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12.50 pm
Mr. Edward Davey (Kingston and Surbiton): I join right hon. and hon. Members who have paid tribute to the Metropolitan police. I would also like to thank the police in Kingston, including Bill Wilson, a very distinguished policeman who was the chief superintendent of our local division for several years and who retired earlier this year, and Peter Lally, his replacement, whom I welcome. I wish him well in his work.
I am disturbed to hear that a constituent of the hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington (Mr. McDonnell) was murdered in Kingston and that the victim's family are unhappy about the way in which the Kingston division responded. That may reflect the fact that the Kingston division needs more resources. I am happy to assist the hon. Gentleman in his efforts to get to the bottom of the case.
I want to bring to the House's attention the resourcing problems facing Kingston division and area No. 5. Without warning, the hon. Member for Streatham (Mr. Hill) got in before me and mentioned some of the difficulties in area No. 5, which has suffered significant cuts compared with other parts of London. The cuts have been especially severe in the Kingston division. In just two years, we have lost more than 40 police officers--more than 10 per cent. of our manpower. Station opening hours have also been cut.
The hon. Member for Chipping Barnet(Sir S. Chapman) said that we should not regard police stations as sacred cows. He might be right, but I have anecdotal evidence that suggests that the reduction in the opening hours of stations in New Malden and Surbiton has led to an increase in crime on the high streets there. I have heard that from retailers and residents, who say that local criminals know that, as police stations are not manned all hours, the police response to crime near the stations will be slower. That is a result of the cuts made under the previous Government.
The local police division has responded magnificently to the budget constraints imposed on it. It has restructured and reduced the number of sectors to try to use the remaining manpower far more efficiently, but I am still not convinced that, even with these efficiency measures, it will be able to provide the standard of policing that it provided prior to the cuts. The cuts have seriously undermined its ability to police the streets of Kingston and Surbiton. That is a great concern. I shall watch closely, with other residents and the local police and community consultative group, to see how the new structures perform.
I hope that if and when the Commissioner reads my speech tomorrow he will be aware of the need to discover whether the cuts that have been imposed on the Kingston division have undermined the ability of local police officers to patrol our streets. He should not allow any further cuts; he must be sure the police can stabilise crime levels in our area with the current efficiency measures.
The hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington talked about the formula for police resources in London, which I believe is the key point for the debate. The allocation and use of manpower across the capital are operational decisions for the Commissioner, but the formula that he uses for distributing resources could be debated. It is highly controversial, with many subjective elements. For example, the formula rates the police resources put into investigating a burglary as equal to those required to investigate a murder. That is clearly not sensible. Ministers should ask the Commissioner to review the formula urgently and give him back-up support.
I should like to make an early lobby on the factors that should be taken into account in the review. In Kingston, we should not be trying just to stave off further cuts, but expanding our police force to meet future problems. The formula should take into account the underlying dynamics of crime. At the moment, it just paints a static picture, which cannot be right. If the formula is not dynamic, it will not be sensitive to likely future movements in the crime statistics. If it is based purely on historical factors, it is almost certain to be wrong.
There are several dynamic factors in Kingston that are likely to necessitate more resources for our local police service. Kingston already has a vibrant night life. A huge number of new pubs have opened in recent years. If all the applications before the authorities for new pubs and night clubs were approved, there would be a 100 per cent. increase in the number of young people coming out of clubs and bars in Kingston town centre in the early hours. That would clearly leave the police needing extra resources.
Local people are trying to react to the developments. Local magistrates, the local authority and the local police have opposed applications for new licences time and again, but their opposition has been turned down almost without exception. Local people, who understand the local situation, are almost powerless to prevent the dynamics that I am talking about. It is very important that Ministers and the Commissioner realise that the trend in Kingston town centre is likely to be towards greater night time activity, with more people, often under the influence of alcohol, turning out on to the streets. More resources will be needed to deal with that.
There is also the dynamic of population. There is a clear shift of people from inner London to outer London, while the trend in police resources in recent years has been for a shift from outer London to inner London. I am not saying that that was necessarily always wrong, but there will be more people in the outer suburbs in future.
Many housing developments are going up in Kingston, which suggest that the population in our area is likely to surge in the next few years. What is relevant is not just the total population, but its composition. In Kingston, we have a young population: the university has trebled its size in the past 10 years. I do not, of course, want to impugn the character of the students at Kingston university. With so many of them going into the pubs and nightclubs of Kingston, however, there may be a knock-on effect on the need for police resources.
Kingston is also a major retail centre. I am pleased to say that it is a successful one and is booming. That means, however, that there is a massive influx of visitors to Kingston town centre during the day for shops and at night for pubs and clubs. That requires police resources.
We have heard much about partnerships today. My local authority is working with the police and the private sector and it has invested in closed circuit television. Kingston council has found the money to provide a town manager to liaise with local business and to ensure that its concerns are met as quickly as possible and that any problems are dealt with as soon as they can be. There is partnership to deal with the problems, but all involved in the partnership say that they need more resources from the police to make those good initiatives work.
The final dynamic that I want to bring to the House's attention is the proliferation of drugs and alcohol. Hon. Members may say that Kingston is just a leafy suburb. According to magistrates, however, whom I have met on several occasions since the election, between eight and nine out of 10 incidents that come before them are in some way related to drugs or alcohol. They are a major problem in our area--a major dynamic behind the increase in crime.
We are talking not only about resources to meet the problems, but about multi-agency approaches and about using current resources better. However, all the people involved in tackling the problems say that they cannot succeed only through that approach and that they need more police. I urge the Commissioner and the Home Secretary not to allow a formula that is static and based on historic data to dictate the way in which resources are allocated across the capital. We need to look to the future and the formula needs to be more sensitive.
We must also consider ways in which the police could use money more efficiently. My hon. Friend the Member for Twickenham (Dr. Cable) gave a number of examples. He mentioned an example that I whispered in his ear earlier. The police in Kingston are often required to spend a lot of time in the magistrates court and the county court. The police headquarters is two minutes from both courts so the local police asked the courts whether the officers needed for cases that day could be given pagers and called when the relevant case was about to be heard, but their request was turned down. That prevents the chief superintendent from using his resources rationally.
There are many other ways in which we could use resources more effectively. I shall give an example from my constituency, which has 10 railway stations, of the way in which the British Transport police work with the Metropolitan police. When there is an incident at a station or on a train coming into my constituency, it is dealt with by the local police, although an alarm button may have been pressed and the British Transport police may be thundering on their way to deal with the problem. They arrive half an hour late and the incident has already been dealt with. Such lack of co-ordination leads to a poor use of resources. Although the Metropolitan police have dealt with the individuals concerned, it is the British Transport police who have responsibility for following up the incident. That does not seem a rational use of resources.
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