Over 6,000 reports of anti-social behaviour in Britain every day

More than 6,500 incidents of anti-social behaviour were recorded by police in England and Wales every day in December, new figures show.

In all, more than 200,000 instances of anti-social behaviour took place, including almost 35,000 in London alone. An analysis of the data showed a total of 201,520 incidents of anti-social behaviour were recorded by police forces across England and Wales – the first time such figures have been released.

Policing Minister Nick Herbert said: “The number of incidents that it lists does tell us something that the public have been telling us for some time, that anti-social behaviour is there, it’s something they’re concerned about, it reveals it and I think it will drive action to deal with it.”

Last September, a report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary said only one in four incidents of anti-social behaviour were reported and communities were “becoming used to things we should not have become used to”.

The top 10 forces with the highest number of recorded incidents of anti-social behaviour in December were:

Metropolitan Police – 34,463 incidents.
Greater Manchester - 10,233 incidents.
West Midlands – 8,442 incidents.
Lancashire – 8,319 incidents.
West Yorkshire – 7,749 incidents.
South Yorkshire – 7,258 incidents.
Northumbria – 6,839 incidents.
Sussex – 6,370 incidents.
South Wales – 5,647 incidents.
Kent – 5,490 incidents.