Crime and Policing Bill
Introduced in Parliament on 25 February, the Government’s flagship Crime and Policing Bill represents the biggest package of new laws on crime and policing for decades.
Labour’s comprehensive set of new measures will tackle antisocial behaviour, shop theft and street crime head on, giving the police and our communities new powers to take back town centres from thugs and thieves.
The Bill also includes measures to address the most serious violence and highest-harm offences such as knife crime, violence against women and girls, cybercrime, child sexual abuse, and terrorism.
This Labour Government will take back our streets and town centres, restore respect for law and order, and give the police and local communities the support and tools they need to tackle local crime.
What is the Labour government doing to address crime?
Through this Bill, Police will be given stronger powers to tackle mobile phone thefts – no longer needing a warrant to search premises where stolen items have been electronically located, speeding up investigations and increasing the chances of recovering stolen goods.
We will protect our high streets by ending the effective immunity for anyone caught shoplifting goods below £200 and introducing a new criminal offence to better protect retail workers from assault.
What is the Labour government doing to address antisocial behaviour?
We will introduce Respect Orders to tackle the worst ASB offenders, and stamp out issues such as public drinking and drug use, to ensure that our communities are free from harm and nuisance.
Police will be given new powers to immediately seize vehicles that cause havoc in our communities, allowing them to deal with the scourge of off-road bikes in public parks and dangerous e-scooters on pavements.
What is the Labour government doing to help our high streets?
We will protect our high streets by ending the effective immunity for anyone caught shoplifting goods below £200 and introducing a new criminal offence to better protect retail workers from assault. In the year ending September 2024, police recorded one million incidents of anti-social behaviour. In the same period, they recorded over 490,000 shop theft offences, an increase of 23 per cent over the previous 12-month period. Instances of theft from a person increased by 22 per cent, while there were also over 55,000 recorded offences involving a knife or sharp instruments.
What is the Labour government doing to prevent violence against women and young girls?
This Labour government has set out an unprecedented ambition to halve violence against women and girls within a decade. Achieving this mission will require a transformation in the way we work together on this issue across Government, public services, charities and the private sector, and we will use all of the levers available to us to deliver it. The Bill will treat violence against women and girls as the national emergency it truly is, with tougher action against perpetrators and better protection for victims including strengthening Stalking Protection Orders and introducing a new criminal offence for spiking.
What is the Labour government doing to address child sex abuse?
The Government will implement a flagship recommendation of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse by creating a new duty to report child sexual abuse, as well as increased sentencing for those who organise child grooming.
What is the Labour government doing about local policing?
To help rebuild confidence in police standards, Chief Constables will be supported to remove those who are unfit to serve by allowing them the right to appeal the result of misconduct boards to the Police Appeals Tribunal.
Measures in the Bill will be backed up by the recruitment of 13,000 extra neighbourhood police officers, with a named officer in every community. We have already announced funding of £200 million to kickstart delivery of these roles, as part of an overall police funding increase of up to £1.1 billion compared to the 2024-25 settlement under the Tories.
The Crime and Policing Bill sits at the heart of the Government’s Safer Streets Mission and Plan for Change. It will help tackle the crimes that matter most to communities but have been ignored for too long after 14 years of Tory dereliction on law and order.