Scrapping Royal Parks police puts Londoners at risk – Met must provide like-for-like replacement

12 May 2025, 07:28

By Rachel Blake MP

@RNBlake

Maintaining current levels of police support for our Royal Parks is vital to protecting Londoners

For those who live and work in Central London, our Royal Parks are a solace of green space amid the business of our capital city. Hyde Park, Green Park, St James’ Park and others all provide vital outdoor space to families across my constituency of the Cities of London and Westminster.

They are also iconic tourist attractions and are visited by 77 million people every year.

They are also hotspots for crime and anti-social behaviour. I am disappointed to see that the Metropolitan Police has made the decision to abolish the Royal Parks Police, who provide specialist support to combat crime in our iconic Royal Parks.

The decision from the Metropolitan Police does not support the Labour Government’s ‘Safer Streets’ mission.

This Labour Government is serious about tackling rising crime – especially in particular hotspots across central London – many of which are in my constituency of the Cities of London and Westminster.

I hear every day from constituents how concerned they are about crime and anti-social behaviour in their communities, and I am proud of the steps that are being taken to tackle this.

Just this year, the Mayor of London dedicated an additional £1.6 billion to policing across the capital, to supplement the additional 13,000 Police Community Support Officers being recruited by the Government nationwide.

In our Royal Parks, criminal incidents increased substantially between 2022/23 and 2023/24, from 76 reported incidents to 101.

This represents a roughly 33% increase, far higher than the 6% increase of crime reported across London in the same period.

Abolishing the Royal Parks police allows a loss of institutional knowledge of how to effectively protect residents and visitors to the parks, and whilst it has been suggested that a small number of additional officers have been offered to replace them, that will not be enough to stem the rising tide of anti-social behaviour.

It is vital that the Met Police heed warnings from policy makers and Londoners alike, and offer a like-for-like replacement of the Royal Parks Police service in order to provide assurances to the people of London that they will do their utmost to keep them safe in our city.

Rachel Blake MP is the Labour Member of Parliament for Cities of London and Westminster

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