Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that police officers are able to tackle antisocial behaviour.

On 27 March we published the ASB Action Plan. The ASB Action Plan commits to tackling ASB across five key themes: stronger punishment, making communities safer, building local pride, prevention and early intervention, improving data, reporting and accountability for action.

This 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 Cleveland, but from 2024 will support a hotspot approach across every police force area in England and Wales.

We are also providing up to £50m to support the provision of Immediate Justice, by issuing out of court disposals with conditions to swiftly repair any damage – the aim being for them to start within 48 hours of the offence. This will start in 10 initial trailblazer police force areas, including Cleveland and be rolled out across England and Wales from 2024.

As part of the Action Plan, we are also giving the police and local authorities more tools to tackle the problem – increasing on the spot fines for graffiti and fly tipping, filling empty shops, restoring local parks, and regenerating local green spaces.

Cleveland Police has recruited 267 additional uplift police officers against a total three-year allocation of 239 officers, as at 31 March 2023. Cleveland Police’s funding will be up to £162.1m in 2023/24, an increase of up to £5.1m when compared to 2022/23.

The Office for National Statistics annually publishes anti-social behaviour incidents reported to the police by Police Force Area and no further lower level breakdown is currently available. There are plans to publish new Community Safety Partnership (CSP) breakdowns later this year. The latest available data covering year to March 2022 can be found here: Crime in England and Wales: Police Force Area data tables - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)