Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to protect rural communities from (a) crime and (b) anti-social behaviour.

This Government is committed to driving down crime everywhere, including in rural communities. The Beating Crime plan sets out how we will deliver this including the largest increase in officer numbers in decades; 20,000 by March 2023. It also sets out how we will protect local communities through targeted interventions including our flagship Safer Streets Fund. Round Four of this fund has allocated £50 million to crime prevention projects across England and Wales, including in rural areas. Many of these projects aim to tackle anti-social behaviour as a primary focus.