Anti-social Behaviour: East of England

Terry Jermy Excerpts

Tuesday 11th March 2025 Westminster Hall

[Josh Dean]

Absolutely. The groups I mentioned are supported by local churchgoers and religious groups in our community. I pay tribute to them, not least because I was supported by youth services as a young person. I would not be standing here as the Member of Parliament for Hertford and Stortford without them.

I am looking forward to engaging in coming months with young people and local service providers in our community, to ensure that they can contribute directly as the Department for Culture, Media and Sport develops the exciting new national youth strategy.

On that point, I shall be grateful if the Minister outlines how the Home Office is working across Government to ensure that tackling antisocial behaviour and crime prevention are wired into the national youth strategy. Also, how will the Home Office work with policing teams in semi-rural communities such as mine to continue to crack down on antisocial behaviour?

[Terry Jermy (South West Norfolk) (Lab)]

As a former youth worker, I am pleased to hear my hon. Friend talk about the benefits of youth services. Does he agree that we have seen an erosion of youth services across the east? When cuts are made to council funding, children’s and youth services are often the first to go.

[Josh Dean]

I could not agree more. I often hear Conservative Members speak of their Government’s successes, but young people like me lived its failures. Too often, youth services, arts and culture—the things that help young people in our communities to find the path that is right for them—that were first for the chopping block. I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention and, on that point, I will conclude.

--- Later in debate ---

[Terry Jermy (South West Norfolk) (Lab)]

It is an honour to speak with you in the Chair, Mr Twigg. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Norwich North (Alice Macdonald)—my Norfolk colleague—on securing this important debate.

Statistically, Norfolk is one of the safest counties in the whole country, but antisocial behaviour is still very much a concern county-wide, including in South West Norfolk. I am regularly reminded that statistics offer little comfort for those experiencing antisocial behaviour. Nationally, according to the crime survey for England and Wales, a record 24% of people believe that antisocial behaviour is very or fairly bad. I do not think it is unreasonable for people to expect to feel safe in their own communities and their own homes.

During the Conservatives’ 14 years in government, instead of delivering law and order, they did the exact opposite. They hollowed out neighbourhood policing and gutted and broke the criminal justice system, so that more than 90% of crimes now go unsolved.

[Lewis Cocking]

I remind the hon. Member that the last Conservative Government recruited 20,000 police officers across the country and the only force not to meet that target was the Metropolitan police under Labour mayor Sadiq Khan.

[Terry Jermy]

I thank the hon. Member for his contribution. In Norfolk, there were fewer serving police officers at the end of the last 14 years than there were at the start. We have made that point repeatedly.

Some 240 police community support officers were scrapped entirely and not replaced on a like-for-like basis. The then Conservative police and crime commissioner cut all police community support officers—Norfolk was the first force in the country to do so. As a former youth worker in the constituency and a long-time councillor, I saw the immediate impact of that decision. PCSOs were able to make connections with the community; they met councillors and residents’ associations, and collected and shared information where possible. In Thetford, the largest town in my constituency, there was a PCSO based in the main high school, who built a rapport with young people that paid dividends later on.

Labour’s mission in government is to restore trust in our justice system as a key pillar of our society, and that mission has begun. I am delighted that just yesterday the Home Secretary highlighted the pledge to provide 13,000 more neighbourhood police and community support officers, alongside an extra £200 million of funding in the next financial year.

I am very proud to be a Labour MP in a rural constituency, and I am particularly pleased that this Government are looking to deliver a new rural crime strategy. We need a fresh approach to tackling crime in rural areas. We must recognise that crime and antisocial behaviour is different in rural areas. Crimes such as hare coursing and livestock worrying are major issues in my constituency and of great concern to residents.

I pay tribute to the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers and its Freedom from Fear campaign, which seeks to prevent violence, threats and abuse against workers and protect them from antisocial and threatening behaviour by the public. I have spoken to staff in village shops across South West Norfolk who often work alone and in very remote areas. The abuse of retail workers is a huge concern to them. The Government understand the need for further protections and I was delighted that just yesterday, on Second Reading of the Crime and Policing Bill, the Home Secretary announced that we will introduce a specific offence of assaulting a retail worker.

I would be grateful if the Minister could comment on the opportunities and the programme for delivery for rural communities in the east.