Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of public satisfaction levels following reports of anti-social behaviour to a) the police and b) local authorities.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Tackling Anti-social Behaviour (ASB) is a key commitment as part of improving confidence in policing and local responses to crime as set out in the Government’s Plan for Change.
In the year ending September 2025, the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) showed that around 38% of people experienced or witnessed some type of ASB, and there were 1 million police recorded incidents. We know, however, that ASB goes underreported to the police and other agencies. The latest CSEW data (YE March 2025) indicates that depending on the type of ASB, between 63-93% of ASB incidents are not reported to any agency. We are committed to ensuring better support and information is available to victims of ASB, including on how to report ASB.
The Home Office recognises that persistent ASB can have a significant impact on individuals’ quality of life and sense of safety, particularly in the areas where they live, work, and visit. While the Home Office does not make a specific assessment on the impact of ASB on people’s decisions to move home, tackling ASB remains a priority to help ensure people feel safe in their neighbourhoods.
To support this, every police force in England and Wales now has an anti-social behaviour lead in place who will work with communities, stakeholders and the public to implement their individual ASB.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of anti-social behaviour on people’s decision to move home.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Tackling Anti-social Behaviour (ASB) is a key commitment as part of improving confidence in policing and local responses to crime as set out in the Government’s Plan for Change.
In the year ending September 2025, the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) showed that around 38% of people experienced or witnessed some type of ASB, and there were 1 million police recorded incidents. We know, however, that ASB goes underreported to the police and other agencies. The latest CSEW data (YE March 2025) indicates that depending on the type of ASB, between 63-93% of ASB incidents are not reported to any agency. We are committed to ensuring better support and information is available to victims of ASB, including on how to report ASB.
The Home Office recognises that persistent ASB can have a significant impact on individuals’ quality of life and sense of safety, particularly in the areas where they live, work, and visit. While the Home Office does not make a specific assessment on the impact of ASB on people’s decisions to move home, tackling ASB remains a priority to help ensure people feel safe in their neighbourhoods.
To support this, every police force in England and Wales now has an anti-social behaviour lead in place who will work with communities, stakeholders and the public to implement their individual ASB.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help increase public confidence in reporting anti-social behaviour to the police.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Tackling Anti-social Behaviour (ASB) is a key commitment as part of improving confidence in policing and local responses to crime as set out in the Government’s Plan for Change.
In the year ending September 2025, the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) showed that around 38% of people experienced or witnessed some type of ASB, and there were 1 million police recorded incidents. We know, however, that ASB goes underreported to the police and other agencies. The latest CSEW data (YE March 2025) indicates that depending on the type of ASB, between 63-93% of ASB incidents are not reported to any agency. We are committed to ensuring better support and information is available to victims of ASB, including on how to report ASB.
The Home Office recognises that persistent ASB can have a significant impact on individuals’ quality of life and sense of safety, particularly in the areas where they live, work, and visit. While the Home Office does not make a specific assessment on the impact of ASB on people’s decisions to move home, tackling ASB remains a priority to help ensure people feel safe in their neighbourhoods.
To support this, every police force in England and Wales now has an anti-social behaviour lead in place who will work with communities, stakeholders and the public to implement their individual ASB.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help prevent heating oil theft in rural communities in Lincolnshire.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government is introducing the most radical and comprehensive policing reforms in nearly 200 years. We will modernise policing in this country – equipping it to tackle more sophisticated, online, and cross-border crimes (like fuel theft, wildlife crime and organised equipment theft), while also restoring neighbourhood policing.
We have hit our target of 3,000 more neighbourhood officers in March – and our target remains 13k by the end of the parliament. With the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee every neighbourhood, rural or urban, now gets a named contactable officer and a response to non-urgent queries in 72 hours. Every rural area will also be covered by a Local Policing Area under a commander responsible for emergency response, local crime investigation and neighbourhood policing. They will be set targets to ensure they answer 90% of 999 calls within 10 seconds and attend 90% of the most serious incidents within 20 minutes in rural areas.
This financial year (FY25/26) we are providing £800,000 of funding to the National Rural Crime Unit and the National Wildlife Crime Unit, and we will be providing the same level of funding in 26/27. These capabilities play key roles in helping police across the UK tackle organised theft and disrupt serious and organised crime groups, which can pose unique challenges for policing in large and isolated rural areas.
The Government recognises that there can be challenges in responding to rural crime, which is why we worked closely with the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) to deliver the next iteration of their Rural and Wildlife Crime strategy and sets out operational and organisational policing priorities in respect of tackling those crimes that predominantly affect our rural communities.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help improve reporting rates for anti-social behaviour.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Tackling Anti-social Behaviour (ASB) is a key commitment as part of improving confidence in policing and local responses to crime as set out in the Government’s Plan for Change.
In the year ending September 2025, the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) showed that around 38% of people experienced or witnessed some type of ASB, and there were 1 million police recorded incidents. We know, however, that ASB goes underreported to the police and other agencies. The latest CSEW data (YE March 2025) indicates that depending on the type of ASB, between 63-93% of ASB incidents are not reported to any agency. We are committed to ensuring better support and information is available to victims of ASB, including on how to report ASB.
The Home Office recognises that persistent ASB can have a significant impact on individuals’ quality of life and sense of safety, particularly in the areas where they live, work, and visit. While the Home Office does not make a specific assessment on the impact of ASB on people’s decisions to move home, tackling ASB remains a priority to help ensure people feel safe in their neighbourhoods.
To support this, every police force in England and Wales now has an anti-social behaviour lead in place who will work with communities, stakeholders and the public to implement their individual ASB.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the level of underreporting of anti-social behaviour incidents.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Tackling Anti-social Behaviour (ASB) is a key commitment as part of improving confidence in policing and local responses to crime as set out in the Government’s Plan for Change.
In the year ending September 2025, the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) showed that around 38% of people experienced or witnessed some type of ASB, and there were 1 million police recorded incidents. We know, however, that ASB goes underreported to the police and other agencies. The latest CSEW data (YE March 2025) indicates that depending on the type of ASB, between 63-93% of ASB incidents are not reported to any agency. We are committed to ensuring better support and information is available to victims of ASB, including on how to report ASB.
The Home Office recognises that persistent ASB can have a significant impact on individuals’ quality of life and sense of safety, particularly in the areas where they live, work, and visit. While the Home Office does not make a specific assessment on the impact of ASB on people’s decisions to move home, tackling ASB remains a priority to help ensure people feel safe in their neighbourhoods.
To support this, every police force in England and Wales now has an anti-social behaviour lead in place who will work with communities, stakeholders and the public to implement their individual ASB.
Asked by: Jack Rankin (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to respond to Question 126358 from the Hon. Member for Windsor.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
A response to this question was issued on April 20th, 2026.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to provide adequate funding for rural police stations.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Decisions regarding the management of the police estate, including provision of police stations, as well as the allocation of officers and resources are matters for Chief Constables and directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners (or equivalents). They are best placed to make these decisions based on their knowledge of local need, experience, and in line with their existing budget.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to support small rural police stations to maintain effective local presence.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Decisions regarding the management of the police estate, including provision of police stations, as well as the allocation of officers and resources are matters for Chief Constables and directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners (or equivalents). They are best placed to make these decisions based on their knowledge of local need, experience, and in line with their existing budget.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to WPQ 110045 titled 'Nature Conservation: Crime,' answered on 10 February 2026, what recent conversations she has had with the National Wildlife Crime Unit about the effectiveness of their intelligence, analysis and investigative assistance to tackle wildlife crime in [a] England and [b] Leicestershire.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office worked in partnership with Defra to support the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) in delivering their Rural and Wildlife Crime strategy for 2025-28. The Strategy – which was published on 25 November -provides a framework through which policing, and its partners can work together to tackle the most prevalent threats and emerging issues including wildlife crime.
We also fund the National Wildlife Crime Unit who provide intelligence, analysis and investigative assistance to forces and other law enforcement agencies across the UK to support them in investigating wildlife crime. Throughout the grant agreement period, we hold regular official‑level meetings to discuss progress, engagement and delivery.
We are ensuring forces have the tools and resources they need to deal with rural crime including wildlife crime. We have hit our target of 3,000 more neighbourhood officers in March – and our target remains 13k by the end of the parliament