Crime and Policing Bill

Warinder Juss Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 10th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Yvette Cooper]

My hon. Friend is right. This is about the fact of the crime—the disrespect—but also the sense of fear that it can create and the huge frustration among shopworkers about the crimes that they see.

I am glad to see some signs of a change in heart on the Conservative Benches, with Conservative Members recognising how damaging their approach to town centre crime has been. The shadow Home Secretary, the right hon. Member for Croydon South (Chris Philp), has written on Facebook that the police

“must have ZERO TOLERANCE to shoplifting and phone theft in Croydon…otherwise it will escalate. Stealing, even less than £200, is illegal…The police must focus ruthlessly on catching criminals and always pursue every line of inquiry.”

Who would have thought it? If that is what the right hon. Gentleman now believes, why on earth did he not take the opportunity during the two years that he was the policing Minister to scrap the £200 threshold, which sent all the wrong signals to the police?

We do know one part of the shadow Home Secretary’s remedy for the disappearance of neighbourhood police and the soaring levels of town centre crime. He has said that

“The wider public do have the power of citizen’s arrest and, where it’s safe to do so, I would encourage that to be used…including potentially a physical challenge”,

otherwise it “will just escalate.” Putting aside the intriguing suggestion that the shadow Home Secretary wanders around with handcuffs in his pocket, I wonder whether he has misunderstood the Peel principle that the police are the public and the public are the police. What that principle means is neighbourhood police in the community, not leaving the community to pick up arms because the neighbourhood police have gone. As for Reform Members, it looks as if they are too busy dealing with their own internal antisocial behaviour to even show up. This Government will be tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime, something that has not happened for far too long.

Alongside the action on community crimes, the Bill introduces much stronger measures on some of the most serious crimes of all, including the knife crime that is destroying young lives—teenagers and young people who do not get to achieve their ambitions or fulfil their dreams, with parents and families left bereft.

[Warinder Juss (Wolverhampton West) (Lab)]

rose—

[Matt Rodda (Reading Central) (Lab)]

rose—

[Yvette Cooper]

I will give way first to my hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton West (Warinder Juss), and then I will give way to my hon. Friend the Member for Reading Central (Matt Rodda).

[Warinder Juss]

Last year, only four in 10 knife possessions resulted in any formal criminal justice outcome. Does the Home Secretary agree that by increasing police powers to seize, retain and destroy knives that may be legally owned but may be used in committing a crime, we will reduce the number of people carrying knives?

[Yvette Cooper]

My hon. Friend makes a really important point. We need to prevent people—especially young people—getting access to those dangerous weapons in the first place, but also to make sure that there are proper interventions, including referrals to youth offending teams. We must not have a system that simply shrugs its shoulders when young people are caught carrying knives.

Knife-enabled offences recorded by the police rose by 9% in the two years up to last summer. Many people in this House will know the story of Ronan Kanda, who was just 16 when he was stabbed to death with a ninja sword just yards from his home. He was killed by two other teenagers who had bought, not just that sword, but more than 20 other lethal weapons online with no questions asked and no proper checks. It is because of the tireless campaigning of Ronan’s mum Pooja that we have already launched plans to ban ninja swords, following this summer’s implementation of the zombie knife ban, and commissioned Commander Stephen Clayman to do an end-to-end review of knife sales. That review was published a few weeks ago, and it is driving some of the new measures we are introducing as part of this Bill.

Knife Crime: West Midlands

Warinder Juss Excerpts

Tuesday 21st January 2025 Westminster Hall

[Warinder Juss (Wolverhampton West) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir John. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for West Bromwich (Sarah Coombes) for securing the debate.

In 2022-23, the west midlands reported 180 incidents per 100,000 people, giving it the unenviable title of knife-crime capital of the United Kingdom. Knife crime is the leading cause of homicides in England and Wales. Around 11,300 knife crimes occurred in the west midlands between November 2020 and October 2023, and Wolverhampton, where my constituency lies, accounted for 7.6% of those crimes.

I am pleased by the action that the Government are taking, and to see that they have launched a coalition to tackle knife crime, working with the actor Idris Elba and the Elba Hope Foundation. I look forward to seeing how that coalition will work to bring together campaign groups, families of people who have tragically lost their lives to knife crime, young people who have been impacted, community leaders, technology companies, sports organisations, partners in the health service, education and the police, and experts, to try to understand and appreciate what causes young people to be dragged into violence and knife crime. I hope that will provide the evidence to drive Government policy.

I am also pleased that the Government are committed to strengthening the laws around the online sale of knives, and to see the creation of the Young Futures programme, with the new local prevention partnerships, and particularly the creation of a new network of youth hubs. But we need to do more in the west midlands, with the West Midlands police and community initiatives.

We need an increase in neighbourhood teams to carry out specific patrols in knife-crime hotspots at the times of greatest risk. We need to continue the knife amnesty programmes that encourage people to give up their offensive weapons in exchange for avoiding prosecution for possession. In Wolverhampton, 185 weapons were safely deposited, 97 of which were handed in close to the Tabernacle Baptist church in Whitmore Reans in my constituency.

The community initiative to reduce violence will be run in the cities of Coventry and Wolverhampton, funded by the Home Office through the Youth Endowment Fund. It is part of a global initiative seeking interventions with young people involved in violence and connecting them to an exit pathway from gangs. I hope that that will be focused throughout the west midlands.

I thank the hon. Member for Birmingham Perry Barr (Ayoub Khan) for raising the issue of youth clubs, because we must realise the importance of youth clubs and youth services in preventing knife crime. We need to have trusted role models in youth workers, and we need our youth to have activities in a safe, welcoming place where they can exercise their passion and drive and have access to support mechanisms that are provided through proactive strategies.

In my constituency, we have the Way Youth Zone, which has had a positive impact on knife crime prevention by providing engaging activities and programmes; building positive relationships; taking safeguarding approaches; bridging the empathy gap by bridging the gap between young people and law enforcement; and having partnership projects with other organisations. We need to have more of that.

Men’s Violence against Women and Girls

Warinder Juss Excerpts

Friday 29th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Emily Darlington]

I absolutely agree with the hon. Gentleman—[Interruption.] Or hon. Friend? I feel I know him now from so many interventions. [Laughter.] The fact that this is not front-page news, or top headline news, shows the discrimination and misogyny in the news coverage around the issue. We need to use our positions in the House to make sure it is heard about.

This year, it was confirmed that the most dangerous place for a woman to be anywhere in the world is in her own home. It is estimated that less than 24% of domestic abuse crime is reported to the police, yet the police receive domestic abuse-related calls every 30 seconds. Domestic abuse is devastating not just for the women in receipt of it but for the children who observe it. Domestic abuse comes in all forms—violent, emotional and financial. One in four women in England and Wales will experience domestic abuse in her lifetime.

[Warinder Juss (Wolverhampton West) (Lab)]

In Wolverhampton last year, it was estimated that more than 6,000 women were subjected to domestic abuse. Will my hon. Friend commend the “Orange Wolverhampton” campaign, which runs from 25 November to 10 December every year? The campaign involves the Wolverhampton safeguarding team, the Safer Wolverhampton Partnership, and the City of Wolverhampton council working together to highlight the issue of men’s violence against women, including domestic abuse and the violence against young women that is sadly so prevalent these days.

[Emily Darlington]

I know that Wolverhampton has many community campaigns to change the tide of violence against women and girls. I know that that has been happening in cities and towns across our country, but we need to be there to support those campaigns for them to have a true impact. I take this opportunity to thank an organisation in my own constituency, MK ACT, which has done enormous work, including running a refuge and perpetrator programmes to support not only those who have been victims of domestic abuse, but those who perpetrate it. Work such as that has been trying to stem the tide of abuse in our communities.

Oral Answers to Questions

Warinder Juss Excerpts

Monday 29th July 2024 Commons Chamber

[Yvette Cooper]

The shadow Home Secretary has made the important point that we need to be addressing the prevalence of violence against women and girls, not simply the reporting. We know that there are many areas in which reporting needs to increase because there is often under-reporting, and we have work under way at the moment in order to ensure that that can be measured.

The right hon. Gentleman talked about the increase in charge rates. If a very small number increases by just a little bit, it is still a very small number. The charge rate is still far too low, and the number of prosecutions and convictions for domestic abuse is more than 40% lower than it was eight years ago. This requires a major overhaul of the system, and I look forward to working with the right hon. Gentleman’s party and with all parties in order to do that, but we must be very honest with ourselves about the damage that has been done.

[Warinder Juss (Wolverhampton West) (Lab)]

4. What steps her Department is taking to tackle youth violence.

[The Minister of State, Home Department (Dame Diana Johnson)]

We are determined to stamp out the scourge of serious youth violence, and we have set out an unprecedented mission to halve knife crime within a decade. We will introduce legislation to remove dangerous knives from our streets, and will tackle online knife sales with new sanctions for technology executives whose companies fail to obey the law. Our new young futures programme will prevent teenagers from being drawn into violence by bringing services together around them to ensure that they stay on the right path.

[Warinder Juss]

My constituency is in the west midlands, which, sadly, has been described as the knife crime capital of the United Kingdom. Only last September 16-year-old Terrell Marshall-Williams lost his life when he was stabbed to death with a so-called Rambo knife, and in March this year 17-year-old Harleigh Hepworth was stabbed to death in a park.

When we were previously in government, we used to have a slogan: “tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime”. Given that issues such as drug abuse, lack of access to adequate mental health services and cuts in community provision—including youth centres—are considered to be causes of youth crime, how will my right hon. Friend’s Department use initiatives such as the young futures programme to tackle not only youth violence but the causes of youth violence?

[Dame Diana Johnson]

Let me first offer my condolences to the families of my hon. Friend’s constituents who so tragically lost their lives. Tackling serious violence and halving knife crime is a core part of our safer streets mission, but to be successful it will require action across Whitehall and with all partners including police, probation youth services, technology companies, charities and community organisations. My hon. Friend mentioned the preventive element provided by our young futures programme. The young futures hubs will be staffed by a range of trained professionals to support young people and help to prevent them from being drawn into violence.