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Mr. Ian Bruce: My hon. Friend is being over-generous to the Government. In Dorset, we also saw a real-terms cut in the operational budget. Was there not also in Gloucestershire, as there was in Dorset, a massive stealth tax because the Government ensured that local tax payers were paying for all the additional money that came forward? Not a penny extra came from the Home Office or the Government.
Mr. Robertson: I would be called to order if I went too far down that route, but my hon. Friend is absolutely right.
There are difficulties with crime in rural areas. For example, all Gloucestershire Members have received a note from the chief constable about drugs and drug-related crime. That is becoming as much of a problem in rural areas as in urban areas. The sparsity of policing in rural areas encourages that crime.
Mr. Richard Allan (Sheffield, Hallam):
I do not wish to spoil the hon. Gentleman's argument, but if he believes that money is going to traditional Labour areas, which mine used to be, he is wrong. We are not seeing that and dancing in the streets in my area. The police are reporting just as many problems in areas such as South Yorkshire as they are in rural counties.
Mr. Robertson:
Perhaps I have underestimated the funding problem.
The 2 per cent. efficiency saving is being taken into account when grants to constabularies are being calculated. As the hon. Member for Stroud said, the 2 per cent. target includes police pensions and security elements, over which chief constables have no control. A 2 per cent. saving nationally may be achievable, but it is difficult for each force to achieve it locally. For example, the police force in Gloucestershire has to provide security for the royal family. We are delighted that they live there and the force receives a grant to cover the cost, but, given that minimum standards of security must be provided, that should not be taken into account when calculating the 2 per cent. efficiency saving.
Ms Hazel Blears (Salford):
I am delighted to have a further opportunity to speak on policing, police funding, police numbers and the Government's drive to tackle crime. It is the top issue for the people in my inner-city constituency. I believe firmly that unless we tackle the problem of crime and disorder, all the other social exclusion initiatives on which we are engaged will not be as successful as we would like. If people do not feel safe and secure in their communities, all our other measures to provide jobs and opportunities will not yield the results that we want.
We need some facts in this debate. Over the next three years, the Government will be spending an extra £1.25 billion, which has been gained from the comprehensive spending review. In addition, there is an
extra £400 million for crime reduction projects, extra funds for CCTV partnerships between the police, local government and business to try to tackle crime, a major anti-burglary initiative and anti-car crime projects. We have set rigorous targets because we want to see the outcomes.
It is all very well to talk about perceptions, feelings and ideas, but what really matters to the people whom I represent is whether we are preventing, reducing and detecting crime and locking up those who commit crime. We aim to cut vehicle crime by 30 per cent. by the year 2002. That is a tough target, but the Government do not shy away from tough targets because they know how important those issues are for local people. There is no point spending money without tying it to targets. I know that the Conservatives have recently become a tax-and-spend party, but I do not see any point in spending money without the right outcome.
We must not forget the Tory record. I know that it is uncomfortable to be reminded of it, but, under the Tory Government, recorded crime went up from 2.5 million cases in 1979 to 4.5 million cases in 1997. Constituents such as mine bore the brunt of those crimes. A total of 40 per cent. of crime in this country happens in 10 per cent. of areas, and 4 per cent. of people are the victims of 42 per cent. of crime. Those are staggering and scandalous statistics and we must tackle them.
Under the previous Administration, the figures were up for violent crime, burglaries and assault. Crime and disorder was out of control, with young men running wild on estates, making people's lives a misery. The Government's plan to tackle all that is one of the top issues for the whole community.
We are beginning to tackle those problems. The hon. Member for Beckenham (Mrs. Lait) accepts that intelligence-based policing is the way to tackle crime, detect crime and ensure that convictions are secured, but I ask Conservative Members to use their brains and recognise that, in addition to intelligence, we have to use a little creativity and imagination. The Conservatives appear to be on a tramline of thinking that the only one way to tackle crime is to increase the number of bodies, but I want to increase the number of brains in our crime and disorder system as well.
Let me give some examples of new projects that are being carried out in my city to try to get maximum added value from our investment. Crime reduction partnerships bring together local government, the police, the business sector, the chamber of commerce, voluntary organisations and the local community in an effort to identify the problems of crime and how best to work together to tackle them. Are the police always right for a certain job, or could it be done better by, say, the housing authority? Is it better to bring in the youth service to intervene early in youth crime, rather than always look to the police to provide solutions? Without that partnership, we shall be unable to sustain the regeneration that we all want.
We have also drawn in resources from other areas, through projects such as Operation Victory, which has taken place in Greater Manchester in the past few months. It is the biggest police operation that Greater Manchester has ever known: in Salford, Trafford and Manchester on one day, more than 65 people involved in burglary,
handling, theft and the laundering of drug money were arrested. It was a massive operation and, not only did it succeed in taking those people off the streets and locking them up--which was a great relief to my constituents--but it sent a message to the community that they could have confidence that the police were able to tackle those problems and that we are not sitting back and allowing ourselves to be overwhelmed by a wave of crime.
We are going out there, tackling crime and using our intelligence. The information used in Operation Victory was gathered over a period of 12 months--the operation was not here today, gone tomorrow. In often difficult and dangerous circumstances, officers gathered evidence and information to use in prosecutions.
Mrs. Lait:
Will the hon. Lady tell me what is the difference between Operation Victory and Operation Bumblebee, which was instituted in the mid-1990s and which achieved exactly the same ends? Is not Manchester's action a little late?
Ms Blears:
Not at all. Operation Victory was incredibly successful and, although similar programmes have happened before, it was the largest programme yet, being carried out on such a scale that the impact on the community was enormous. It was an excellent project.
Mr. Ian Bruce:
The hon. Lady is extremely enthusiastic and we love to hear such enthusiasm. However, my son is a police officer in the north of England and I have to tell her that her speech seems to reflect more closely the views of the Treasury than those of police officers on the beat, who know about their lack of resources and overtime and their resulting inability to get out there and do all that the hon. Lady wants them to do. Will the hon. Lady go back and listen to police officers in her constituency rather than to the Treasury?
Ms Blears:
I assure the hon. Gentleman that I listen to police officers in my constituency. Three weeks ago, as the local Member of Parliament, I personally called a crime and disorder forum in my constituency, because I believe that we have a role to play in crime and disorder partnerships. I called together the police, the voluntary sector, business, social services and the youth service to meet me and talk about the new Crime and Disorder Act 1998. I asked them to tell me whether the Act is working and what the difficulties with it are. I asked how best we could institute the anti-social behaviour orders and what sort of protocols were needed to get the evidence to enforce the orders.
I am in daily contact with local police officers. They have inner-city beats, which is hard and challenging work--yes, it is tough out there. However, we have just introduced sector policing, whereby officers are responsible for their own neighbourhood and so are in close, daily touch with their communities. They monitor crime, know where the criminals are, and are able to direct resources into tackling crime in their own neighbourhood. I completely support local police officers, who have a demanding, difficult and challenging job.
We are trying to ensure not only that police officers have the resources that they need, but that they use them in such a way that they get results. If we do not, we are just sending them out on the streets, they do not get results
and they see the same criminals day after day, making the same people's lives a misery. The Labour Government's policies are about using intelligence and creativity to give police officers the tools to do the job.
The other example of local action in my city is a massive truancy project. I feel passionately that instead of spending our money on mopping up the results of failure, we should prevent that failure from occurring in the first place. In 1997, 40 per cent. of burglaries, 25 per cent. of robberies, 20 per cent. of thefts and 20 per cent. of criminal damage were committed by children aged 10 to 16. Those children should be in school. We have set a tough and challenging target--that, by 2001, exclusions from school will have been cut by one third--and backed it up with £500 million of extra resources.
We have to consider more than police funding. Look at all the extra resources that are being put into education through education action zones and truancy projects; that will help to prevent crime. Look at the money for the new deal, which gives young people the opportunity to work rather than become involved in crime. The Opposition have a one-track mind and do not see all the different parts of the jigsaw that is being assembled by the Labour Government. Four hundred thousand more people are now in work than were in work under the Tories. The hon. Member for Beckenham recognises the link between unemployment and crime: having more people in work means less crime on the streets.
The Government have set tough targets for efficiency savings, but those savings are being made. The briefing from the Association of Police Authorities--the very people who constantly ask for more funding--states:
I acknowledge the points made by the hon. Member for Beckenham about pensions. We have to tackle that issue. Nationally, about 13 per cent. of revenue budgets are eaten up by pensions; in Greater Manchester, that figure is 20 per cent. That cannot be allowed to go on. The Government must tackle the issue of pensions.
"this year alone, cashable efficiency savings have been identified totalling £107 million . . . an additional £75 million of expenditure has been redirected into frontline policing activities."
That is what my constituents want to hear--resources redirected into reducing crime, detecting crime and convicting criminals. If the Government are able to shift the emphasis from simply having bodies on the street to intelligent policing that actually reduces crime, the people whom I represent who are repeat victims of robberies, burglaries, assaults and theft will be mightily relieved.
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