Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of scrapping the £200 summary offence rule for shoplifting and theft.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Since 2010 our communities are safer, with neighbourhood crimes including burglary, robbery and theft from the person down 48% and overall violent crime down 44%, and with more police officers on the streets than in 2010.
However, there has been a worrying rise in shoplifting and violence towards retail workers, which we need to address.
Police Recorded Crime figures show shoplifting offences increased by 37% in the 12 months to December 2023. Although, the number of people charged with shoplifting offences in the same period rose by 46%, showing the police are heeding the message and taking action.
The Government has taken a number of recent significant steps to reduce and prevent retail crime. Our plan – "Fighting retail crime: more action" was launched on 10 April, which highlights five areas of work this Government will drive forward to tackle retail crime. This will include us introducing a presumption towards electronic monitoring as part of a sentence served in the community for those who repeatedly steal from shops. We will develop a retail theft electronic monitoring (EM) ‘package’, to offer sentencers starting in a pilot area, a clear community sentence pathway for repeat retail theft offenders.
This builds on the police-led Retail Crime Action Plan, which includes a commitment to prioritise police attendance at the scene where violence has been used towards shop staff, where an offender has been detained by store security, and where evidence needs to be secured and can only be done by police personnel. Figures published by the NPCC show early signs of progress.
Furthermore, we will bring forward legislative changes to introduce a presumption towards electronic monitoring as part of a sentence served in the community for those who repeatedly steal from shops. This legislative change will provide that on the third sentencing occasion, an offender would be electronically monitored as part of any community sentence or post-release for the duration of any licence period.
Under section 176 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, low-value shoplifting (value of £200 or less) is a summary offence, unless an adult elects to be tried in the Crown Court. Where a summary offence is committed, the case can be handled as a police-led prosecution.
Police-led prosecutions were introduced to improve the efficiency of the criminal justice system by allowing for a simpler, more proportionate police-led process in high-volume, low-level, uncontested cases. This route enables cases to be handled more speedily, rather than cases having to go to the CPS and through the Crown Court.
Repealing this would mean victims of shoplifting have to wait longer for cases to come to court.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to reduce rates of shoplifting in Portsmouth.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Since 2010 our communities are safer, with neighbourhood crimes including burglary, robbery and theft from the person down 48% and overall violent crime down 44%, and with more police officers on the streets than in 2010.
However, there has been a worrying rise in shoplifting and violence towards retail workers, which we need to address.
Police Recorded Crime figures show shoplifting offences increased by 37% in the 12 months to December 2023. Although, the number of people charged with shoplifting offences in the same period rose by 46%, showing the police are heeding the message and taking action.
The Government has taken a number of recent significant steps to reduce and prevent retail crime. Our plan – "Fighting retail crime: more action" was launched on 10 April, which highlights five areas of work this Government will drive forward to tackle retail crime. This will include us introducing a presumption towards electronic monitoring as part of a sentence served in the community for those who repeatedly steal from shops. We will develop a retail theft electronic monitoring (EM) ‘package’, to offer sentencers starting in a pilot area, a clear community sentence pathway for repeat retail theft offenders.
This builds on the police-led Retail Crime Action Plan, which includes a commitment to prioritise police attendance at the scene where violence has been used towards shop staff, where an offender has been detained by store security, and where evidence needs to be secured and can only be done by police personnel. Figures published by the NPCC show early signs of progress.
Furthermore, we will bring forward legislative changes to introduce a presumption towards electronic monitoring as part of a sentence served in the community for those who repeatedly steal from shops. This legislative change will provide that on the third sentencing occasion, an offender would be electronically monitored as part of any community sentence or post-release for the duration of any licence period.
Under section 176 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, low-value shoplifting (value of £200 or less) is a summary offence, unless an adult elects to be tried in the Crown Court. Where a summary offence is committed, the case can be handled as a police-led prosecution.
Police-led prosecutions were introduced to improve the efficiency of the criminal justice system by allowing for a simpler, more proportionate police-led process in high-volume, low-level, uncontested cases. This route enables cases to be handled more speedily, rather than cases having to go to the CPS and through the Crown Court.
Repealing this would mean victims of shoplifting have to wait longer for cases to come to court.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many thefts from retail businesses there have been in each of the last three years.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Since 2010 theft offences experienced by the general population has fallen by 48%, according to the Crime Survey for England and Wales, but shoplifting has been increasing in the last three years, as shown in the table.
Calendar Year | Number of Shoplifting offences |
2021 | 256,199 |
2022 | 315,040 |
2023 | 430,104 |
Source: ONS Crime in England and Wales: year ending December 2023, Appendix Table A4.
There must be a zero tolerance approach to such crime which is why, alongside key partners, this Government is taking concerted action to address the menace of retail crime. The Government’s plan – "Fighting retail crime: more action" was launched on 10 April, and highlights five areas of work this Government will drive forward to tackle retail crime:
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of security measures in place for the Police National Computer.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Number of outages affecting the PNC, breakdown below. Partial PNC outages are included in the breakdown. Therefore, elements of the PNC service may have been available during the outage period.
Outages on the same day have been counted as separate instances.
Year | Number of outages - Planned | Number of outages - Unplanned |
2015 | 22 | 48 |
2016 | 10 | 18 |
2017 | 9 | 17 |
2018 | 13 | 12 |
2019 | 4 | 1 |
2020 | 7 | 12 |
2021 | 11 | 18 |
2022 | 14 | 13 |
2023 | 17 | 18 |
*2024 | 4 | 6 |
Total | 111 | 163 |
* Outages for 2024 are reported up to 31st March 2024.
Regular Security IT Health Checks/Audits are undertaken on PNC with actions to manage, mitigate or resolve vulnerabilities progressed to enhance the security of the system. The PNC is security assured by the Police Digital Service on behalf of Policing and in line with HO policy.
PNC has a number of back up servers for resilience and mirroring to provide a Disaster Recovery capability from a secondary site. There are numerous back up servers at the primary site and also at the DR site providing several layers of back up for the operation of the PNC
****NOTE - providing detail on the numbers of actual servers increases the operational risk to PNC.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many back-up servers are in operation for the Police National Computer.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Number of outages affecting the PNC, breakdown below. Partial PNC outages are included in the breakdown. Therefore, elements of the PNC service may have been available during the outage period.
Outages on the same day have been counted as separate instances.
Year | Number of outages - Planned | Number of outages - Unplanned |
2015 | 22 | 48 |
2016 | 10 | 18 |
2017 | 9 | 17 |
2018 | 13 | 12 |
2019 | 4 | 1 |
2020 | 7 | 12 |
2021 | 11 | 18 |
2022 | 14 | 13 |
2023 | 17 | 18 |
*2024 | 4 | 6 |
Total | 111 | 163 |
* Outages for 2024 are reported up to 31st March 2024.
Regular Security IT Health Checks/Audits are undertaken on PNC with actions to manage, mitigate or resolve vulnerabilities progressed to enhance the security of the system. The PNC is security assured by the Police Digital Service on behalf of Policing and in line with HO policy.
PNC has a number of back up servers for resilience and mirroring to provide a Disaster Recovery capability from a secondary site. There are numerous back up servers at the primary site and also at the DR site providing several layers of back up for the operation of the PNC
****NOTE - providing detail on the numbers of actual servers increases the operational risk to PNC.
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 recent assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of cannabis use on violent crime.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
No recent assessment has been made. Cannabis is controlled as a Class B drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 as there is clear scientific and medical evidence that cannabis is a harmful drug which can damage people’s mental and physical health, and harms individuals and communities.
Cannabis continues to be the most commonly used drug and around 21% of adults starting treatment between 2021 and 2022 said they had a problem with cannabis. Cannabis poses a large number of serious health risks, including psychological disorders such as psychosis and respiratory illness, particularly given recent increases in potency.
We know from Dame Carol Black’s landmark review into drugs that there are clear links between the trade in illicit drugs and violence and exploitation.
Illicit drug use also makes our communities less safe, with links to anti-social behaviour in public spaces.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has had recent discussions with the Police Service of Northern Ireland on tackling underage drinking in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Crime and policing in Northern Ireland are devolved matters and fall within the legislative competence of the Northern Ireland Executive.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will publish the specification of requirements for the contracts agreed by his Department on (a) 2 October 2023 with Home Connections Lettings Ltd., procurement reference 433189/1352384, (b) 21 March 2024 with Bunnyfoot Ltd., procurement reference 407485/1352441, (c) 28 March 2024 with Deloitte LLP, procurement reference 417551/1349771 and (d) 1 April 2024 with Faculty Science Ltd., Zinc Network and Adam Smith International Ltd., procurement reference 376900/1351150.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Summary descriptions of the aim of each agreement have been published on Contracts Finder on gov.uk. These can be found at:
Contract | URL |
Information Operations Research Capability - Contracts Finder |
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many outages have affected the Police National Computer in each year since 2015.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Number of outages affecting the PNC, breakdown below. Partial PNC outages are included in the breakdown. Therefore, elements of the PNC service may have been available during the outage period.
Outages on the same day have been counted as separate instances.
Year | Number of outages - Planned | Number of outages - Unplanned |
2015 | 22 | 48 |
2016 | 10 | 18 |
2017 | 9 | 17 |
2018 | 13 | 12 |
2019 | 4 | 1 |
2020 | 7 | 12 |
2021 | 11 | 18 |
2022 | 14 | 13 |
2023 | 17 | 18 |
*2024 | 4 | 6 |
Total | 111 | 163 |
* Outages for 2024 are reported up to 31st March 2024.
Regular Security IT Health Checks/Audits are undertaken on PNC with actions to manage, mitigate or resolve vulnerabilities progressed to enhance the security of the system. The PNC is security assured by the Police Digital Service on behalf of Policing and in line with HO policy.
PNC has a number of back up servers for resilience and mirroring to provide a Disaster Recovery capability from a secondary site. There are numerous back up servers at the primary site and also at the DR site providing several layers of back up for the operation of the PNC
****NOTE - providing detail on the numbers of actual servers increases the operational risk to PNC.
Asked by: Matt Rodda (Labour - Reading East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the guidance by the Central Digital and Data Office entitled Guidance on the Legacy IT Risk Assessment Framework, published on 29 September 2023, a) how many red-rated IT systems are used by his Department; and how many red-rated IT systems have been identified since 4 December 2023.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO), in the Cabinet Office, has established a programme to support departments managing legacy IT. CDDO has agreed a framework to identify ‘red-rated’ systems, indicating high levels of risk surrounding certain assets within the IT estate. Departments have committed to have remediation plans in place for these systems by next year (2025).
It is not appropriate to release sensitive information held about specific red-rated systems or more detailed plans for remediation within Home Office IT estate, as this information could indicate which systems are at risk, and may highlight potential security vulnerabilities.