Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of anti-social behaviour in (a) Newcastle-under-Lyme constituency, (b) North Staffordshire, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England in each of the last three years; and what steps his Department is taking to tackle anti-social behaviour in those areas.

The Government is committed to tackling and preventing anti-social behaviour (ASB). We know the serious impact that persistent ASB can have on both individuals and the wider community. Last year the Beating Crime Plan laid out the Government’s plan for tackling crime and ASB and committed to working with local agencies and partners to drive down ASB using the full range of powers and tools in the ‘2014 Act’.

The Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 provides a range of flexible tools and powers to local agencies to tackle anti-social behaviour. Local areas decide how best to deploy these powers depending on the specific circumstances. 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.

Police recorded ASB incidents for the West Midlands were on a steady decline pre-Covid-19 with a 40% fall in 2019-20 when compared with 2016-17. The overall number of ASB incidents in England & Wales also fell (24%) pre-Covid-19 but to a lesser degree than in West Midlands. The year to March 2022 reports a drop in ASB incidents for both England & Wales (-6%) and West Midlands (-17%) when compared to the 2019-20 (pre-Covid-19) period.