A police chief is concerned that potentially violent young people are being moved into Hertfordshire without police being aware.

Police and Crime Commissioner David Lloyd has called for a change in the law to stop knife and serious crime travelling into the county.

He says a number of north London authorities are moving people “with a wide range of needs” into private rented or housing association housing in places like Three Rivers and Broxbourne, without informing police or the council.

Speaking at Westminster, Mr Lloyd told the home affairs select committee that PCC's would be "happy" to take the powers to ensure police had the right data and information which in turn means authorities can help offer the right support.

He said: “We are not hearing beforehand, either as a police force or as a county council in social care, that these people are arriving. That means we cannot put the appropriate safeguarding around them before they arrive. We really do need to have far better data sharing.

"There should be a duty to co-operate on that, and I think it should be placed on all local authorities, police and health."

His comments come as this week nearly 600 suspected members of county lines drugs gangs were arrested across the UK in a National Crime Agency operation.

Police forces nationally seized cocaine worth £176,780, £312,649 in cash and 46 weapons. Seven people were arrested in Hertfordshire as part of the Operation Mantis.

In March, Mr Lloyd sat round the table in 10 Downing Street with the Prime Minister Theresa May and Home Secretary Sajid Javid for the serious violence summit.

Mr Lloyd added: “Certainly, there are hotspots of serious violence, and there is quite a lot of travelling criminality around serious violence.

“One of the real issues that we have at the moment is drugs. Frankly, the middle classes who, in Hertfordshire, are really concerned about their Fairtrade coffee and what the supply line of that is do not seem to have the same concern around the cocaine that they take.”

In Hertfordshire, figures released last week showed the number of serious offences involving a knife in 2018 went down by 13 per from 564 in 2017 to 490.