Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to help tackle burglaries in (a) Enfield North constituency, (b) the London Borough of Enfield and (c) London.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales data shows a 56% fall in domestic burglaries when comparing the year ending September 2023 with the year ending March 2010. This is clearly good news; however, we recognise the impact domestic burglary can have on individuals and communities, and we are committed to tackling and preventing this crime.

The public rightly expects that the police will visit them when a home burglary has been committed, which is why we welcome the announcement made by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) on 8 June, that all 43 police forces in England and Wales have been implementing this attendance policy since March 2023. We are working with police leaders to ensure forces are making their attendance data available to the public. https://news.npcc.police.uk/releases/police-now-attending-scene-of-every-home-burglary.

The police commitment to attend home burglaries is supported by specific College of Policing good practice guidance on conducting residential burglary investigations: https://www.college.police.uk/guidance/residential-burglary.

Police forces across England and Wales have also committed to pursue all lines of enquiry where there is a reasonable chance it could lead to catching a perpetrator and solving a crime. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pursuing-all-reasonable-lines-of-enquiry-letter-to-police-leaders/pursuing-all-reasonable-lines-of-enquiry-letter-to-police-leaders

To help ensure the police have the resources they need to fight crime and tackle anti-social behaviour, we have delivered on our commitment to recruit 20,000 additional police officers by the end of March 2023. There are now over 149,000 officers in England and Wales, higher than the previous peak in March 2010, and as of 30 September, the MPS has over 35,000 officers.