• 4.3 million anti-social behaviour reports go unattended by police in past five years
• Lib Dems demand food summit in Downing Street to tackle “tsunami” of rising food prices
• Welsh Health Statistics – Emergency Social Care Plan Needed
• Raab Report: More dither and delay

4.3 million anti-social behaviour reports go unattended by police in past five years

• Over 2,000 incidents of anti-social behaviour went unattended by police each day last year

• Some police forces attending fewer than one in five (19%) incidents

• Lib Dem Leader Ed Davey calls for “return to proper community policing” with more bobbies on the beat

A staggering 4.3 million reports of anti-social behaviour have gone unattended by the police across the country since 2019, data uncovered by the Liberal Democrats has revealed.

In 2022 alone, over 860,000 incidents of anti-social behaviour went unattended by a police officer – equivalent to over 2,000 cases a day. This was the highest proportion of unattended incidents out of any of the past four years.

The figures were obtained by the Liberal Democrats through Freedom of Information requests to police forces, asking for the number of anti-social behaviour incidents reported to their force and how many of these led to a police officer visiting the scene of the incident.

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey will today call for a return to community policing on a local elections campaigning visit to Watford. Police in the local area of Hertfordshire failed to attend almost three in four (75%) reports of anti-social behaviour last year, one of the highest rates in the country.

Of the 38 police forces who submitted full responses, the worst performers in 2022 were Avon & Somerset and Cambridgeshire – with 81% and 80% of anti-social behaviour reports going unattended respectively.

The shocking new data comes as the Conservative Government looks set to break its trademark promise to recruit 20,000 extra police officers. Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) numbers have also plummeted under the Conservative Party’s watch, with the number of active PCSOs falling by an average of 33% in England and Wales since 2015.

Ahead of May’s local elections, the Liberal Democrats are calling for a return to proper community policing – where officers are visible, trusted and have the time to focus on preventing and solving neighbourhood crimes.

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

It’s clear this Government has lost control of anti-social behaviour – and it’s only getting worse.

Too many communities are being plagued by anti-social behaviour, with criminals being allowed to act with impunity while victims are left afraid to walk down their own street. People should be able to feel that if they fall victim to anti-social behaviour, it will be taken seriously and police will attend.

Instead of more empty promises, it’s time for the Government to finally commit to proper community policing – where offices are visible, trusted, and able to tackle neighbourhood crime. It cannot wait any longer.

Lib Dems demand food summit in Downing Street to tackle “tsunami” of rising food prices

The Liberal Democrats have demanded that Rishi Sunak hold an emergency food summit in Downing Street with supermarkets, farmers and food manufacturers, to discuss measures to tackle soaring food prices.

It comes after figures yesterday revealed food prices increased by 19% in the past year, the fastest rise in 45 years.

The Liberal Democrats are warning that families are being overwhelmed by a “tsunami” or rising food prices and need urgent help. The party is calling for the government to reinstate energy bill support to businesses including farmers and supermarkets, to help bring inflation and prices down.

Liberal Democrat Environment Spokesperson Tim Farron MP said:

Families are being overwhelmed by a tsunami of rising food prices, but this Conservative government is doing nothing to help. Instead the Conservatives have made this cost of living crisis even worse by slashing energy bill support for businesses and farmers.

Rishi Sunak needs to hold an emergency summit in Downing Street with farmers and supermarkets, to discuss measures to bring down food prices. Failure to act would show this Conservative government just doesn’t get it and has no plan to tackle soaring prices.

Welsh Health Statistics – Emergency Social Care Plan Needed

Responding to Welsh Government statistics showing that ambulance response times are the second worst on record ever, Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader Jane Dodds MS said:

We cannot wait years for Labour and Plaid Cymru’s long-promised social care reforms. It has been almost 2 years since they agreed to tackle the issue together and yet we have seen no results or even concrete suggestions at this stage.

People are dying now while waiting for an ambulance or in A&E because hospitals aren’t able to discharge patients into social care.

We need to see the Welsh Government urgently set out an emergency plan to deal with the crisis in social care, it is only then will we see any real improvement in our A&E departments.

Raab Report: More dither and delay

Responding to the news that there will be no verdict on the Raab report today, Liberal Democrat Chief Whip Wendy Chamberlain MP said:

People will be fed up with this dither and delay from Rishi Sunak. It feels like almost every week there is an issue with sleaze and scandal where Rishi Sunak is either implicated in himself or too weak to get to grips with it. People are crying out for a Government that will just get on with tackling the issue’s that matter, not focused on saving their own skin.