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5.19 pm
Mr. Andrew Hunter (Basingstoke): As time is limited, I shall be brief. I shall not apologise for considering police funding nationally from a Hampshire perspective. There, I believe that it can be said that the prevailing view of the 1998-99 settlement is summed up in the words "Appearances can deceive". I do not believe that that view is confined to Hampshire alone. On the surface, the settlement does not seem unreasonable: it allows an increase in spending of 3.8 per cent. or £6.9 million, and the provisional capping criteria allow maximum spending of £187 million. Together with a few bits and pieces, that brings the total spending to £190.3 million. But appearances can deceive.
Hampshire--along perhaps with other police authorities--is set to suffer from a contradiction in the settlement. In the settlement, the Government recognise the increasing needs of the police force. They consequently and rightly express that recognition in the form of an increase in grant--I support and applaud the Government for that. However, what is highly questionable is that, in the case of Hampshire and, I dare say, elsewhere, the Government have not allowed and are not allowing a similar increase in police spending. That absurd situation has been created by the provisional capping criteria. The simple truth is that those criteria contradict the increase in the grant.
The point has been put simply to me by members of the police authority: it is perverse to a degree. By budgeting at the capping level, the council tax for the Hampshire police authority will have to be reduced by about 2.8 to 3 per cent. I acknowledge that that is of benefit to council tax payers in the short term, and I welcome the increase in grant, but the police authority sees the absurdity of the situation and is already making that point to the Minister and his officials. Hampshire police authority is arguing that the capping limit should be set at a level that would at least maintain the current level of the police element of the council tax.
We are arguing--I hope that the Minister will pay attention to this--that there should, at the very least, be a cash freeze in the police element of the council tax in Hampshire. It would be acceptable politically; on the whole, people regard money spent on law and order as money well spent and, in the case of Hampshire, next year it would yield an additional amount of almost £1 million. At the margin, that would make a significant difference, given the need to direct funds from the revenue account to finance unavoidable capital commitments.
That matter leads me naturally to my second and final point, which is more specific to Hampshire. I hope that the Government will take note of it. I make the point not only because of its obvious constituency interest, but because it affects the whole of the county of Hampshire. As the Minister will know, the funding situation in Hampshire has been compounded by the discovery of a serious asbestos problem in Basingstoke police station. The problem will require a total rebuild; it was unforeseen; and resolving it will cost about £3.2 million. It will place an enormous burden on the funding of Hampshire police authority.
The police authority is already in touch with the Minister's officials and is pleading for borrowing approval to help to pay for the work. I take this opportunity to endorse that plea. I hope that the Government will respond positively. The unforeseen development is a further reason why Hampshire authority is requesting a relaxation in the capping limit.
Mr. Hancock:
Before the hon. Gentleman moves off the subject of Hampshire, I am sure that he would like to join me in congratulating the police authority in Hampshire. During the last four years of the Tory Government, when national figures were going down, the Liberal Democrat-led police authority was able to increase police numbers by 225 policemen and 311 civilians--a major breakthrough in policing. What the Government were talking about nationally, we achieved on the ground in Hampshire, but with no help from the Government.
Mr. Hunter:
I agree with half of what the hon. Gentleman said. I acknowledge that, during the time that he presided over Hampshire county council, there was a substantial increase in the establishment of the county constabulary. I have frequently congratulated him on presiding over that, and I do so again.
I take issue with the hon. Gentleman because he consistently refuses to acknowledge that, not just when he looked after the county council, but throughout the 18 years of Conservative government, Hampshire benefited from a 115.9 per cent. real-terms increase in funding from central Government. Many of the great
achievements made by the police authorities of Hampshire were achieved on the back of that increased central Government funding. That does not detract from the fact that I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on what he achieved in that respect while he was leader of the county council, and I would not wish to give that impression.
Mr. Ian Cawsey (Brigg and Goole):
I shall make only a brief contribution to the debate, as I know that other hon. Members wish to speak and time is limited.
I wanted to say something about my own experience of the subject. For four years before entering the House, I had the honour of being the chairman of the Humberside police authority. I therefore sat through many anxious debates as settlements were made. It strikes me that there is good and bad in all police settlements; perhaps whether one shows joy or indignation depends on which side of the Speaker's Chair one is sitting.
There is merit in the settlement announced today and I, for one, certainly welcome it. I have always found the subject of funding and police officers interesting. From my experience, I am not necessarily sure that, if my police authority received extra funding, that money would always be best spent simply on extra police officers. The hon. Member for Ryedale (Mr. Greenway) made the point rather well when he said that flattening structures and civilianisation were also involved. It is odd when political parties chase after X hundred or X thousand extra police officers; what we want are effective and efficient police services and police authorities. We might debate whether that means more police officers, more civilianisation, more equipment or better training, but really it involves a mixture of all of them. I welcome the settlement, in as much as it will allow police authorities to make the decision for themselves.
I think that all hon. Members will agree that the subject of pensions is perhaps the most significant issue facing police authorities. I remember attending a seminar on the future of police funding last year, or the year before, where it was said that, if nothing changed--my hon. Friend the Minister has already changed something this year--by the year 2020, police authorities would be spending more than half their budget on police pensions, not policing. The matter should be dealt with quickly. I welcomed the Minister's comment that he is working keenly on it and we can expect an announcement soon. We must have a clear way forward.
I was the chairman of the police authority when the previous Government moved from what was basically establishment-based funding to the formula funding, and I was a strong supporter of that. I applauded the previous
Home Secretary for doing it. Although he was no political friend of mine, he was right to do it. We are right to continue that process. It was always going to be difficult because, inevitably, it would move resources around.
I had no great objection to the additional rules that were introduced last year, because they gave a degree of protection. It must be borne in mind, however, that the additional rules did not put any extra money in; they simply redistributed the entire cake in a slightly different way. The Surreys and the Lincolnshires can claim to be badly treated because they are not getting transitional relief or additional rules this year, but it must be accepted that there are police authorities that the formula has identified as having less money than they should have had. That is what additional rule 1 and 3 did last year.
The formula provides that certain police authorities should get a bigger slice of the cake--we can argue about the size of the cake--and extra rules were put in to reduce that, so that there was some relief for the losing authorities. I had no objection to the previous Government doing that for one year, because it was a big move in one go, but it must be recognised that, where the formula has identified need, resources should follow.
Let me add a personal plea on the formula. I hope that the Minister will address the area cost adjustment, which, in police terms, is extremely unfair. There are national wage agreements for police services and civilian staff, and I see little basis for an area cost adjustment to move resources to just one part of the country.
There is a romantic myth that we should all like to become a reality--more police officers on the street, walking down the street endlessly and reassuring us, which is part of the police's business. The Police Foundation conducted research that showed that a police officer on the beat would come across a crime only once every six years, or only four or five times in his entire career. If that is the case, questions must be asked about the best use of police officers. That is why money must be spent in a targeted way.
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