Politics · 4 May 2026
Crime and Policing Act delivers biggest police shake-up in a generation
Britain's biggest overhaul of policing powers in a generation has become law after Royal Assent on Wednesday. The Crime and Policing Act introduces a standalone offence of assaulting a shop worker, scraps the £200 shop theft threshold, and creates Respect Orders to ban antisocial offenders from town centres. The Home Office plans to recruit 13,000 new neighbourhood officers by the end of this parliament to enforce the new powers.
Reported by GOV.UK · How we write briefs