Llanelli MP backs tough new action on antisocial behaviour and town centre crime as new Crime and Policing Bill launched

Llanelli Labour MP, Nia Griffith has welcomed tough new action on antisocial behaviour and town centre crime as the Labour UK Government introduced a raft of measures including brand new Respect Orders and action against shoplifting, in Parliament this week as part of its flagship Crime and Policing Bill.

Respect Orders – promised in Labour’s 2024 manifesto – will enable swift enforcement against persistent antisocial behaviour offenders. The Orders come as shock new data shows that Dyfed Powys Police Force failed to hand out a SINGLE Penalty Notice for Disorder for ASB in 2023.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s Bill also includes action on shoplifting, including introducing a new offence of assaulting a retail worker. Labour will also scrap the Tory ‘shoplifter’s charter’, a law which deprioritised the theft of goods under £200.

Stats show there were 2161 recorded incidences of shoplifting in the Dyfed Powys Police Force area in the year ending September 2024, around 42 per week.

Labour’s bill will also give the police new powers to enter premises without a warrant, enabling the police to search and seize stolen property swiftly which they believe is at an address. Labour’s action comes as the number of snatch thefts last year reached 85,000 across England and Wales.

The new measures will be supported by the government’s plan to recruit 13,000 additional police officers, PCSOs and special constables into neighbourhood policing roles over the course of this Parliament. Dyfed Powys Police has been granted a 5.9% increase in funding to deliver the reforms.

Dame Nia Griffith. Labour MP for Llanelli, said:

“After fourteen years of Conservative rule, local people in Llanelli know only too well the effects on our town centres and communities of anti-social behaviour, shoplifting and other similar crimes.

I wholeheartedly welcome the tough new action included in this bill. Whether it’s street drinking, harassment or vandalism in the town centre or noisy and intimidating off-road bikes terrorising some of our residential areas, my constituents in Llanelli are completely and utterly fed up.

“Antisocial behaviour chips away at our communities’ confidence and pride, undermines local businesses and can have a devastating impact on victims. Hardworking, law-abiding people will welcome the introduction of tough new Respect Orders, and Government action on shoplifting that cannot come soon enough.”