entire 2022-23 skilled worker visa cohort will make a net positive lifetime contribution of approximately £47 billion, what assessment has the Home Secretary made of the economic impact on tax take and other measures of the reduction in net migration and the proposed changes to legal migration policy?

--- Later in debate ---

[Jeff Smith (Manchester Withington) (Lab)]

T9. Have Ministers noted the recent report from the University of Sheffield, which showed that drug diversion schemes for people caught in possession of controlled drugs are more successful at cutting reoffending than prosecutions? Will the Minister encourage police forces to use those schemes?

[Sarah Jones]

I have noted that piece of work. We support drug diversion schemes, which are part of the respect orders that we have announced today, part of our rough sleeping programme and part of lots of the work we do to help people get off drugs, but they are not a substitute for the right punishment where necessary.

[Wendy Chamberlain (North East Fife) (LD)]

When the Minister announced new refugee pathways in September, we were told that Afghan women and girls would be prioritised. I have since received correspondence that says there will be no prioritisation. Can we get clarity on what is correct?

[David Williams (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Lab)]

In Stoke-on-Trent, whether it is Kidsgrove or Tunstall, residents tell me that they are fed up with being terrorised by off-road bikes that tear through our parks and our streets. Will the Minister please reassure me that Staffordshire police will have the neighbourhood officers, the funding and the powers available to them to deal with those who are making life a misery for others?

[Sarah Jones]

We will make sure that there are more neighbourhood police in our communities and in his communities. We will make sure that the legal powers are there for the police to take the action that they need, and we are working to see what else needs to be done about the scourge of e-bikes, of which everyone in all our constituencies feels that we have had enough.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Chair of the Select Committee.

[Dame Karen Bradley (Staffordshire Moorlands) (Con)]

In our inquiry looking at the impact that serious and organised crime has on local neighbourhoods, we have heard evidence from Trading Standards that organised criminals are now using online second-hand marketplaces to sell stolen goods and launder money. What conversations are the Government having with those online vendors to try to stop such sites being used by organised criminals to make money?

[Sarah Jones]

The right hon. Lady asks a very good question, and we are grappling with this issue. I have asked PoliceAI to do a piece of work on how we can look for and act on stolen goods across all the different second-hand sites. It is very much a live issue in the Home Office.

[Anna Dixon (Shipley) (Lab)]

I recently ran a local campaign calling for a ban on illegal e-motorbikes. It is clear they are being used by criminals, and yet police are often powerless to pursue them. Will the Minister look again at guidance for police forces and ensure they have the resources they need, including drones and off-road bikes, to take enforcement action against those dangerous bikes?

[Sarah Jones]

My hon. Friend raises a good point that has not been mentioned yet, which is the power of drones in this space. Using more technology to ensure that we can go after the people who are using those illegal bikes is a good idea.

[Sir James Cleverly (Braintree) (Con)]

The asylum accommodation centre at Wethersfield has blighted the local community and made it impossible for people to sell their homes. The number of pupils in the primary school is declining, putting the school’s future in question. When I was Home Secretary there was a cap on numbers and a commitment to a closure date in spring next year. The Government have reneged on both of those. When will the asylum centre in Wethersfield close, and when will my constituents be able to get back on with their lives properly?

[Andy McDonald (Middlesbrough and Thornaby East) (Lab)]

I am grateful to the Policing Minister for her confirmation that £5.2 million will be sent to Cleveland police to help to deal with the mutual aid bill—that is most welcome—but she will recognise that the police funding formula is simply not fit for purpose, especially when Cleveland has the highest level of crime and the poorest level of resources devoted to it. Although I welcome her indication about exceptional funding, does she agree that the situation will not be resolved until there is a complete reconfiguration of policing in this country? The people of Cleveland cannot wait for police restructuring.

[Sarah Jones]

I thank my hon. Friend for the numerous conversations we continue to have about this issue, which are important. We have confirmed the extra funding, and we are looking at the funding for next year as part of an exceptional request made by Cleveland. We have sent the request to the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, which will go through the figures to ensure that we have a robust response for the next year. We will then prioritise the funding formula, which my hon. Friend is right to say is no longer fit for purpose.

[David Davis (Goole and Pocklington) (Con)]

Following their convictions for LIBOR manipulation, Jay Merchant and Christian Bittar were deported from the UK and barred from returning. Earlier this month, their convictions were comprehensively quashed by the Court of Appeal. With their convictions thrown out, the reason for their deportation is completely invalid, but the deportation order will remain in place until removed by the Home Office. Will the Home Secretary look into those cases, accelerate the decision-making process on their applications and have their deportations revoked, so that they do not receive any more unearned punishment?

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[Jonathan Hinder (Pendle and Clitheroe) (Lab)]

I am grateful to the Policing Minister for her answer to my written question on the Police Federation’s accounts, which have not been published since 2023. In that answer, she made reference to the police reform White Paper, saying that the “Government stands ready” to act. As she knows, seven senior officials from the Police Federation have been arrested since then, so I do not think it is going in the right direction—it is going in the wrong direction. It is time to act, is it not?

[Sarah Jones]

I thank my hon. Friend for the many conversations we have had about this issue; he certainly has a strong view, and we completely agree that there is a problem. Police officers deserve to have high-quality representation, and I hope to update him soon.

[Patrick Spencer (Central Suffolk and North Ipswich) (Con)]

Last year there was unanimous objection in Parliament and across the country to plans for aligning section 1 and section 2 forms for gun licences, mostly because it would make shotgun ownership more onerous for farmers. The Home Office has still not ruled out making those changes. Will the Home Secretary guarantee to this House now that she will not make life any harder for farmers by changing the way that we license gun ownership?

[Sarah Jones]

We have committed to introducing consultation, which we will do. Most deaths from legal guns are from shotguns, so we are always in the market to consider what more we can do. As the hon. Gentleman knows, we have had lots of conversations and lots of debate about the value that gun use can bring to our sporting industry, our farmers and others, so we will get the balance right.

[Sonia Kumar (Dudley) (Lab)]

The police funding formula disadvantages towns such as Dudley. We know that visible policing in town centres is essential when rebuilding public trust. Does my right hon. Friend agree that the formula needs updating to deliver fairer funding to Dudley, and that residents in St James’s should vote on 29 October for our Labour candidate Caroline Reid, who champions safer streets?

[Sarah Jones]

I agree with my hon. Friend; those residents should, of course, vote for Caroline Reid. We are putting more police into our neighbourhoods, and my hon. Friend’s area has received increased funding for the police. We understand the priorities of the British people, which include tackling the epidemic of everyday crime in our communities.

[Stuart Andrew (Daventry) (Con)]

The villages of Crick and Flore in my constituency are two small rural communities with few amenities, but both have hotels housing asylum seekers. The previous Minister responsible for asylum, in fairness, recognised that they are not suitable and said that they would be temporary, but all the communication I get now says, “It will be done by 2029”. Can I invite the Minister to visit these villages and see for herself how unsuitable they are for those hotels?

[Chris Ward (Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven) (Lab)]

October marks the first anniversary since the appalling arson attack on a mosque in Peacehaven in my constituency. I will forever be grateful to the Home Secretary and the Policing Minister for coming to Peacehaven in the immediate aftermath and standing with me and the local community. I am also grateful to the Home Office for the extra security measures it has given to my community. A year on, what more does the Home Secretary think we can do to stop this kind of appalling hate crime and rebuild community cohesion so that something like that never happens again?

[Sarah Jones]

I thank my hon. Friend for the work he has done to support his community in Peacehaven. We need to make sure that the right policing is in place. Our £40 million fund for mosques is there to protect those buildings, but we also need to bring back cohesion to our communities, and our social cohesion plan “Protecting What Matters” is designed to do that.

[Mr Will Forster (Woking) (LD)]

The PEEL—police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy—review into Surrey police recently found that my local force requires improvement on a range of matters, including how it investigates crime, how it responds to serious crime and the leadership itself. What steps is the Home Secretary taking to ensure that Surrey police improves and that we tackle crime in Woking?

[Sarah Jones]

We are increasing funding to police and introducing more neighbourhood policing. We are also reforming a lot of the structures within policing to ensure that we have good quality leadership. Lord Blunkett and Lord Herbert did a big piece of work for us looking at how we ensure that we have good leadership across all our forces. We will be looking at their recommendations and bringing them forward.

[Deirdre Costigan (Ealing Southall) (Lab)]

Ealing Southall is unique, as two thirds of our rough sleepers have overstayed their visas. Many would go home voluntarily but are often stopped at the airport because the police national computer says that there is a pending case against them, when in fact it has been closed. Will the Minister look at how the police national computer can be updated more regularly so that these people can leave a life on the streets in Southall and go home with dignity?

[Sarah Jones]

I was pleased to visit my hon. Friend’s constituency last week, where I saw for myself the struggles that those rough sleepers are having. We are trying to go through the piece of work to update the creaking infrastructure that was left to us by the last Government. I have certainly taken that issue away.

[Rachael Maskell (York Central) (Lab/Co-op)]

I am concerned that recorded crime figures in York Central reached an 11-year high this summer. About a third of those were antisocial behaviour offences, and retail crime reached its highest level, with around 15,000 offences in August alone. What steps is the Minister taking to ensure that places like York are properly funded and have all the resources that they need to tackle crime so that we can get on top of this rising level of offending?

[Sarah Jones]

We are increasing funding and putting more neighbourhood police into our communities. I have seen some really good examples of town centres where retail crime has plummeted because the police and retail are working together to target persistent offenders. We are also looking at introducing a new pilot on persistent offending. I would be happy to talk to her more about that.

[Baggy Shanker (Derby South) (Lab/Co-op)]

Earlier this month I met reps from East Midlands airport who were telling me about the abuse that their staff face. Some 42% of cabin crew nationwide have experienced physical assault. Does the Minister agree that, as in retail, no airport worker should face abuse just for doing their job?

[Sarah Jones]

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. We have introduced an offence of assaulting a retail worker, which was deliberately and intentionally narrow. There are other crimes that these people can be charged for, but he is absolutely right to call it out, and we all should.

[Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Ind)]

I warmly welcome the £722,000 investment that the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly integrated care board will receive as part of the new steps to safety programme, which will train GPs’ staff to spot the signs of domestic abuse and provide referrals to specialist support. Does the Minister agree that trusted local services such as GPs’ services have a vital role to play to identify victims earlier?

Community Policing: Government Support

Sarah Jones Excerpts

Wednesday 21st October 2026 Westminster Hall

[The Minister for Policing and Crime (Sarah Jones)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Lewell. I congratulate the hon. Member for Chichester (Jess Brown-Fuller) on securing what is a very important debate on a very important topic.

As my hon. Friend the Member for Clwyd North (Gill German) said, community policing is about whether people feel safe. It is our first duty as parliamentarians to make sure that our constituents feel, and are, safe. Community policing is the frontline of that work, so I appreciate the opportunity to debate this topic.

I, too, express my sorrow at the homophobic, racist and xenophobic abuse described by the hon. Member for Chichester. Obviously, we are all very sorry for that and hope that justice will be done in those cases. I also join many Members who have thanked the police and police staff, who are often forgotten. We should talk about them more often. I want to add my thanks to all the police officers and staff who I have met and worked with.

We had some really good contributions. My hon. Friend the Member for Harrow West (Gareth Thomas) asked whether the local council should pay for policing. The council in Harrow should do exactly what my hon. Friend tells them to do. That would be a very good starting point, and I definitely always recommend that.

The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) spoke about Northern Ireland, and as he knows I met the Chief Constable a couple of weeks ago. I was pleased to talk to him and he is obviously doing a very good job in very difficult circumstances.

To my hon. Friend the Member for Broxtowe (Juliet Campbell), I say that I spoke to the deputy chief constable following the incident in Nottingham and the awful shooting of a police officer. I will keep in touch with them about what has happened and how that officer, as well how his team, are doing. They were all very affected by what has happened and I know that has been deeply worrying for people.

My hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth North (Amanda Martin) talked about doxxing of police, which we talked about earlier in the week and which is very worrying. We are very keen to hear from the Fed, or others, about what more we can do as the Government to help in that space.

My hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland (Luke Myer) was right to talk about the things that he did. The Fed rep that he spoke to has done some really good work to make that case. He is right that, on lots of measures, the force is judged as being really good. I know the frustration and we have talked about it before. We are working on the funding imbalance that follows from that.

My hon. Friend the Member for Reading West and Mid Berkshire (Olivia Bailey) talked about e-bikes. They are a scourge. As she says, we have passed a law that means that the police have more powers to seize, which is good, but I am having conversations with hon. Members about what more we can do in that space. It is becoming very problematic. I was talking to my hon. Friend the Member for Loughborough (Dr Sandher) today, who has been campaigning on that issue quite a lot, and we were talking about some of the struggles and some of the potential solutions.

[Amanda Martin]

There was a Westminster Hall debate this morning on e-scooters and e-bikes, and there were over 20 contributions from constituency MPs. The Minister is right to say that it is everywhere across the country.

[Sarah Jones]

Yes, it is a problem everywhere.

This week I have been to Hemel Hempstead, Southall and Newcastle-under-Lyme in a bit of an antisocial behaviour tour in advance of our respect orders coming into force on Monday. Everybody in those three areas, and everybody I speak to, is concerned. There are things that the Department for Transport needs to do and there are things that the Home Office needs to do. I am in the space of looking at what we can do from a policing point of view. I was interested to hear from my hon. Friend the Member for Loughborough that their public spaces protection order has rules about the wearing of balaclavas as well. That is another debate that crosses into the e-bike one, as well as into other areas. That is an interesting innovation that they have introduced.

[Jess Brown-Fuller]

In my community in Selsey, which I spoke of earlier, Amazon was recommending cut-price balaclavas recently, which I think speaks to the problem. The Minister mentioned the seizing of e-bikes. It is brilliant that the police now have the power to seize; what they do not have is the power to catch the people on the e-bikes, especially the souped-up ones. A spray is being trialled that the police could use from a far distance, and it creates almost a fingerprint on an e-bike that is being used for antisocial behaviour. It is not being used in Sussex, but I know it is being used in police forces around Sussex. Would the Minister look at whether that is working well for those police forces and then encourage its roll-out in other areas?

[Sarah Jones]

We talked about this briefly in a meeting I was in earlier. We discussed what more we can do and the new technologies that can help us to follow some of these bikes and some of the individuals who are stealing them or using them in an illegal way. I am very interested in that. As the hon. Member said, there are already things being done in some parts of the country.

One big reason for our reform programme is that we have this frustration: if something is being done in some parts of the country, why is it not being done in others? We need more consistency, so that we have good practice everywhere. I want to point out the reforms we have introduced already as a Government. Some £2 billion extra has gone into policing, including to cover the cost of the national insurance rise, which was raised.

[Ayoub Khan]

Our police and crime commissioner, Simon Foster, does tremendous community engagement work. However, he cannot do much reassurance because we have a £41 million funding gap and 1,000 fewer officers than in 2010. Can the Minister tell us what extra police will be given to West Midlands, and can the Government bridge that gap?

[Sarah Jones]

I reassure the hon. Member that, over the last two years, West Midlands police has had millions more in funding than it had the year before. This Government have given West Midlands police more money year on year since we came to power.

As every Member will know, I hope, we are prioritising a number of areas. The first is serious crime and knife crime. We have seen massive improvements in the area of knife crime, particularly knife murders, since we came to power. We are prioritising neighbourhood policing, and we have 4,000-odd extra neighbourhood police in our communities, which is beginning to make a difference. We have passed the Crime and Policing Act 2026, which among other things will introduce respect orders on Monday. That is a new power for police to use to go after persistent offenders in antisocial behaviour.

We are calling time on those people. In some circumstances, we know who they are, and we all know from our constituents the trouble that we have with them. When I was in Hemel Hempstead today, the police force had a list of 30 people who they are going to put in to the courts to get a respect order on, and they are hoping to go to court on Monday—on the first day that these orders are introduced. It is a powerful tool for the police to use, which I want to see used widely.

[Deirdre Costigan]

I thank the Minister for coming to Ealing Southall yesterday as part of the roll-out of respect orders. Does she agree that they will mean the police will be able to actually arrest people, rather than just move them on from one end of the town to the other?

[Sarah Jones]

I do. I very much enjoyed visiting my hon. Friend’s constituency.

I am aware of the short time I have left. I wanted to touch on all kinds of things—seasonality and rurality are two things that we are looking at in the review of the funding formula. In the reform of policing, we will set up a national police service for things such as organised and online crime, so that we will have a place where these things are done and the local police can focus on what they need to do.

New tech will mean less bureaucracy and more time out on our streets. We are working at pace to make sure we deliver the reforms that people want and expect, but I will come back to the starting point, which is that there is nothing more important than good community policing. It makes people feel safe, it makes people safe and it prevents crime, and this Government are committed to increasing, not diminishing, that resource.

Police Funding: North-east England

Sarah Jones Excerpts

Tuesday 13th October 2026 Westminster Hall

[The Minister for Policing and Crime (Sarah Jones)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Wishart. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for North Durham (Luke Akehurst) on securing this debate. I will start as he did by paying tribute to our police officers and police staff, who work tirelessly in what can be incredibly difficult circumstances, and who sometimes have to pay the ultimate price. I think all hon. Members have paid tribute to PC Blades, PC Clough and PC Turnbull, all of whom died this year. Their deaths have all been an incredible loss to their families, but also to the policing community and their wider communities.

My hon. Friend the Member for Blyth and Ashington (Ian Lavery) talked about Jess and how young she was. I have met her father a couple of times now. He was a police officer and had just retired when Jess became one. That whole community has been devastated. At all three of those funerals I saw an entire community coming out to support policing, which was incredibly powerful to see. I know that there has been a struggle in terms of people’s confidence in policing. There are challenges that we are dealing with, but in those communities I saw a community supporting their police officers and giving them the respect they deserve.

I probably have the best job in Government. Working with policing is an unbelievable privilege and a joy, but standing here and listening to hon. Members talk about the struggles they are facing in their communities is very humbling and difficult. I hear the message they are telling me loud and clear. Since the A66 crash and the awful incidents that followed, I have met the police and crime commissioner or the chief constable five or six times, and hon. Members as well. I have heard loud and clear, not least from my colleague in the Home Office, the Minister for Border Security and Asylum, my right hon. Friend the Member for Redcar (Anna Turley), about the challenges that are being faced in people’s communities. I want hon. Members to know that I hear those challenges; that is important to say.

I will touch on a couple of topics. The first one is the funding formula, which everybody has leant into in this debate. The funding formula used to be based on many of the measures that Members have mentioned: deprivation rates, crime rates, rurality and ethnicity. A whole raft of indicators went into the police funding formula and previous calculations. When the Conservatives began austerity, they took the decision to cut all forces by the same proportion. That was the point at which the relationship between funding and all the different factors that go into the funding formula was cut. It was still there, in that the proportions were increased—or decreased, in that case—equally, but over time, what was originally the funding formula has lost its meaning, and it has lost its connection to the factors that need to go into determining funding. We are reviewing that. I am spending a lot of time thinking about that process. It is complicated, and we have to get it right. There are lots of different parts to it.

I ask Members to imagine a graph of a certain crime type—let us say violence against women and girls—plotted against an indicator of crime. We map all parts of the country and see what the line tells us. For example, it is clear from the graphs that there is a link between violent crime and educational attainment, so educational attainment has to be an indicator that is part of how funding formulas are worked out.

A lot of work has to go into that. The police put a lot of work into solving crime, as well as their other work. Police spend more than 50% of their time dealing with things other than crime, such as missing people and people with mental health problems. They are working on things that are not what people might perceive as crime. We have to think about that work.

Hon. Members mentioned fairness in relation to council tax and the precept. We have seen our colleagues in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government go through that process, to the advantage of some and to the disadvantage of others. There are always winners and losers in a funding formula review. It is a complicated process.

[Andy McDonald]

The Minister says that it is a complicated process, but the graph that I am sure she has seen showing the changes in full-time equivalents between 2010 and 2025 is stark, and there is political bias built into that. We on the Labour Benches are saying that that urgently needs to be corrected. It is an inequitable, unfair formula that visits badly on the constituencies in the north-east of England, and it is that that needs attention. We cannot wait months for the formula to be recalibrated to come up with a better answer. The need is now.

There is one point on which I agree with the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Stockton West (Matt Vickers): if we carry on as we are, we will be losing more officers in Cleveland, so the need is urgent. It is not a matter for months; we have to do this in days. If the Minister needs any further information from Victoria Fuller, the chief constable of Cleveland police, I am sure it can be provided, but we need that progress immediately.

[Sarah Jones]

My hon. Friend and I have had several conversations on this matter in recent times. Of course, I have talked to Victoria, I am well aware of all the statistics and I understand what my hon. Friend is saying. What I am saying is that we are reviewing the funding formula, and it will be fair.

The funding for the year ahead will be allocated and it will not be under the new funding formula. At the moment, we are going through a process to which the chief constable, Matt Storey and all the police chiefs and PCCs from across England and Wales are party. They can come to us while we allocate funding for next year and tell us their exceptional financial situation or exceptional circumstances. Of course, we are having those conversations with colleagues across the north-east, as all Members present would expect.

Although the funding formula will come with the reforms, we are looking right now at what we will do about the exceptional funding requests that people are making across the country. That is the second thing I wanted to say: there is a process, and we are looking at the funding for the next funding year, as well as reforming the funding formula, which will come later.

[Luke Myer]

I welcome the commitment to changing the funding formula. That is genuinely a seismic change. The point that my hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East (Andy McDonald) is making is that we cannot wait. This Government have already been in for two years, and it will be another two years until PCCs are abolished. We are encountering these incidents every single day. Last year, Norfolk had 20,000 fewer crimes than Cleveland but received £50 million more in funding. That cannot be justified. It is unfair and it is un-Labour. I urge the Minister to look at what can be done in-year and to look at the proposal to accelerate reforms in the north-east in particular.

[Sarah Jones]

That is exactly the point about looking at the funding for the coming year. We are doing that. We are looking at the exceptional circumstances for police forces across the country right now, and what we need to do about that.

I want to touch briefly on police reform, which some people have mentioned. The point of police reform is to do two things. The first is to make sure our police are equipped to tackle the epidemic of everyday crime that we see in our communities, and the second is to make sure we are equipped to tackle the changing nature of crime. Most crimes have a digital footprint. Serious organised crime does not pay any attention to boundaries and is much more complex than it used to be. Members have mentioned online sexual abuse, for example. We need to be able to tackle complex crimes. That is the point of police reform. We do not have the time now for me to set out how we will achieve the changes that we will achieve, but we will legislate on the police reform programme in this Session. We will introduce changes to the structure of police forces, and the way in which the funding formula works will have to fit with those structural changes.

Importantly, we are also putting more police in our neighbourhoods. I want to make one final point, which is hard to make in a short space of time. We have had lots of conversations on police numbers, which I understand and appreciate and do not disagree with, but we cannot judge a police force on just numbers. It does not work. When the Tories were in, they cut police numbers by 20,000. They then rushed to recruit another 20,000, and arrest rates have actually gone down because we have 12,000 officers sat behind desks, not out in our communities fighting crime.

We have had no investment in technology over the Tory years, which means that everybody has to spend hours filling in forms and doing the bureaucracy—I am sure that hon. Members find the same whenever they go out with the police. If we can cut that, people will have more time to be more productive. If we can get police out from behind desks and into our communities, they can be more productive. I am not denying the point that hon. Members make about police numbers, but if we measure just police numbers, that does not actually reflect what the police do and how they do it.

[Matt Vickers]

Will the Minister give way?

[Sarah Jones]

I will not, because I have only a couple of moments left.

We are tilting our resources into neighbourhood policing. We have got just shy of 4,000 extra police into our communities.

I will end by paying tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for North Durham. He asked me a series of questions and I have a list of answers. He asked how we are tackling violence against women and girls in the north-east. Other hon. Members asked questions about antisocial behaviour, online harms and the early release scheme. I am happy to meet and talk to other Members because we do not have the time here.

I assure hon. Members that the Government and I hear their case on the north-east. We are with them in their desire to reform policing and to make sure we have the people we need to fight crime so that their communities can feel safe, which is the very least that a Labour Government ought to be able to deliver.

Temporary Event Notices

Sarah Jones Excerpts

Thursday 10th September 2026 Written Statements

[The Minister for Policing and Crime (Sarah Jones)]

Today I am laying before Parliament the Licensing Act 2003 (Permitted Temporary Activities) (Amendment) Order 2026. This instrument will increase the number of temporary event notices that may be given in respect of a single premises from 15 to 20 per calendar year, and the total number of days on which a premises may be used for licensable activities under temporary event notices from 21 to 26 days per calendar year.

This measure forms part of the Government’s wider approach to supporting vibrant high streets and communities. By enabling businesses, community groups and individuals to host more local events, it recognises the contribution that well-run events can make to community cohesion, local economies and the prevention of crime and disorder.

These higher limits applied temporarily in 2022 and 2023 to support the hospitality sector in dealing with the impact of the covid-19 pandemic and help communities come together during that difficult time. The benefits were clear for all to see, so we intend to reintroduce this additional flexibility on a permanent basis.

This is a targeted and proportionate change to the existing licensing framework. The important safeguards already in place to protect communities will remain, including the licensing objectives, local authority oversight, and the ability of responsible authorities to object to TENs where appropriate.

The instrument extends to and applies in England and Wales. Subject to parliamentary approval, the Government intend for the new limits to come into force on 1 January 2027. An economic note will be published alongside the instrument on legislation. gov.uk

[HCWS326]

Safety of the Jewish Community

Sarah Jones Excerpts

Tuesday 8th September 2026 Westminster Hall

[The Minister for Policing and Crime (Sarah Jones)]

It is a pleasure to close this debate, which I think has been very useful and moving. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Hornsey and Friern Barnet (Catherine West) on initiating it.

Before I respond to Members’ questions and to the debate itself, I have two reflections. One is to reiterate the commitment from this Government that we recognise we are on a journey to tackle antisemitism. Although I appreciate that many Members welcomed the funding that we have put in place and the changes that we are making, this will not be the end of the journey. We are on that journey to tackle antisemitism and we will do whatever is necessary for it. We have taken measures that many Members have talked about today, but that will not be the sum of everything we intend to do. We certainly do not intend to shy away from the huge challenge that we all face.

My second reflection, from listening to the MPs in this place who made such powerful speeches, is that as Members of Parliament we are all leaders of this country, and we should all ensure that we are well educated, trained and equipped to answer the call to tackle antisemitism. Whether that means going on the training days provided to Members of Parliament by the Antisemitism Policy Trust, or reading, or talking to and listening to our Jewish friends in our communities, it is incumbent on every single one of us to play a role in this debate and to be the leaders that people elect us to be. I was very struck by what my hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central (Gareth Snell) said about how people are retreating from the public space because of their fear.

[David Pinto-Duschinsky (Hendon) (Lab)]

As we heard, we face perhaps the worst antisemitism crisis certainly of my lifetime on the streets, in people’s daily lives and online. I am Jewish, and when I go to synagogue at the end of this week to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, I will walk past security guards. That should never have to happen, but it is utterly normal for the Jewish community.

We have seen a normalisation of hostility that has left many of my constituents wondering about their future in this country. Does the Minister agree that, exactly as my hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central (Gareth Snell) said so clearly, it is not just a matter of building higher walls? We must be able to build a situation where Jewish people can live proud and open Jewish lives, free from fear. Does the Minister also agree that this is an all-of-society problem that requires an all-of-society response?

[Sarah Jones]

I completely agree that the solution is not just to build higher walls. If our Jewish friends and colleagues are retreating from the public space for fear of their own safety, we have to loudly make sure that that public space is full enough with the call against antisemitism, so that we can rebuild a society where people feel comfortable speaking openly about their religion and their faith, proud of being Jews in Britain and being able to exercise their religious rights freely.

I will respond to the points made as fully as I can. Many Members talked about the Protecting What Matters commitments. We are keen for the work to expand and be done as quickly as possible, and a whole cohort of work under that banner is being done as we speak. The disruptions team, which horizon scans for extremist influence and events, is being expanded with additional resources. Efforts to stop hate preachers and extremists entering the UK are increasing as part of an expanded global visa taskforce, which is important.

Work is going on to ensure that we report back to Parliament on our work. An annual “State of extremism” report is being developed, and the first iteration of that will be published this year. Embedding the 2024 definition of extremism and the engagement principles across Government means clearer guidance and improved training. Updating and embedding the 2024 engagement principles helps public bodies not to confer legitimacy, funding—crucially—or influence on extremist groups. A whole body of work is therefore being undertaken, and the annual “State of extremism” report will be published.

Several Members talked about universities, which are incredibly important, and referred to a powerful report that I have also read. Members quoted some absolutely shocking statistics. I was privileged to be at a roundtable with members of various universities, the Office for Students, Lord Mann and several representatives from the Jewish community talking about antisemitism in our universities. I know that there is a big programme of work under way to look at training, to make sure that there is funding to support new guidance from the Office for Students, to invest in the University Jewish Chaplaincy services and to make sure we work across different Departments, which was also mentioned, to tackle this issue.

From a policing point of view, my engagement on this issue is largely on some of the smaller unplanned protests that happen in Jewish spaces and trying to work with local police in those situations as to being clear who is responsible and how those issues are going to be tackled.

[Catherine West]

On that point, may I commend the police in Barnet in the run-up to the local elections, which is always a tense time? I want to put on record how outstanding the communication, reassurance and work with our local leaders—both Conservative and Labour—on Barnet council was.

--- Later in debate ---

[Sarah Jones]

I thank my hon. Friend for that praise. I am sure that it will be well appreciated and I absolutely endorse what she has said.

Members asked about the IRGC and the extra work being done beyond its sanctioning. We have sanctioned the IRGC in its entirety, as well as 550 Iranian individuals. Iran has been placed on the enhanced tier of the foreign influence registration scheme, and we are going after the criminal networks, proxies, enablers and illicit finance networks used by the IRGC, including with sanctions against criminal proxies. A lot of work is being done.

Members also asked when the David Bell report will be published. That will be this autumn, and it is important work about tackling antisemitism in schools.

I should touch on the funding that we have put in place following the awful attacks that we have seen in recent times and an absolutely dismal story of antisemitism and violence to which we as a Government have had to respond. Last April we provided an additional £25 million, initially to fund increased officer patrols and disruption deployments. We spent time just before the summer recess having a series of meetings with Jewish community colleagues, Jewish leaders and others, including a summit in Downing Street, talking about what extra was required. Just before the summer, we announced over £250 million of additional funding for the police to tackle antisemitism over the next three years.

That includes training for police officers, which the Liberal Democrat spokesperson, the hon. Member for Guildford (Zöe Franklin), asked about. Antisemitism training will be rolled out across policing as part of that work. That work is being largely done in our big cities where our Jewish communities mostly live and £85.8 million will be allocated to the Metropolitan Police Service. It will deliver 300 dedicated personnel to support the work that the Metropolitan police have already been doing. Other areas—Hertfordshire, Essex, Northumbria, Sussex, Thames Valley, West Midlands and West Yorkshire—will also be funded.

I am aware that I have not even really begun my speech, but that I now need to end it. I will do so where I started: by thanking all Members for their contributions. This is a journey, and we are absolutely committed to ensuring that our Jewish communities feel safe where they live and proud of their religion. We will do whatever we need to do to make sure that that can be delivered.

Vehicle Theft

Sarah Jones Excerpts

Tuesday 8th September 2026 Westminster Hall

[The Minister for Policing and Crime (Sarah Jones)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Allin-Khan. I thank the hon. Member for Eastleigh (Liz Jarvis) for securing the debate.

I start by thanking the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead in this area, Assistant Chief Constable Sarah Grahame, and her colleague Oli Fisher, who lead the work nationally on our response to vehicle crime. Vehicle crime soared in the 1970s and 1980s, but there was then a big fall as new technology designed out vehicle theft and vehicle crime. As the hon. Member suggested, it then increased over about the last 10 years, although it has dropped over the last two. That is partly because of some of the disruption the police have been able to do. Ridiculously, issues such as the strait of Hormuz also make a difference, because vehicles are often shipped abroad when they are stolen. Just as global trade is interrupted, global criminals are interrupted when there are big global shifts such as those in Iran. There are multiple reasons, but numbers have gone down over the past two years.

At the moment, several bodies are looking at how to solve the problem. There are local police forces; the hon. Member pointed to numbers of police officers, and we are committed to putting 13,000 more police in our neighbourhoods. In her area, there are 88 more full-time neighbourhood officers than when we came to power, on the streets and policing our neighbourhoods in the way she would expect. Large criminal gangs are driving the changing nature of vehicle crime. Cars are stolen, using the technology in the way she explained, and then shipped abroad and sold on. Neighbourhood policing is an important part of the picture, but we need to address large criminal gangs nationally.

Some bodies are doing really good work in this area. The National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service, which is financed by the private sector, does some of the work opening containers at ports, and there is more we can do in that space if cars are stolen and taken abroad. The hon. Member referred to Opal, which is the NPCC intelligence unit, and the National Vehicle Crime Reduction Partnership has been in place for about two years. We in the Home Office give it £1 million, but is funded by the private sector.

The fundamental problem with serious organised crime that is not drugs, guns or very high-harm crime is that quite often a car will be stolen in one place and taken somewhere else. It might go to a port or pass through three or four different forces, but because of the nature of the 43 police forces, the system is not joined up. Our reform programme will help with those kinds of serious, specialist crime. When we have a national police service responsible for serious organised crime, which brings together the different national agencies and oversees a more regional structure of policing, with local policing units that are responsible to their local communities at the bottom, that will enable the forces to flex those specialisms more where they need to be.

Our organised crime strategy needs to look at drugs and guns and at very high-harm crimes such as people-smuggling, but while car theft is less high harm it has a huge cost. This is a very lucrative business for the criminals, and an expensive business for us. Assistant Chief Constable Sarah Grahame will be able to tell us the annual cost, but it is something in the order of £1.7 billion. We need to look at this centrally, and the reform programme will help to tackle that challenge.

At an Interpol conference last year or earlier this year—forgive me, I cannot recall—lots of countries came together to talk about this challenge. Lots of countries have the same problem: Canada, the Netherlands and Japan are net exporters of stolen vehicles. Those vehicles are taken to certain ports in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or the United Arab Emirates, for example, and then sold on to other parts of the world. There are lots of problems with that network. For example, if a car enters Russia there are no checks on who owns it and whether it is stolen or not, so basically as soon as that car gets to Russia, off it goes. Some vehicles are sent into warzones, such as Ukraine, via nearby countries, and the more high-end vehicles are sold on to be used in other countries in the normal way.

There is a pattern that we are increasingly understanding, but the question is how we disrupt it. Part of the answer is through the legislation we have introduced, which is a good first step. Some of the kit that criminals use, such as a device that logs into a vehicle, can cost £30,000 to £50,000; these are obviously serious organised criminals who have the money to buy such kit. We now have the legislation, although it has not been enacted yet; we have passed the law, but it has not commenced. Nevertheless, it will make a difference.

I noted the hon. Lady’s point about online platforms and the videos on them, and I will take that away. It was not something that I was well aware of, but I will definitely take it away as something to raise with the tech companies, alongside the very long list that we are raising with them of other dangerous things online that should be taken down.

How do we work with manufacturers to design out vehicle crime and how do we ensure that the legislation is in place to disrupt vehicle crime as much as possible? In addition, there is a question about ports and how easy it is to get vehicles out of the country, which we need to look at. There is also the international picture and ensuring that we share information with police forces around the world, where we can. There is the central capability that I think we need as part of the national police service to ensure that we treat this crime with the seriousness it deserves.

The hon. Lady talked about the impact that vehicle theft has on individuals and communities, and she is right. There are some similarities with the theft of mobile phones and how the police respond to that, which is evolving. For an extended period, more and more people had their phones stolen, with each theft being dealt with by a local police force individually as an individual crime. The Metropolitan police in particular put some of this information together and realised that organised criminal networks were taking these phones, wrapping them in silver foil, putting them on a plane, sending them to China and selling them on from there. We understood the criminal network involved, and the police are now targeting and trying to disrupt them in various ways. There is a similar picture with vehicle theft, and we need to respond to it in a similar way. As I have said, I think the reform programme will help with that.

Of course we need to keep looking at new technology, new legislation and other things that we can do. I am very grateful to the police, who are already tackling this challenge, and I am particularly grateful to ACC Sarah Grahame, who is leading this work and pushing us in the Home Office to go further and do more.

With the reform programme, we in the Home Office are trying to design a structure that not only enables the police to do their job but enables us to step back and not have to provide small bits of funding for each individual crime type, and instead give the police the resources in the right place to tackle the problem. There is some evidence—not lots, but some—that the criminals stealing cars and sending them abroad also take part in other organised criminality of a more dangerous kind, involving guns and drugs. We need to gather more intelligence on that, but it is often the case that criminals do not stick to one type of crime; they do lots of things all at the same time. There is probably a network of organised criminals we should target who are not only stealing cars and moving them abroad but doing other things that are more high harm.

This debate has been a timely conversation on an issue that we in the Home Office are very alive to. We want to enable the police to respond to it. It is part of the changing nature of crime. People see a spate of car thefts in one area because the cars are stolen to order by serious and organised criminals who know what they are doing. They come into an area, they steal the cars there and they move on somewhere else, in part because they know that different police forces will not be joining up with each other, in the way that I described.

I thank the hon. Member for Eastleigh again for securing this debate, and I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton North East (Sureena Brackenridge) for raising the issues that her constituents are facing. Hopefully, what I have said today will reassure the hon. Lady that we are taking this issue very seriously, and I appreciate all suggestions and ideas as to what more we can do.

Question put and agreed to.