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Written Question
Domestic Abuse
Thursday 20th April 2023

Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that survivors of domestic abuse are supported to report that abuse to the police.

Answered by Sarah Dines

Domestic abuse is a horrific crime and improving the response to domestic abuse is a key priority. That is why we introduced our landmark Domestic Abuse Act 2021 (the Act), which will provide further protections to the millions of people who experience domestic abuse and strengthen measures to bring perpetrators to justice, as well as transform the support we give to victims ensuring they have the protection they deserve.

We expect police to treat all victims of domestic abuse with the sensitivity and compassion they deserve, which plays an important part in encouraging victims and survivors to report. Therefore, to strengthen the police response to domestic abuse and as part of our commitment in the Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan 2022 to support the development and further rollout of the Domestic Abuse Matters training, we have committed up to £3.3 million up to 2025 to bolster and encourage the uptake of this training in forces. We will beprioritising funding for those forces who have yet to undertake the training. As part of this commitment, we are also funding the development of a newmodule of the training that is targeted at officers investigating domestic abuse offences to enable further improvement in police responses to domesticabuse incidents.

The Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (DVDS), also known as Clare’s Law enables the police to disclose information to a victim or potential victim of domestic abuse about their partner’s or ex-partner’s previous abusive or violent offending either following a request for information by a victim, potential victim or an associated third party or following the police being in receipt of information requiring a disclosure. We have recently commenced section 77 of the Act which places the guidance which underpins the DVDS into statute and published updated guidance ahead of this. This places a duty on the police to apply the guidance unless there is good reason not to and will strengthen the visibility and consistent operation of the scheme. The guidance also makes clear that safeguarding the victim or potential victim is, at all times, a priority.


Written Question
Domestic Abuse: Animal Welfare
Thursday 20th April 2023

Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on the potential link between (a) animal abuse and (b) domestic violence; and if she will make a written statement.

Answered by Sarah Dines

Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) including domestic abuse is a government priority. VAWG is an unacceptable, preventable issue which blights the lives of millions.

Our Domestic Abuse Act became law in April 2021. This is a truly game changing piece of legislation which transforms our response to victims in every region in England and Wales and ensures perpetrators can be brought to justice. The Act also expands the definition of controlling or coercive behaviour to victims who do not live with their abuser. Domestic abuse can affect all parts of a victim’s life and relationships including, for example, through threats and harm to pets.

In July 2022 we published statutory guidance to accompany the legislation and to provide explanation of the different characteristics of domestic abuse, which includes reference to how pets may be used by perpetrators.

During the passage of the then Domestic Abuse Bill, Dogs Trust submitted written evidence highlighting that available research indicates a link between abuse to pets and abuse to people in the context of domestic abuse, for example they carried out a survey of domestic abuse professionals which found that 49% of them had been aware of cases where pets had been killed.

The Government is also committed to animal welfare. Whilst the Government has not made a formal assessment of existing research into the link between those who commit domestic abuse offences and those who commit animal welfare offences, as a reflection of the seriousness with which we take cruelty against our animals we supported the Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act which received royal assent in April 2022.


Written Question
Family Courts: Domestic Abuse
Wednesday 19th April 2023

Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the report entitled Assessing Risk of Harm to Children and Parents in Private Law Children Cases: Final Report, published on 6 October 2020, what recent assessment he has made of the (a) cost-effectiveness of and (b) optimal model for the delivery of the provision of specialist support services for both survivors and perpetrators of domestic abuse.

Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

Since the Assessing Risk of Harm to Children and Parents in Private Law Children Cases report was published in June 2020, good progress has been made on delivering the commitments taken forward in the Government’s Implementation Plan, with the majority of these completed or well under way.

We have designed and are piloting a more investigative – and less adversarial - approach for private law proceedings in Dorset and North Wales, in particular for survivors of domestic abuse. At the heart of this model is closer multiagency working which has led to improved communication, greater consistency in information and multi-disciplinary training. The pilot courts work closely with the specialist domestic abuse sector including Independent Domestic Abuse Advisers to ensure that adequate domestic abuse risk assessments and support is in place. Alongside this, the Judicial College has launched new domestic abuse digital training packages for the judiciary and has rolled out a programme of compulsory domestic abuse training for family and civil judges. Monitoring and evaluation of the pilots is ongoing and will inform any decision on rolling out the process further, we anticipate this will be concluded in early 2024.

In April 2023, Family Procedure Rule Committee amended the Family Procedure Rules and Practice Directions to allow Independent Domestic Violence Advisers and Independent Sexual Violence Advisers to accompany parties in the courtroom.

My Department will shortly publish a full update on all Harm Panel commitments.


Written Question
Cost of Living: Women
Friday 14th April 2023

Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support vulnerable girls and young women given the increased cost of living.

Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Government understands the pressures people, including vulnerable women and girls, are facing with the cost of living and is taking action to help.

Everyone who receives a state benefit or pension will have seen their benefit rates increase by 10.1% this month. In order to increase the number of households who can benefit from these uprating decisions, the benefit cap levels have also increased by the same amount.

To further support those who are in work, from 1 April, the National Living Wage (NLW) increased by 9.7% to £10.42 an hour for workers aged 23 and over - the largest ever cash increase for the NLW.

Households on eligible means-tested benefits will get up to £900 in Cost of Living Payments, paid in three separate payments of £301, £300 and £299 across the 2023/24 financial year. The first payment of £301 will be paid to the majority of those eligible between 25 April and 17 May. In addition, people on qualifying disability benefits will receive a separate Disability Cost of Living payment of £150 in the summer.

For people who require additional support, whether they receive benefits or not, the Household Support Fund will continue until March 2024. This year long extension allows Local Authorities in England to continue to provide discretionary support to those most in need with the significantly rising cost of living. The guidance for Local Authorities for this next iteration has now been published and can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/household-support-fund-guidance-for-local-councils/1April 2023 to 31 March 2024: Household Support Fund guidance for county councils and unitary authorities in England - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). This sets out that the fund should be used to support households in the most need, particularly those who are not eligible for other cost of living support such as Cost of Living Payments. The Devolved Administrations will receive consequential funding as usual to spend at their discretion.

More broadly, tackling violence against women and girls is a Government priority. The Government is committed to ensuring victims have the support they need and we are conscious that the cost of living may generate additional challenges for victims and survivors.

Our Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan invests over £230 million of cross-Government funding into tackling this crime, including over £140 million to support victims and over £81 million to tackle perpetrators. This includes trialling a £300,000 ‘flexible fund’, that could make direct payments to domestic abuse victims.

In addition to the direct impact on victims, the Government also acknowledges the cost of living will have an impact on charitable organisations who work to support them. To help mitigate these challenges, where possible the Home Office has provided multi-year grants to support organisations to make maximum use of their funding, by providing greater stability and predictability on their budgets.


Written Question
Violence: Children
Wednesday 5th April 2023

Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department is taking steps to support the police to help reduce the number of cases of (a) children assaulting their parents or guardians due to (i) gaming and (ii) other technology withdrawal disorders and (b) other inter-familial attacks.

Answered by Sarah Dines

Child and adolescent to parent violence and abuse (‘CAPVA’) is a hidden but increasingly recognised form of abuse.

The Home Office have been working to better understand CAPVA, including why it happens and how best to tackle it. As part of our 2021-22 Domestic Abuse Research Fund, we awarded over £1m for various research projects. Included in this were projects that specifically focused on under-researched areas like CAPVA. Over the last three years we have also invested over £41m in increasing the availability of interventions for domestic abuse perpetrators (for example behaviour change programmes) which will also improve our understanding of what works to reduce reoffending. This has included funding projects that specifically work with children and young people displaying these types of behaviours. We recently launched a similar fund worth £36m over the next two years.

More widely, in our cross-government Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan, the Home Office committed to publishing updated guidance for front line practitioners on child to parent abuse. We will seek input from those working in police, health, education and social care to help develop and hone this guidance. The Home Office will also work with stakeholders to reach an agreed definition and terminology for this type of behaviour which will help in identifying and addressing it.


Written Question
Anti-social Behaviour: Alcoholic Drinks
Thursday 30th March 2023

Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how her proposals for tackling anti-social behaviour will address alcohol-related (a) domestic and (b) community violence.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

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.

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. Cracking down on anti-social behaviour works in tandem with this government’s priorities to prevent more murders, drive down violent crime, including against women and girls, and burglaries.

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, but from 2024 will support a hotspot approach across every police force area in England and Wales, which will see thousands of additional patrols taking place in places blighted by anti-social behaviour. It will be for the relevant Police and Crime Commissioners to determine the allocation of spending within their areas,.

The areas have been chosen to ensure that those areas with the greatest need when it came to tackling anti-social behaviour were able to benefit from pilot funding while ensuring there was sufficient geographical spread to allow the pilots to provide evidence for its likely impact across all of England and Wales.

There will be up to £5m to boost investment in green spaces in areas most in need, restoring parks and green spaces, giving more people access and improving pride in place.

We are on target to recruit 20,000 additional police officers by the end of March 2023. However, tackling anti-social behaviour is not just a police matter. It requires a strong and effective partnership response from all agencies working together to drive down anti-social behaviour. The measures we have outlined in the plan ensure the police, local authorities and other agencies have a wide range of powers and tools to deal with every situation of anti-social behaviour that may arise.

One of the commitments outlined in the Beating Crime Plan was to establish the principles required for a strong and effective partnership response to anti-social behaviour, working with PCCs, local authorities and other partners to help set expectations for local agencies, so that they work together to address ASB issues, including dealing with persistent offenders. This was published in July 2022.

We provided the police, local authorities and other local agencies with a range of flexible tools and powers that they can use to respond quickly and effectively to ASB through the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 including closure orders if there are reasonable grounds that the use of a particular premises has resulted or is likely to result in nuisance to members of the public and the notice is necessary to prevent the nuisance or disorder from continuing, recurring or occurring.

We have an ambitious programme of activity underway to tackle alcohol-related crime and work with police and licensing stakeholders to ensure thriving and safe night-time economies. We are piloting a training programme to help frontline practitioners identify where alcohol misuse and domestic abuse are co-occurring and to facilitate greater join-up with GPs and police.

In March 2022, we published the cross-Government Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan. The Plan will seek to transform the whole of society’s response in order to prevent offending, support victims and pursue perpetrators, as well as to strengthen the systems processes in place needed to deliver these goals.

The Plan invests over £230 million of cross-Government funding into tackling this heinous crime. This includes over £140 million for supporting victims and over £81 million for tackling perpetrators.

Some of the commitments we have delivered to date includes:

  • Publishing a set of tools to measure the effectiveness of interventions that support children of domestic abuse.
  • Doubling the funding for the National Domestic Abuse Helpline, and increasing funding for all the national helplines.
  • Published the Women’s Health Strategy.
  • Introduced commissioning standards across all victim support services through the Victims Funding Strategy.

We have published research reports alongside the ASB Action Plan. The findings from the research highlight evidence and best practice examples. We expect local partners to work together to deliver a multi-agency approach to tackling anti-social behaviour and delivering the proposals set out in this plan. We will oversee the implementation and delivery of this action plan with a new Anti-social Behaviour Taskforce.


Written Question
Safer Neighbourhood Teams
Thursday 30th March 2023

Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan, published on 27 March 2023, whether she is taking steps with Cabinet colleagues to help ensure that local authorities participate in safer neighbourhood partnerships.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

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.

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. Cracking down on anti-social behaviour works in tandem with this government’s priorities to prevent more murders, drive down violent crime, including against women and girls, and burglaries.

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, but from 2024 will support a hotspot approach across every police force area in England and Wales, which will see thousands of additional patrols taking place in places blighted by anti-social behaviour. It will be for the relevant Police and Crime Commissioners to determine the allocation of spending within their areas,.

The areas have been chosen to ensure that those areas with the greatest need when it came to tackling anti-social behaviour were able to benefit from pilot funding while ensuring there was sufficient geographical spread to allow the pilots to provide evidence for its likely impact across all of England and Wales.

There will be up to £5m to boost investment in green spaces in areas most in need, restoring parks and green spaces, giving more people access and improving pride in place.

We are on target to recruit 20,000 additional police officers by the end of March 2023. However, tackling anti-social behaviour is not just a police matter. It requires a strong and effective partnership response from all agencies working together to drive down anti-social behaviour. The measures we have outlined in the plan ensure the police, local authorities and other agencies have a wide range of powers and tools to deal with every situation of anti-social behaviour that may arise.

One of the commitments outlined in the Beating Crime Plan was to establish the principles required for a strong and effective partnership response to anti-social behaviour, working with PCCs, local authorities and other partners to help set expectations for local agencies, so that they work together to address ASB issues, including dealing with persistent offenders. This was published in July 2022.

We provided the police, local authorities and other local agencies with a range of flexible tools and powers that they can use to respond quickly and effectively to ASB through the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 including closure orders if there are reasonable grounds that the use of a particular premises has resulted or is likely to result in nuisance to members of the public and the notice is necessary to prevent the nuisance or disorder from continuing, recurring or occurring.

We have an ambitious programme of activity underway to tackle alcohol-related crime and work with police and licensing stakeholders to ensure thriving and safe night-time economies. We are piloting a training programme to help frontline practitioners identify where alcohol misuse and domestic abuse are co-occurring and to facilitate greater join-up with GPs and police.

In March 2022, we published the cross-Government Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan. The Plan will seek to transform the whole of society’s response in order to prevent offending, support victims and pursue perpetrators, as well as to strengthen the systems processes in place needed to deliver these goals.

The Plan invests over £230 million of cross-Government funding into tackling this heinous crime. This includes over £140 million for supporting victims and over £81 million for tackling perpetrators.

Some of the commitments we have delivered to date includes:

  • Publishing a set of tools to measure the effectiveness of interventions that support children of domestic abuse.
  • Doubling the funding for the National Domestic Abuse Helpline, and increasing funding for all the national helplines.
  • Published the Women’s Health Strategy.
  • Introduced commissioning standards across all victim support services through the Victims Funding Strategy.

We have published research reports alongside the ASB Action Plan. The findings from the research highlight evidence and best practice examples. We expect local partners to work together to deliver a multi-agency approach to tackling anti-social behaviour and delivering the proposals set out in this plan. We will oversee the implementation and delivery of this action plan with a new Anti-social Behaviour Taskforce.


Written Question
Anti-social Behaviour: Crime Prevention
Thursday 30th March 2023

Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what funding will be provided for the Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan, published on 27 March 2023.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

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.

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. Cracking down on anti-social behaviour works in tandem with this government’s priorities to prevent more murders, drive down violent crime, including against women and girls, and burglaries.

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, but from 2024 will support a hotspot approach across every police force area in England and Wales, which will see thousands of additional patrols taking place in places blighted by anti-social behaviour. It will be for the relevant Police and Crime Commissioners to determine the allocation of spending within their areas,.

The areas have been chosen to ensure that those areas with the greatest need when it came to tackling anti-social behaviour were able to benefit from pilot funding while ensuring there was sufficient geographical spread to allow the pilots to provide evidence for its likely impact across all of England and Wales.

There will be up to £5m to boost investment in green spaces in areas most in need, restoring parks and green spaces, giving more people access and improving pride in place.

We are on target to recruit 20,000 additional police officers by the end of March 2023. However, tackling anti-social behaviour is not just a police matter. It requires a strong and effective partnership response from all agencies working together to drive down anti-social behaviour. The measures we have outlined in the plan ensure the police, local authorities and other agencies have a wide range of powers and tools to deal with every situation of anti-social behaviour that may arise.

One of the commitments outlined in the Beating Crime Plan was to establish the principles required for a strong and effective partnership response to anti-social behaviour, working with PCCs, local authorities and other partners to help set expectations for local agencies, so that they work together to address ASB issues, including dealing with persistent offenders. This was published in July 2022.

We provided the police, local authorities and other local agencies with a range of flexible tools and powers that they can use to respond quickly and effectively to ASB through the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 including closure orders if there are reasonable grounds that the use of a particular premises has resulted or is likely to result in nuisance to members of the public and the notice is necessary to prevent the nuisance or disorder from continuing, recurring or occurring.

We have an ambitious programme of activity underway to tackle alcohol-related crime and work with police and licensing stakeholders to ensure thriving and safe night-time economies. We are piloting a training programme to help frontline practitioners identify where alcohol misuse and domestic abuse are co-occurring and to facilitate greater join-up with GPs and police.

In March 2022, we published the cross-Government Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan. The Plan will seek to transform the whole of society’s response in order to prevent offending, support victims and pursue perpetrators, as well as to strengthen the systems processes in place needed to deliver these goals.

The Plan invests over £230 million of cross-Government funding into tackling this heinous crime. This includes over £140 million for supporting victims and over £81 million for tackling perpetrators.

Some of the commitments we have delivered to date includes:

  • Publishing a set of tools to measure the effectiveness of interventions that support children of domestic abuse.
  • Doubling the funding for the National Domestic Abuse Helpline, and increasing funding for all the national helplines.
  • Published the Women’s Health Strategy.
  • Introduced commissioning standards across all victim support services through the Victims Funding Strategy.

We have published research reports alongside the ASB Action Plan. The findings from the research highlight evidence and best practice examples. We expect local partners to work together to deliver a multi-agency approach to tackling anti-social behaviour and delivering the proposals set out in this plan. We will oversee the implementation and delivery of this action plan with a new Anti-social Behaviour Taskforce.


Written Question
Anti-social Behaviour: Crime Prevention
Thursday 30th March 2023

Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan, published on 27 March 2023, what funding will be provided for additional police patrols in (a) parks and (b) other areas.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

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.

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. Cracking down on anti-social behaviour works in tandem with this government’s priorities to prevent more murders, drive down violent crime, including against women and girls, and burglaries.

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, but from 2024 will support a hotspot approach across every police force area in England and Wales, which will see thousands of additional patrols taking place in places blighted by anti-social behaviour. It will be for the relevant Police and Crime Commissioners to determine the allocation of spending within their areas,.

The areas have been chosen to ensure that those areas with the greatest need when it came to tackling anti-social behaviour were able to benefit from pilot funding while ensuring there was sufficient geographical spread to allow the pilots to provide evidence for its likely impact across all of England and Wales.

There will be up to £5m to boost investment in green spaces in areas most in need, restoring parks and green spaces, giving more people access and improving pride in place.

We are on target to recruit 20,000 additional police officers by the end of March 2023. However, tackling anti-social behaviour is not just a police matter. It requires a strong and effective partnership response from all agencies working together to drive down anti-social behaviour. The measures we have outlined in the plan ensure the police, local authorities and other agencies have a wide range of powers and tools to deal with every situation of anti-social behaviour that may arise.

One of the commitments outlined in the Beating Crime Plan was to establish the principles required for a strong and effective partnership response to anti-social behaviour, working with PCCs, local authorities and other partners to help set expectations for local agencies, so that they work together to address ASB issues, including dealing with persistent offenders. This was published in July 2022.

We provided the police, local authorities and other local agencies with a range of flexible tools and powers that they can use to respond quickly and effectively to ASB through the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 including closure orders if there are reasonable grounds that the use of a particular premises has resulted or is likely to result in nuisance to members of the public and the notice is necessary to prevent the nuisance or disorder from continuing, recurring or occurring.

We have an ambitious programme of activity underway to tackle alcohol-related crime and work with police and licensing stakeholders to ensure thriving and safe night-time economies. We are piloting a training programme to help frontline practitioners identify where alcohol misuse and domestic abuse are co-occurring and to facilitate greater join-up with GPs and police.

In March 2022, we published the cross-Government Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan. The Plan will seek to transform the whole of society’s response in order to prevent offending, support victims and pursue perpetrators, as well as to strengthen the systems processes in place needed to deliver these goals.

The Plan invests over £230 million of cross-Government funding into tackling this heinous crime. This includes over £140 million for supporting victims and over £81 million for tackling perpetrators.

Some of the commitments we have delivered to date includes:

  • Publishing a set of tools to measure the effectiveness of interventions that support children of domestic abuse.
  • Doubling the funding for the National Domestic Abuse Helpline, and increasing funding for all the national helplines.
  • Published the Women’s Health Strategy.
  • Introduced commissioning standards across all victim support services through the Victims Funding Strategy.

We have published research reports alongside the ASB Action Plan. The findings from the research highlight evidence and best practice examples. We expect local partners to work together to deliver a multi-agency approach to tackling anti-social behaviour and delivering the proposals set out in this plan. We will oversee the implementation and delivery of this action plan with a new Anti-social Behaviour Taskforce.


Written Question
Crime Prevention: Pilot Schemes
Thursday 30th March 2023

Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how she will decide which areas host pilots of hot spot policing.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

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.

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. Cracking down on anti-social behaviour works in tandem with this government’s priorities to prevent more murders, drive down violent crime, including against women and girls, and burglaries.

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, but from 2024 will support a hotspot approach across every police force area in England and Wales, which will see thousands of additional patrols taking place in places blighted by anti-social behaviour. It will be for the relevant Police and Crime Commissioners to determine the allocation of spending within their areas,.

The areas have been chosen to ensure that those areas with the greatest need when it came to tackling anti-social behaviour were able to benefit from pilot funding while ensuring there was sufficient geographical spread to allow the pilots to provide evidence for its likely impact across all of England and Wales.

There will be up to £5m to boost investment in green spaces in areas most in need, restoring parks and green spaces, giving more people access and improving pride in place.

We are on target to recruit 20,000 additional police officers by the end of March 2023. However, tackling anti-social behaviour is not just a police matter. It requires a strong and effective partnership response from all agencies working together to drive down anti-social behaviour. The measures we have outlined in the plan ensure the police, local authorities and other agencies have a wide range of powers and tools to deal with every situation of anti-social behaviour that may arise.

One of the commitments outlined in the Beating Crime Plan was to establish the principles required for a strong and effective partnership response to anti-social behaviour, working with PCCs, local authorities and other partners to help set expectations for local agencies, so that they work together to address ASB issues, including dealing with persistent offenders. This was published in July 2022.

We provided the police, local authorities and other local agencies with a range of flexible tools and powers that they can use to respond quickly and effectively to ASB through the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 including closure orders if there are reasonable grounds that the use of a particular premises has resulted or is likely to result in nuisance to members of the public and the notice is necessary to prevent the nuisance or disorder from continuing, recurring or occurring.

We have an ambitious programme of activity underway to tackle alcohol-related crime and work with police and licensing stakeholders to ensure thriving and safe night-time economies. We are piloting a training programme to help frontline practitioners identify where alcohol misuse and domestic abuse are co-occurring and to facilitate greater join-up with GPs and police.

In March 2022, we published the cross-Government Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan. The Plan will seek to transform the whole of society’s response in order to prevent offending, support victims and pursue perpetrators, as well as to strengthen the systems processes in place needed to deliver these goals.

The Plan invests over £230 million of cross-Government funding into tackling this heinous crime. This includes over £140 million for supporting victims and over £81 million for tackling perpetrators.

Some of the commitments we have delivered to date includes:

  • Publishing a set of tools to measure the effectiveness of interventions that support children of domestic abuse.
  • Doubling the funding for the National Domestic Abuse Helpline, and increasing funding for all the national helplines.
  • Published the Women’s Health Strategy.
  • Introduced commissioning standards across all victim support services through the Victims Funding Strategy.

We have published research reports alongside the ASB Action Plan. The findings from the research highlight evidence and best practice examples. We expect local partners to work together to deliver a multi-agency approach to tackling anti-social behaviour and delivering the proposals set out in this plan. We will oversee the implementation and delivery of this action plan with a new Anti-social Behaviour Taskforce.