Criminals will soon be banned from going to football matches, pubs and on holidays under new laws. MPs said the new sentencing powers, which are set to become law within months, will “hit offenders where it hurts”.
It will allow judges to ban criminals from local and England football matches, pubs and bars and concerts. The measures will use the same facial recognition technology that is currently used to keep hooligans from matches.
The football bans could be issued for a string of games to entire seasons. The Sentencing Act 2026 will also see driving and foreign travel sanctions imposed.
Labour MP for Portsmouth North Amanda Martin, who has campaigned for tougher sentences for tool thieves, said the new law would act as a deterrent for thousands of criminals.
She said: “It gives the courts and probation services a greater opportunity to tailor that punishment to offenders. “It will mean community sentencing or suspended sentencing is not seen as a soft option – it is really a genuine punishment.
“These new orders will really hit criminals where it hurts and limit their freedom in the community. People will see that they’re unable to attend football games, to go to the pub or to go to the likes of Glastonbury festival.
“It’s restricting their freedoms which is what they should be doing. They need to earn the right to go back.”
The changes will toughen up community punishments to deter criminals, including burglars, shoplifters and thieves, from reoffending.
Those who break the rules face being brought back to court or hauled back to prison as punishment depending on the sentence they are serving.
Currently, judges are able to give out limited bans for specific crimes, such as football bans for crimes committed inside a stadium on match day, to prevent further antisocial behaviour.
But the law will allow such bans to be handed down as a form of punishment for any offence in any circumstance.
It will form part of wider reforms to sentencing to ensure punishments cut crime and prisons never again run out of places for dangerous offenders.
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said of the new act: “When criminals break society’s rules, they must be punished.
“Those serving their sentences in the community must have their freedom restricted there too.
“These new punishments should remind all offenders that, under this Government, crime does not pay.”
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