Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department has taken to tackle (a) anti-social behaviour and (b) shoplifting in Wythall.

Tackling anti-social behaviour (ASB) and the harm it causes is a top priority for this Government and a key part of our Safer Streets Mission.

The Government’s Plan for Change details our commitment to reduce ASB, including delivery of a dedicated lead officer in every police force in England and Wales working with communities to develop a local ASB action plan. We are also delivering on our commitment to restore and strengthen neighbourhood policing, ensuring thousands of additional police officers and police community support officers are out patrolling in our town centres and communities to make the streets safer.

Through the Crime and Policing Bill, we are strengthening the powers available to the police and other relevant agencies to tackle ASB, including introducing new Respect Orders to tackle persistent adult ASB offenders, and extending the maximum exclusion period for dispersal directions from 48 to 72 hours. Other measures in the Bill include enhancing the powers for the police to seize nuisance off-road bikes, and other vehicles which are being used in an anti-social manner, without having to first give a warning to the offender.

In the same bill, we are repealing the legislation which makes shop theft of and below £200 a summary-only offence, which means it can only be tried in a magistrate’s court, sending a clear message that any level of shop theft is illegal and will be taken seriously. In addition, we have brought a new offence of assaulting a retail worker to protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores.

The Home Office is also providing £66.3 million funding in 2025-26 to forces in England and Wales to deliver high visibility patrols in the areas worst affected by knife crime, serious violence, and anti-social behaviour. West Mercia police will receive £1,000,000 of this funding.

We will continue to crack down on the organised gangs targeting retailers. We will provide £5 million over the next three years to continue to fund Opal, the National Policing Intelligence Unit for serious organised acquisitive crime.

We will also invest £2 million over the next three years in the police-led National Business Crime Centre (NBCC) which provides a resource for both police and businesses to learn, share and support each other to prevent and combat crime.

I am committed to chairing the Retail Crime Forum which brings together the retail sector, security providers and law enforcement agencies to ensure we understand the needs of all retailers and to promote collaboration, share best practice and to work collectively to tackle the serious issue of retail crime. This includes the development of a new strategy to tackle shop theft published by policing, retail sector representatives and industry as part of collective efforts to combat shop theft. The strategy builds on previous progress made by police and retailers but provides a more comprehensive and intelligence-led approach to tackle all perpetrators of shop theft – not just organised criminal gangs.