Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Home Office

Oral Answers to Questions

Tristan Osborne Excerpts
Monday 2nd June 2025

(4 days, 4 hours ago)

Commons Chamber
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Darren Paffey Portrait Darren Paffey (Southampton Itchen) (Lab)
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3. What steps her Department is taking to help tackle the antisocial use of off-road bikes.

Tristan Osborne Portrait Tristan Osborne (Chatham and Aylesford) (Lab)
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23. What steps her Department is taking to help tackle vehicle nuisance.

Yvette Cooper Portrait The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Yvette Cooper)
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Off-road bikes careering through estates and communities are dangerous and an antisocial nightmare. We are giving the police stronger powers to seize bikes without the need for repeated warnings, in order to help keep our streets safe.

Yvette Cooper Portrait Yvette Cooper
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My hon. Friend is exactly right. The issue he raises will resonate with people across the country; whether it is Southampton or south Tyneside, too many areas are facing the blight of off-road bikes and street racing. At the moment, the police have to give people multiple warnings. It can be two strikes or three strikes and the bikes are still on the streets. That is not good enough. We want to make it much easier for the police, so that it is one strike and out.

Tristan Osborne Portrait Tristan Osborne
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I thank the Home Secretary for her response. In Kent we are using section 59 powers to confiscate bikes, including in Snodland and Walderslade in my constituency. However, the police have stated that the legislation is not powerful enough, and that they welcome powers to seize bikes. Can we ensure that police inspectors and police and crime commissioners are given guidance and that the number of vehicles seized is monitored, so that we can stop this problem once and for all?

Yvette Cooper Portrait Yvette Cooper
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My hon. Friend is right; we need to ensure that the police have the powers that they need and are able to act swiftly. We want to make it easier for them to crush bikes more quickly as well as to seize them and take them off the streets, and that requires additional neighbourhood police. In Kent, that means an additional 65 neighbourhood police officers, and there are similar numbers for Hampshire.