We contacted all candidates vying for your vote to be the next MP for the Glastonbury and Somerton constituency, asking each of them the same questions. We've taken their responses exactly as they were sent to us - so you know where each of the candidates stands to help you decide who to vote for.

Here are their responses to the question:

What are your plans to improve law and order? How will you address issues such as crime prevention and community policing?

Jon Cousins (Green Party):

As a Green MP, I will prioritise community policing and crime prevention. Green policies include increasing funding for local police forces to ensure adequate staffing levels and the presence of community officers in our neighbourhoods. I support initiatives that strengthen community relationships and trust between residents and law enforcement. Additionally, I will advocate for restorative justice programmes, which focus on rehabilitation and reconciliation between offenders and victims.

Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrats):

The Liberal Democrats will prevent crime and build communities where people can truly feel safe. We'll restore proper community policing, where officers are visible, trusted, and focused on preventing and solving crimes. In a parliamentary question, I called on the Minister to make an assessment of the success of the new National Rural Crime Unit in improving police contact with victims of theft. In 2022, the cost of rural theft in the South West rose by 16.6% on the year before. We'll create a new statutory guarantee that all burglaries will be attended by the police and properly investigated. We'll invest in the criminal justice system to tackle the backlog of court cases and ensure swift justice. We'll break the cycle of reoffending by improving rehabilitation in prisons and on release and strengthen the supervision of offenders in the community. We'll ensure survivors of violence against women and girls are properly supported in the criminal justice process, including through mandatory training for police and prosecutors in understanding the impact of trauma on survivors.

Hal Hooberman (Labour):



Policing and our justice system have been brought to their knees - crime goes unpunished and we are left unsupported in our communities without access to local neighbourhood police teams. Antisocial behaviour is the scourge of our town centres - with Glastonbury and Street residents knowing this all too well. I will fight for the restoration of neighbourhood policing with a new Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee so that communities will have named officers to turn to. Labour will hire 13,000 additional neighbourhood police and community Police Community Support Officers. We will also create 'Respect Orders' to ban repeat anti-social behaviour offenders from our town centres. Knife crime is not just an urban crisis - but one we know all too well down here, too. Labour will halve knife crime in a decade, starting with tackling those companies freely selling killer knives online. I will also, proudly, stand up for reducing reoffending by working on rehabilitation by improving prisoners' access to purposeful activity - more learning opportunities and pre-release plans to support them back into work and society.

Tom Carter (Reform UK):

No response received

Faye Purbrick (Conservative)

No response received