News

Public do not believe government will tackle crime

Home Office documents, seen by the Guardian, indicate that the public do not believe government ministers’ promises to tackle crime.

Polling carried out for the government found a high fear of crime, and low confidence much will be done about it, with the leak revealing that the public are not convinced by a series of flagship initiatives by Boris Johnson’s administration on law on order, such as the Beating Crime plan.

Following a decade of Conservative cuts to the police and the criminal justice system, only one in three of those polled had faith the government could tackle crime, with the document noting: “Current initiatives to tackle crime are not cutting through to the public – only around a third (35 per cent) say they have confidence in the government’s handling of crime and justice, and awareness of the Beating Crime Plan is low.”

The document, called Home Office Violence Reduction Unit Communications Strategy, dates from March and contains polling from February. This means that the polling took place after weeks of furore over ‘Partygate’.

The Home office document also found that 61 per cent of the public think that crime is going up nationally, and 51 per cent are worried about becoming a victim of crime.

The planned response to lack of public confidence planned by ministers is a public relations campaign to convince voters the government can tackle crime. Under communications objectives, the document says the Home Office wants to boost the numbers of those believing police ‘have the funding and resources they need’.

Partners

View the latest
digital issue