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Mr. Greenway: Perhaps the hon. Gentleman will join us in the debate on net contributions that we are likely to have in the next few months--net contributions not only from London but from England to Scotland and Wales. We can all argue about what is fair, but my point is that, no matter how we divide the cake, there will always be winners and losers. London won year after year, but perhaps it has not done quite so well in the past year.
I take this opportunity to nail another lie relating to how many extra or how many fewer officers or police constables there are. Following my exchange with the Home Secretary during the most recent Home Office questions, I tabled a written question which was answered by the Minister of State, Home Office, the hon. Member for Cardiff, South and Penarth (Mr. Michael). He confirmed that between April 1992 and March 1997, the number of constables increased by 2,322. He then pointed out that overall police numbers fell by 469.
The issue is clarified in the first report of the Metropolitan police committee, which my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Mr. Howard) set up a year or two ago. It shows that between March 1994 and March 1996, the number of ACPO rank officers in the Metropolitan police force fell from 47 to 34, a cut of 13; the number of chief inspectors and superintendents fell by 241; and the number of chief inspectors and above fell by 255. It is in those ranks that the numbers fell, and that is true across the country. Is the Labour party saying that, in the drive for efficiency on which it has now embarked, there is no room for dispensing with highly paid senior officers in management posts when the public want more officers on the street? Let us have no more talk about whether the previous Government were truly committed to the police service--everyone knows that they were--but we can all argue that, in an ideal world, we would like to do more.
In no other country is the image of the policeman more closely associated with its capital city than in Britain. I am not going to pass an opinion on which of the many television programmes over the years have most accurately projected the true image of the London bobby.
The hon. Member for Ealing, North (Mr. Pound) got it right when he said that every day we ask more of our police. Having been a policeman, I know that the job is infinitely more difficult and dangerous now than it was in my time 30 years ago. There has been adequate reference--if there ever can be adequate reference--to that fact in today's debate. My hon. Friend the Member for Chipping Barnet (Sir S. Chapman) reminded us of the
number of assaults on police officers, and the House has paid tribute again to the bravery and courage of WPC Nina Mackay. We have also considered what makes the London bobby so special--it is his good humour.
In an intervention, my right hon. Friend the Member for North-West Cambridgeshire (Sir B. Mawhinney) mentioned Euro 96 and the policing of major high-profile events in the capital city when our police do us proud. I was reminded of the stark contrast between the policing of football in this country and the scenes that we saw from Rome only a few weeks ago. People in this country and throughout the world know that.
The London policeman provides reassurance when he is seen on patrol. The strategy for high-visibility policing--which has reached 61 per cent., against a 60 per cent. target over the past year--is working and should be continued. However, we delude ourselves if we think that merely putting police officers on the streets will to prevent crime. It will help, as the hon. Member for Brent, North said, but it is not the solution to tackling much of the organised crime in the capital and the rest of the country. Operation Bumblebee has been successful largely because of the use of intelligence and the targeting of known suspects. That trend is likely to be developed further in the coming years.
Closed circuit television cameras also play a vital role. Partnerships with local authorities and business have been very successful, but a core element of that partnership is funding from national Government. The Government's continued refusal and failure to make clear where they stand on that gives the lie to their determination to stamp out rowdyism, loutish behaviour and crime in the streets of our cities.
Almost uniquely, the powers given by Parliament to the police to carry out their tasks are invested not in chief police officers, senior management or even, dare I say, the police authority--whether it be the Home Secretary or a police committee--but in the office of police constable. We have talked a great deal about policing objectives and new strategies for dealing with specific problems such as burglary, car crime, robberies, street violence and drugs, as well as the continuing threat of terrorism. The remedies to those problems lie in the qualities of individual police officers--their professionalism, their integrity, their dedication, their commitment and, all too frequently, their courage and determination. The hon. Member for Brentford and Isleworth (Ann Keen) also reminded us of their voluntary work, especially with young people. Those are the qualities that count the most. That is why the police service has always needed to recruit well-motivated men and women of the highest calibre.
Success in that has varied over the years. There are growing grounds for concern that the police service, especially in London, is beginning to experience a fall in the quality of recruits. The Commissioner's annual report, which has rightly been much discussed today, says that during 1996-97, of the nearly 4,000 individuals who applied to join the Metropolitan police, only 692 were recruited. That is partly a resource issue, but we should also bear in mind the fact that 80 per cent. of those who applied were not considered suitable.
As recently as two years ago, the Commissioner said that there was no problem with attracting recruits of a good educational standard. Indeed, he said that there was
a backlog of applicants. The Police Federation now believes that the standard of applicants is starting to fall. It would be a great pity if the police service could not attract people with the educational attainment and aptitude that the service demands if it is to achieve its full potential in serving the community.
Pay and conditions are clearly important factors, as my hon. Friend the Member for Chipping Barnet mentioned. We shall return to those issues. However, there are other factors that can detract from the appeal of a police career. Several hon. Members have referred to their concerns about the continued failure of the police to recruit sufficient numbers from the ethnic minorities. That is a continuing problem which we must address.
People from ethnic minorities will not join the police if they believe that they will be subject to racial bias and abuse. Similarly, many women are put off a police career by fear of sexual harassment. That fear has recently been reinforced by a number of high-profile industrial tribunal and court cases.
The efforts made by senior officers, especially the Commissioner, are well documented; time does not allow me to go into the matter in the detail that I should have liked. I advise hon. Members who are concerned about the matter, however, to look not just at the Metropolitan police report, but at the annual report of the Police Complaints Authority. It is not only racial bias within the police service that is a concern. There is also concern about the behaviour of a handful of police officers towards ethnic minorities. That problem has been, and continues to be, sensitively handled.
Instituting change through the command structure and disciplinary action is not always the best approach. We need to consider a forcewide reappraisal and development of personnel management policy and procedures. In that respect, a complete change of culture within the police service, through the development of personal skills and the creation of a framework for the assessment of individual behaviour and attitude of officers in all situations, may be needed. Aggressive behaviour, poor communication, the pursuit of personal agendas rather than the wider objectives of the force and failure to support colleagues are all examples of negative behaviour which is unacceptable in all situations and not just where racial or sexual discrimination may arise.
The force has begun to make some progress through the London beat proposals; again, time does not allow us to go into those proposals. Like the Home Secretary, I await the outcome of the inquiry by the Home Affairs Select Committee into police disciplinary matters. I share his concern, however, that the police service today attracts many more malicious and mischievous complaints. We must be careful to give our police officers the support they deserve.
The Minister of State, Home Office (Mr. Alun Michael):
The remarks by the hon. Member for Ryedale (Mr. Greenway) were appropriate for bringing us to the end of the best debate on policing I have heard during my time in the House. I have my own reasons for feeling a keen sense of the privilege of speaking in this debate and of sharing in part the responsibilities of my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary as the police authority for London.
My first knowledge of London was a week's holiday each year with my Uncle Bob in Barnet. Each year, I saw at first hand the pressures on police officers and their families as my Uncle Bob moved up to become Detective Chief Inspector Bob Roberts in the flying squad. He also served as a police officer in this House and I was proud to bring him here as a guest for my mother's 80th birthday.
My point is that the police officers who serve us in our capital city are men and women with families who also pay a price for the service we are given. Sometimes, that is a price paid at the hands of violence, as a number of hon. Members have said today. They also have the pressures of a demanding job and we should pay tribute to them.
There are special and difficult challenges that are peculiar to London. The city's boroughs, divisions and local communities nevertheless demonstrate some fine examples of police work, partnership initiatives and fresh thinking, which retain the finest traditions of the British police. For all its problems, the police service in London frequently provides lessons for other forces and other countries.
It has been a real pleasure to listen to this debate and to hear so many new Labour Members speak with knowledge and passion about policing in their local areas. I welcome the shadow Home Secretary's promise of a bipartisan approach to racism and racial violence in particular. His comment was endorsed by the junior shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Ryedale. It is also important that the police should know that they have the support and encouragement of us all, and that has been expressed by every hon. Member who has spoken today.
The shadow Home Secretary referred to CS gas. We recently saw an excellent report by Her Majesty's chief inspector of constabulary on police safety, which stressed that training and other arrangements, including first aid, needed to be of the highest possible standard. The Commissioner is approaching the issue systematically and responsibly. At the annual conference of the Police Superintendents Association a couple of years ago, I saw an experiment with pepper gas. It made a vivid impression on many people, as the officer who agreed to be a guinea pig--he raised money for charity in so doing--was felled by a single squirt and it looked horrific. Only two hours later, however, I had a conversation with him, although his eyes were still streaming. It is much better to allow someone to go through a period of pain for a few hours than to restrain that person from activity as a result of a shot or other physical injury, which happens far too often.
As my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary said, it is important to consider the use of CS gas in a balanced way--it has been examined extremely carefully in terms of medical evidence, not only here but in other countries--rather than be driven by one or two cases. None the less, cases that go wrong need to be considered seriously.
I endorse the point that the shadow Home Secretary made about thank-you letters. As hon. Members know, when people take the effort to write such letters, that gives real pleasure. When we receive those rather than the usual letters, it gives us a boost. Our police officers so often deserve thanks that the shadow Home Secretary is right to use that as a measure of merit and of the standards that they offer us.
Finally among the issues on which I wish to agree with the shadow Home Secretary, I endorse his comment about Crimestoppers and remind hon. Members of the number--0800 555111. I regret, however, that the shadow Home Secretary spoiled his speech, as my hon. Friend the Member for Harrow, East (Mr. McNulty) said, by rehearsing a series of extracts from the Conservative central office handbook of meaningless rhetoric. I know that he has had a difficult job. His Government failed on crime during their period in office and few of his hon. Friends turned up today to support him. Indeed, the Conservatives ran out of speakers. We shall take no lessons from the Conservative party on financial planning. The Conservatives massively overspent the budget available for closed circuit television in a pre-election spree, and failed to allow for the future, as they did on so many other issues. We shall do what we can with the inheritance that they left us while staying within the spending limits pledged by the Chancellor.
My hon. Friend the Member for Ealing, North (Mr. Pound) was right to criticise the shadow Home Secretary's comments on police numbers. The reference to an increase of 1,000 in police strength was skated over quickly by the shadow Home Secretary in his intervention on my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary, because he clearly did not know his facts.
In his response to my hon. Friend the Member for Barking (Ms Hodge), the right hon. Gentleman spoke of resources--total finance. That is extremely sensible, but it is not the measure that the Conservatives chose to make the indicator of success or failure. The total number of police officers in the Metropolitan police is a reasonable measure.
The hon. Member for Ryedale wriggled on that issue. We understand that Opposition Members have a preference for speaking about constables, but they should remember that, when the right hon. and learned Member for Rushcliffe (Mr. Clarke) was Home Secretary, he set the aim of shaking out senior officers in order to put them back on the streets.
The overall number is the measure of effectiveness chosen not by the Labour party, but by the Conservative party in the persons of the then Prime Minister and the then Home Secretary in the run-up to the 1992 general election. In 1992, the base figure was 28,154 in London. In that year, the Prime Minister promised an increase of 1,000 police officers, so there should have been an increase of 225 officers in the Metropolitan police. Instead, there was a cut of 287, which left the total number 500 short of the promise. A further 168 officers were cut the following year. By 1997, the number was down to 27,185--1,194 short of the Conservatives' 1992 general election pledge. One must go back 10 years to find a lower number of police officers.
I give those figures to illustrate the record of the Conservatives on the measure that they chose. It is true that the Police and Magistrates' Courts Act 1994 put the
matter in the hands of chief officers, rather than of the Home Secretary. In London and elsewhere, it is the duty of the Government to provide the resources and work with the police to fight crime. It is the job of chief police officers, with their police authorities, to decide how to use those resources.
With an air of increasing desperation, the shadow Home Secretary went on to offer the absurd proposition that a Labour Government would put partnership at risk. Our proposals in legislation, and our encouragement through the Home Secretary's key objectives, are not seen as a threat by the police, local authorities or the local communities, who want crime to be cut in their areas.
Yes, there are many examples of good voluntary partnerships in London, such as in King's Cross, and many outside London, especially in Labour-led local authorities. We praised people for the voluntary partnerships that have been formed over the past few years, since the publication in 1991 of the Morgan report which recommended such partnerships, but that report was left gathering dust on the shelf for six years by a Government who failed to enter into that spirit of partnership. Police and local authorities begged the previous Government to act and to make that a statutory responsibility.
We want to move on. Partnership works, but it must be approached efficiently and effectively. There is a lack of consistency. The partnerships that exist frequently lack clear analysis and precise targets, which we will give them to help them to plan and act locally.
We will put our plans in legislation. We have put our proposals in my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary's key objectives. The shadow Home Secretary's own Conservative Back Benchers seem to want an acceleration of the partnership approach. In effect, we are turning a patchwork of voluntary projects into a consistent strategy, in which the local need and the local partners drive the action to cut crime where it happens--at a local borough and division level. Clearly, that is driving local authorities and the police in London, as we see from so many excellent examples. That is why our approach is welcomed--for example, by some of those concerned with policing in outer London.
Many concerns were expressed during the debate, not all of which I will be able to address in the time available. My hon. Friend the Member for Ealing, North raised the question of tenure. The purpose of tenure is to ensure that the expertise at present invested in specialist units is more widely shared among uniformed patrol officers and that no officer becomes so specialised that he is unable to perform the primary policing function of uniformed patrol. The Commissioner's intention is to spread the skills of specialist officers to police stations around London, so that they are not locked into a narrow specialism, squad or division for their entire careers. It is meant to open up opportunities. The policy is causing difficulty for some officers in some areas who do not welcome it. The Commissioner assures us that he will introduce the changes gradually and that assistant commissioners are willing to consider cases where they are argued in the interests of policing in a particular local area.
Many hon. Members, including my hon. Friend the Member for Wimbledon (Mr. Casale), understood what we are trying to do with my right hon. Friend the Home
Secretary's key objectives and with legislation. My hon. Friend the Member for Brentford and Isleworth (Ann Keen) demonstrated the same understanding. I visited her constituency before the election, and have done so since. On the second occasion, I was delighted to see that the work that she undertook before the election with the police, business and local government to tackle youth crime has now come to fruition.
We cannot compel virtue and we cannot compel that partnerships be entered into with a true and genuine spirit--they must be worked at. However, we can create the right framework of law and process to help accelerate crime-cutting work and improve the effectiveness of partnerships. I am delighted that my right hon. Friend is clearly determined to do that.
Several hon. Members referred to areas outside the London boroughs and found our partnership proposals reassuring. We shall consider what has been said, butthe authority requires commensurate representation. Outer-London areas will have the chance to be part of the local partnership approach involving those areas, districts and the Metropolitan police.
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