| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Mr. Tony McWalter (Hemel Hempstead): I congratulate my right hon. Friend on the substantial resources that he has been able to extract from the Chancellor to achieve the laudable aims that he has described. I should like also to associate myself with the remarks made by my right hon. Friend the Member for Manchester, Gorton (Mr. Kaufman) in commending the general drift of the Home Secretary's strategy. However, may I tell my right hon. Friend that it is difficult to give the document unqualified support when it has been impossible to read the detailed guidance on anti-social behaviour orders? Although I have seen in his hand a copy of the document--it looks very nice--copies are not in the Vote Office as he said they were. When my right hon. Friend and I last had a little discussion on these issues--when a world cup football match was on--we were almost the only two hon. Members in the Chamber. On that occasion, too, the guidelines were not available.
My query concerns the possibility of people maliciously accusing other people of behaving anti- socially, and of insufficient resources or detection methods being available to ensure that such malicious claims are rooted out. I have had several such cases in my
own constituency. I should be grateful if the guidelines can be made readily available, so that we may assess whether those points have been dealt with.
Mr. Straw:
If--as I now appreciate--the document is not available in the Vote Office, I can only apologise to my hon. Friend and to the House. I shall take action to find out why it is not available.
There is a very powerful filter in the body of the Act itself to ensure that malicious claims are not made. It is not possible for any individual who feels that he or she has suffered serious anti-social behaviour directly to make an application for an anti-social behaviour order. An application would have to be made by the chief officer of police in the area or the chief executive of the local authority--and I am sure that they will take very careful action to filter out malicious cases. If they fail to do so in any individual isolated case, we shall expect--I believe that it will happen--the courts to filter out such claims as are made.
Mr. Martin Linton (Battersea):
Will my right hon. Friend take it from me that many people have noticed the success of his policies and that, certainly in Battersea, police and many of the community partners in crime reduction strategies will greatly welcome today's announcement? The Opposition's obsession with what they call a declining police service is unfounded, and no one but Opposition Front Benchers would call a 0.5 per cent. fluctuation in police numbers a service decline. Yesterday, we even had the spectacle of the hon. Member for Bromsgrove (Miss Kirkbride) describing as a decline in police numbers what turned out to be a reduction of four police officers that was more than offset by an increase in seven police staff.
Not only are the Conservatives' claims not true: they are not relevant. There is no evidence of a direct relationship between the incidence of crime and police numbers. As the document "Reducing Offending", to which my right hon. Friend referred, says, what really affects crime statistics is effective policing, targeted on criminals and victims.
Mr. Straw:
My hon. Friend is right. Reports by the Audit Commission and Her Majesty's inspectorate of constabulary show that there is no direct relationship between the gross number of police officers and the number of officers available for operational duties. One of the complaints of Her Majesty's inspectorate of constabulary, who are all experienced former senior professional police officers, is that while the overall number of officers has risen in recent years, the number available for operational duties has stayed static or declined. That has to change. That will be achieved through better management, better deployment, often civilianisation, the use of information technology and getting a grip--as the previous Administration failed to do--on the fact that early retirements and excessively high levels of sickness make a difference to whether the police are effective on the ground.
The President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons (Mrs. Margaret Beckett):
I am announcing today the results of the fifth quarterly review of progress in tackling the millennium bug for Government Departments, agencies and key parts of the wider public sector. I have arranged for all completed questionnaires to be placed in the Libraries of the House and published on the internet. To allow people to see at a glance how well individual Departments and agencies are doing, I shall also be publishing tables illustrating their performance against a number of key criteria.
Good progress continues to be made by central Government as a whole. The majority of bodies covered by the exercise are near to completing their correction programmes. Almost half the Departments and agencies have completed their work on business-critical information technology systems, which means that the problems have been fixed, the fix has been tested and the system is back in operation. Progress on business-critical embedded and telecommunications systems is equally good. On that basis, we expect that most Departments will have finished work on their business-critical systems by July. Ten bodies--although admittedly smaller ones--report that have already completed all their correction work on critical and non-critical systems. I am also pleased by the continued progress of the Department of Social Security, the Employment Service, the Department of Health and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Costs remain relatively stable. The total estimate for central Government Departments and agencies stands at just over £420 million--a 2.5 per cent. increase on the previous quarter.
I am pleased to report that the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, the Inland Revenue and the Medicines Control Agency, which I named in my previous statement, have made significant improvements over the past quarter.
Slippage continues to be apparent in other cases, although most are minor adjustments of a month or two in the first half of this year. However, I have a number of specific concerns about departmental programmes, including that of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, although I acknowledge the unique difficulties that it faces in operating around the world. My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary assures me that the serious resources that the FCO is devoting to its year 2000 programme and relevant system upgrades will ensure that it is year 2000 compliant worldwide in time. I have written to colleagues to express those concerns and will continue to monitor progress closely.
The armed forces continue to make good progress in dealing with the bug. The Ministry of Defence expects that the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force front-line units will be compliant by late summer. However, there remains no room for slippage in the large and complex defence programme. I am providing more detailed information on the Ministry of Defence's programme in a separate section of the tables that I am publishing today.
I am pleased to report that work is also now well under way on business continuity planning. Departments are looking at the impact of possible bug-related failures--
in their systems and in key organisations in their supply chain--on their ability to continue to deliver key services. Most Departments and agencies have initial business continuity plans in place. Those that do not are required to produce one as a matter of urgency. Those initial plans will be developed and tested over the year. Details of progress in developing initial plans are available in the published returns.
All but five Departments and agencies have had some form of additional assessment of their programmes, either by internal auditors or by external experts. Of the remainder, all have plans in place for such assessments.
In the wider public sector, the returns for British Nuclear Fuels, the BBC, National Air Traffic Services, London Transport, the Bank of England, the Post Office and the General Consumer Council for Northern Ireland show that all are continuing to make good progress. In my last statement, I expressed concern about the Environment Agency's rate of progress in tackling the bug in its business-critical embedded systems. I am pleased to report that this work is now 90 per cent. complete, and is on course to be finished by the end of June.
Progress across the police service is mainly satisfactory, although a few forces have completion dates for business-critical systems in the second half of 1999. However, progress on business continuity planning is disappointing. Twenty-seven of the 46 forces in England and Wales do not yet have an initial business continuity plan in place.
The Association of Chief Police Officers' millennium co-ordination committee is monitoring progress closely, and its chairman has written to chief constables recently to raise issues of concern. Her Majesty's inspectorate of constabulary is continuing to review individual forces' year 2000 arrangements and identify areas for improvement. A similar process is taking place in Scotland.
The returns for the fire service in England and Wales show an improvement over the previous quarter. All brigades expect to complete work by the end of the year, although a few do not expect to complete work until the final quarter of 1999, allowing little room for slippage. Her Majesty's fire service inspectorate will continue to monitor progress closely and offer brigades advice. Brigades in Scotland are moving forward on a similar time scale.
The results of the most recent NHS quarterly review in England were announced on 16 February. The number of organisations reporting good or satisfactory progress was slightly down on the previous quarter, at 91 per cent. However, 98 per cent. of NHS trusts and heath authorities met the NHS executive's deadline of 31 December 1998 for having identified and resourced effective solutions for all year 2000 problems that could pose a threat to patient safety. The estimated cost of remedial year 2000 work remains at about £320 million. The NHS in Scotland and Wales is also making satisfactory progress.
The Audit Commission's latest analysis of progress across local government in England and Wales shows that the situation as a whole is slowly improving, but that much more work remains to be done. The new teams in Government offices, announced by the Prime Minister on 25 January, are working with the Audit Commission and the Local Government Association to help authorities, particularly those that are furthest behind, to prioritise their programmes and to access advice and good practice.
The picture in Scotland is similarly mixed, and I am pleased that the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and the Accounts Commission for Scotland are progressing work with Scottish local authorities.
Over the last quarter, we have taken steps to put in place a rigorous and independent assessment programme for those elements of the public sector that are key elements of our national infrastructure. These assessments will include the NHS, local government, emergency services, the criminal justice system and the payment of benefits and will reinforce our existing monitoring arrangements. This will give us one of the most--if not the most--objective and comprehensive monitoring regimes in the world. I shall report on progress in my next quarterly statement. From June, I shall be backing that up with more regular reports to Parliament.
5.6 pm
| Next Section
| Index | Home Page |