Background 

The Crime and Policing Bill  supports the delivery of the  government’s Safer Streets Mission to halve knife crime and violence against women and girls in a decade and increase public confidence in policing and the wider criminal justice system.

It will implement key manifesto commitments, such as introducing respect orders and a standalone offence of assaulting a retail worker. It will help to rebuild the public’s confidence in policing, by equipping the police with more powers to respond quickly to criminal activity, whilst reforming the police accountability system.

Some of the measures in the bill build on parts of the Criminal Justice Bill introduced in the 2023/24 session of Parliament that the government supported whilst in opposition. 

What are we going to do? 

We will:

• tackle the epidemic of serious violence, child sexual abuse and violence against women and girls that stains our society 

• protect the public and our town centres from antisocial behaviour, retail crime and shop theft 

• equip the police and others with the powers they need to combat antisocial behaviour, crime and terrorism 

• rebuild public confidence in policing and the wider criminal justice system 

How are we going to do it? 

The bill includes a range of measures, as follows: 

1. Tackling antisocial behaviour. Giving the police and others stronger powers to tackle antisocial behaviour but introducing respect orders, remove the need for police to issue a warning before seizing vehicles being used antisocially, and strengthening the use of existing antisocial behaviour powers. The bill also gives ministers the power to issue statutory guidance to councils in England on the enforcement of fly-tipping. 

2. Tougher action on knife crime. Enhancing the ability of law enforcement agencies to clamp down on knife crime including: creating a power to seize, retain and destroy bladed articles found on private property; increasing the maximum penalty for sale of dangerous weapons to under 18s; and creating a new criminal offence of possessing a bladed article with the intent to cause harm. 

3. Protect retail workers. The bill  introduces a new offence of assaulting a retail worker, giving workers in shops up and down the country the protection they need. Additionally, the bill  repeals section 176 of the Anti-social Behaviour Crime and Policing Act 2014, which downgraded the police response to so called “low-value shop theft”. 

4. Protecting vulnerable children and adults. The bill introduces a new offence of child criminal exploitation, alongside a civil preventative order designed to stop the abhorrent exploitation of children by criminals. Additionally, the bill makes ‘cuckooing’ a specific offence, protecting the most vulnerable people whose homes are used by others to commit criminal activity, whilst also creating new offences of exposure and child abduction. 

5. Tackling child sexual abuse. The bill  addresses the alarming rise in AI-generated images of child sexual abuse by banning AI-models optimised to produce child sexual abuse material, and extend existing law criminalising ‘paedophile manuals’ to include material instructing how to use AI to generate child sexual abuse material. It  also criminalises moderators and administrators of websites that host child sexual abuse material, and grants Border Force officers the power to search the digital devices of individuals arriving in the UK for child sexual abuse material. 

6. Implement recommendations from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA). The bill  introduces a new duty in England for adults working in relevant activities to report instances of child sexual abuse. It  also introduces a new statutory aggravating factor covering grooming behaviour, and ensures that individuals working in supervised roles will be subject to enhanced checks by the Disclosure and Barring Service. 

7. Tackling violence against women and girls. Creating new offences criminalising the taking of intimate images, whilst creating a new standalone spiking offence. The bill  also gives victims of stalking the right to know the identity of their perpetrator, alongside strengthening stalking protection orders whilst issuing guidance to agencies on combatting stalking. 

8. Strengthening the supervision of offenders in the community. The bill  reforms the ability of the police to manage registered sex offenders, including restricting their ability to change their name where there is a risk of sexual harm. It will also give probation officers the power to polygraph test more serious offenders who have committed sexual or terrorism motivated crimes. 

9. New powers to tackle serious crime. Banning electronic devices used in vehicle theft and reforming the identification doctrine to strengthen the ability to apply corporate criminal liability to the makeup of modern corporations, particularly large complex structures. 

10. New powers to tackle economic crime. Strengthening the tools available to law enforcement agencies to tackle fraud and economic crime, including prohibiting possession and supply of ‘SIM farms’ with no legitimate purpose; reform of the confiscation powers used to strip convicted criminals of their proceeds of crime; and introducing cost protections for law enforcement agencies to protect them from the risk of adverse costs when investigating kleptocrats and high-net worth individuals and corporations. 

11. Introduce new public order powers. The bill  bans the deliberate use of face coverings to conceal a person’s identity during a protest, and  bans the possession  of fireworks, flares and other pyrotechnics at  protests. The bill also criminalises the climbing of specified war memorials, making it clear that such disrespectful behaviour is unacceptable. 

12. Giving police the powers they need. Create a new targeted power for the police to enter premises to search for and seize electronically tracked stolen goods, ranging from mobile phones to stolen vehicles and agricultural machinery, and expansion of the lawful purposes by which law enforcement agencies can access the DVLA driver licence records.  

13. Tougher action on drugs. Expanding police powers to drug test more suspects on arrest, helping direct more drug users into treatment and away from drugs. 

14. Enhancing public confidence in policing. The bill will also reform the Independent Officer of Police Conduct’s investigative processes and give chief officers of police the right to appeal the result of misconduct boards to the Police Appeals Tribunal. 

15. Update counter-terrorism powers. The bill implements recommendations of the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, such as introducing youth diversion orders to divert young people away from terrorism-related activity.  

How much will these measures cost? 

The impact assessments and economic notes published alongside the bill indicate that the current estimated cost of the measures in the bill applying to England and Wales is £48.65 million per year once fully implemented.

The estimated monetised annual benefit is £11.81 million. 

Will these measures apply across the United Kingdom? 

Subject to limited exceptions, all the provisions in the bill apply to England and Wales. Certain provisions also apply to Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The provisions in the bill relate to a mixture of devolved and reserved or excepted matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.