Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson pledges Crime and Policing Bill will 'tackle whole spectrum of criminality'

Crime, as we know, doesn’t stand still.

It changes and it grows. It learns, it develops, and it responds.

As Policing Minister, I’m all too aware of the evolving nature of crime. I have seen how criminals adapt, how they find new and innovative ways to harm our communities and cause untold misery to people’s lives. How they take advantage of loopholes in the law and use new technology to evade detection and avoid consequence.

And as they change and adapt, so too must our approach to tackling them.

I’m all too aware of the frustration people feel too.

In November, a collection of NationalWorld’s readers came to the Home Office at the conclusion of the fantastic Silent Crime campaign run by this website and others across the country. The Home Secretary and I listened to their concerns and stories of their local areas being torn apart by crime.

These are the same problems I hear in my own constituency in Hull and across the country when I visit communities and police forces.

The frustration that policing isn’t doing enough. That laws put in place yesterday don’t address the crimes committed today. That some crimes, whether they be old or new, never get properly addressed, and criminals, fuelled by a perceived lack of consequence from the law, feel emboldened.

This must change. And it is exactly what our landmark Crime and Policing Bill, which enters parliament today, will do.

Not forgetting old issues but ready to tackle the new ones too, we will bring in a range of laws to cover the whole spectrum of criminality that we are facing today.

It will introduce new ways to deal not only with hidden crimes online, but also the ones we see every day in our streets and town centres.

Whether it be antisocial behaviour, theft in shops or attacks on the people who work there, or imposing stronger sentences on those who sell knives to under-18s, this Bill will deliver real change on our streets.

Police will no longer be required to issue a warning before seizing an off-road bike causing havoc on public walkways, while tougher sanctions will be introduced for assaults on retail workers.

Officers will now have powers to carry out tests for drug use on arrest, and have new powers of entry without a warrant to recover electronically trackable stolen goods. We will also end the downgrading of so-called ‘low level’ shop theft to ensure honest business owners do not lose hard-earned profits.

And those seemingly anonymous criminals who lurk online and hide behind keyboards? They will now find themselves increasingly cornered with stronger offences relating to intimate images and voyeurism, and the ability to suspend IP addresses and domain names used to commit serious crime.

At the border, officers will now be able to compel individuals entering or leaving the UK to unlock their devices, if they are suspected of possessing child sexual abuse material.

And when it comes to protecting women and girls, and the increasing dangers they face, we are going further again.

When the Bill comes into force there will be a new offence covering spiking, the criminalisation of internet services that allow online sexual abuse of children, and it will be illegal to possess digital tools designed to create synthetic child sexual abuse material.

The Bill will strengthen Stalking Protection Orders, provide guidance to police forces about disclosure of information on stalkers, and bring in restrictions on registered sex offenders who seek to change their name.

We know you, the British people, have felt not enough has been done and that stronger, more robust action is needed to protect the most vulnerable in our society, to rid our communities of anti-social behaviour and to make our streets safe again.

That’s what I’m committed to do and that’s what this Crime and Policing Bill will deliver, alongside our pledge to put 13,000 additional police officers, PCSOs and special constables back in neighbourhood roles within the next four years.

We’re not going to waste any more time or rest on our laurels. Crime doesn’t rest and neither will we.