A SOUTHAMPTON MP has urged police not to use Community Resolution orders to resolve serious crimes.

Royston Smith, MP for Southampton Itchen, says the orders, which do not show up as offences on a criminal record, should only be used to deal with minor incidents.

It comes after figures showed police in Hampshire had used the controversial orders to deal with crimes including robbery, drugs and sex offences.

The Conservative MP said: “We shouldn’t clog up the courts with minor issues.

“If it can be dealt with outside of court and everyone is happy then it’s a good way of dealing with it.

“If the offence is a little one then I think they should be used in that way.

“But if the offence is serious then it is serious and it should be dealt with seriously.”

As reported in the Daily Echo, the figures revealed how Hampshire Police have used more than 13,000 Community Resolution (CR) orders to deal with a host of different offences since 2014.

According to the figures, from the shared BBC Data Unit, this includes over 500 drugs offences, 30 sex offences, 11 robberies.

The CR orders are resolved out of court, do not appear on a criminal record or standard DBS check and do not count as a conviction – something which has drawn criticism from the likes of Labour MP Yvette Cooper, who dubbed them “bad for justice”.

Hampshire Constabulary says the number of CR orders used has decreased proportionally to the number of crimes since 2014 and that their use for sexual offences often involve peer on peer incidents involving juveniles.