Climbing on Portsmouth Naval Memorial to be made illegal as new police powers are introduced to tackle street crime

It is one of a raft of new measures being introduced in the Government’s new Bill to tackle crime which will also mean police would no longer need a warrant to search a property for a stolen phone. Officers would gain new powers to act in the “golden hour” of investigations to search a place where stolen items have been electronically located, such as through a phone-tracking app, Wifi access or Bluetooth.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced the new powers after towns and cities reported seeing street theft “shoot up” over several years, and said it is “extremely frustrating” for victims to see where their phones are but nothing is done.

The Government’s new Crime and Policing Bill is to be introduced to Parliament on Tuesday, February 25 with a range of measures from tackling knife crime to antisocial behaviour. It comes at a time when concerns have been raised about the levels of knife crime and violent crime in and around the Portsmouth area as well as across other areas of the country.

The Home Secretary said: “For too long communities have had to put up with rising town centre and street crime, and persistent antisocial behaviour, while neighbourhood police have been cut.

“And for years too little has been done to tackle the most serious violence of all including knife crime and violence against women and children.

“That is why the new Crime and Policing Bill is about taking back our streets and town centres, restoring respect for law and order, and giving the police and local communities the support and tools they need to tackle local crime.”

It will also be made illegal to climb on specific war memorials, with a list of 25 locations classed as Historic England category one sites, including the Arch of Remembrance in Leicester, Plymouth and Portsmouth’s naval war memorials and the Cenotaph in London. The Home Secretary will also have the power to add more sites for extra protection in England and Wales.

Police could also ban people from wearing face coverings to conceal their identity at designated protests.

The Government has already announced a raft of anti-knife crime measures, collectively known as Ronan’s Law, to tackle knife sales, including making retailers report bulk or suspicious sales to police, and increasing to two years the jail sentence for selling weapons to children, or illegal blades such as zombie knives.

There will also be new respect orders to ban people responsible for repeated antisocial behaviour from town centres, as well as new criminal offences over spiking and to stop registered sex offenders who continue to pose a threat from changing their name.

Restaurant and retail bosses have written to the Home Secretary warning that the Bill “stops short” of protecting delivery riders under plans to create a new offence of threatening or assaulting a shop worker in their place of work, and calling for the offence to include couriers on journeys to and from customers.

Ministers have also announced plans to introduce a new offence punishable with up to five years in prison for anyone caught with electronic devices used in 40% of car thefts.

The Government has said the measures in the Crime and Policing Bill will be supported by the recruitment of 13,000 extra neighbourhood policing roles.

The Bill is expected to pass through Parliament by the end of the year.

John Hayward-Cripps, chief executive of Neighbourhood Watch, said: “The focus on addressing and reducing the epidemic of antisocial behaviour, theft and shoplifting that we all witness in our town centres and communities will play an important role in increasing feelings of confidence in the police, and feeling safer in our local communities.”