The Crime and Policing Act 2026 - A summary of key changes

Antisocial Behaviour & Public Order

• Respect Orders: New civil court orders that enable police and local authorities to ban repeat adult offenders from town centres or specified activities. Breaching an order is a criminal offence.

• Quicker Vehicle Seizure: Repeals the requirement for a prior warning before police can seize a vehicle used in an anti-social manner.

• New Public Order Offences: Replaces the outdated Vagrancy Act 1824 with clearer offences targeting harmful or persistent trespass and arranging/facilitating begging for gain.

Retail & Property Crime

• Assaulting a Retail Worker: Creates a specific criminal offence for assaulting a shop worker.

• Shop Theft Overhaul: Repeals legislation that classified theft under £200 as a summary-only offence, ensuring perpetrators can be punished adequately.

• Vehicle Theft: Criminalises the possession or supply of electronic devices (such as signal jammers) and SIM farms used to commit vehicle thefts and fraud.

• Stolen Goods Warrant: Gives police power to enter premises without a warrant to search for and seize stolen items (like GPS-tracked phones).

Policing Liability

• Anonymity for Firearms Officers: Grants firearms officers subject to criminal proceedings anonymity up to the point of conviction in incidents where a firearm is discharged in the line of duty.

Violence Against Women, Girls & Safeguarding

• New Criminal Offences: Criminalises spiking (administering harmful substances), "nudification tools" (AI-generated non-consensual imagery), and "screenshotting" intimate images without consent.

• Child Exploitation: Introduces specific criminal offences for "cuckooing" (taking over a vulnerable person's home for criminal activity) and Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE).

• Stalking Protections: Gives stalking victims the right to know the identity of their perpetrators.

In addition the Act implements one of the recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual abuse  (IICSA) that the 3-year limitation period for personal injury should not apply to victims of child sexual abuse.  A defendant will only be able to rely on a defence of limitation if it can establish that it is not possible to have a fair trial and the burden of proving that is now on the defendant. The change is retrospective and only previous claims that have been settled or decided by a court will be excluded.