Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of Operation Centurion on anti-social behaviour in Lancashire.

Last year 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.

As part of the Plan, we funded an increased police and other uniformed presence to clamp down on anti-social behaviour, targeting hotspots. Initially we worked with 10 police force areas, including Lancashire Constabulary which received £1,050,000. Data received from pilot forces showed from July 2023 to the end of January 2024 over 100,000 additional hours of anti-social behaviour-focused patrols were delivered across pilot areas in England and Wales. This led to an increase in enforcement activity which included almost 800 arrests, around 2,000 stop and searches and nearly 1.000 uses of anti-social behaviour tools and powers.

Following the success of the pilots, we have extended this approach to every police force in England and Wales from April. Lancashire will receive £1,713,512 for the hotspot programme tackling areas of high incidents of both anti-social behaviour and serious violence.