Conservatives have pledged to recruit an extra 10,000 police officers, deploy live facial recognition technology more, set mandatory policing standards and abolish the Sentencing Council to restore public confidence in law and order.
The policy commitments can be found in The Right Way, a 100-page manifesto document unveiled by party leader Kemi Badenoch on the first day of the party’s annual conference in Birmingham yesterday.
The manifesto states the 10,000 new police recruits include 2,000 officers who would focus on crime ‘hotspots’ and ‘return police officers currently working on equality, diversity and inclusion initiatives’ to frontline policing. As well as more live facial recognition technology, the party wants to triple the use of stop and search. Officers would be required to pursue certain lines of inquiry before closing cases.
Sentencing would be made ‘accountable’ to the public by abolishing the Sentencing Council and making the lord chancellor accountable for policy. ‘Decisions about the punishment of criminals are ultimately political decisions, and responsibility for them should rest with elected politicians who can be held accountable by voters,’ the manifesto states.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp told a Conservative Group of Police and Crime Commissioners fringe event yesterday that money from some of ‘exorbitant’ welfare budget would fund the 10,000 new police officers and 'intensively hot spot patrolling’ high crime areas would prevent 3,500 crimes.
The Sentencing Act 2026 introduced a presumption against immediate prison sentences of 12 months or less. Philp said: ‘Almost no one gets over a year for shoplifting. They’re effectively saying no matter how much you shoplift you will never go to prison. What sort of deterrent is that? It’s a charter for car thieves, burglars and shoplifters. That’s why [shadow justice secretary] Nick Timothy’s prison places should help. He’s going to be the Bob the Builder of the next government.’ The party has pledged to build 50,000 new prison places.
Another fringe event organised by the Conservative Group of Police and Crime Commissioners heard widespread frustration about rural crime. Unauthorised encampments were raised by councillors in attendance, as well as flytipping
Robbie Moore, shadow minister for environment, food and rural affairs, told the event that the impact of rural crime on the UK economy was valued at £41.5m last year, and livestock, quadbike, and vehicle and agricultural machinery thefts significantly increased. The 43 police forces needed to be funded ‘in alignment to rural crime being addressed’, he said.
He is also a member of the home affairs select committee, which he said was looking at rural crime as part of a broader inquiry on the impact of serious and organised crime on local neighbourhoods.
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