Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle (a) anti-social behaviour and (b) theft in market towns across Surrey.

Tackling anti-social behaviour, theft and other crimes affecting local communities are a top priorities for this Government, and represent a key part of our Safter Streets Mission.

The Government recently announced Respect Orders, which will be introduced in the forthcoming Crime and Policing Bill. Respect Orders can be applied for by police and local councils and are issued by the courts. They will enable courts to place wide-ranging restrictions on the behaviour of the most persistent and disruptive ASB offenders. They will include a power of arrest for any suspected breach, meaning officers can take action quickly to disrupt ongoing ASB. Breach will be a criminal offence, which is heard in the criminal courts with a wide range of sentencing options, including community orders, unlimited fines and, for the most severe cases, up to two years’ imprisonment.

The Government also recognises that a key part of making theft less attractive to criminals is to tackle the market for stolen goods, making items such as mobile phones less attractive to steal in the first place. This is why we have announced that we will be working with tech companies and law enforcement to see what more can be done to break the business model of mobile phone thieves.

We will also put thousands of neighbourhood police and community support officers into local communities and ensure that residents have a named officer they can turn to when things go wrong.