Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the potential benefits of encouraging the use of non-operating CCTV cameras to help tackle anti-social behaviour.

On 27 March, the Government launched the Anti-social Behaviour Action Plan (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/anti-social-behaviour-action-plan) ensuring the police, local authorities and other relevant agencies have the tools they need to tackle anti-social behaviour.

The powers available under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, including closure orders, are deliberately local in nature as local agencies are best placed to determine whether their use is appropriate in the specific circumstances. However, we have recently undertaken a consultation on the powers to ensure they can be used as effectively as possible.

The plan is backed by £160m of funding. This includes up to £60m to fund an increased police and other uniformed presence to clamp down on anti-social behaviour, targeting hotspots. Initially we will work with 10 police force areas, including Durham, but from 2024 will support a hotspot approach across every police force area in England and Wales.

The Safer Streets Fund is supporting local initiatives aimed at increasing the safety of public spaces by tackling neighbourhood crime, anti-social behaviour and violence against women and girls. Since the Fund launched in 2020, we have invested £120 million through four rounds supporting 270 projects across England and Wales, with a range of interventions including CCTV cameras. On 6^th July we launched a further fifth £60million round.