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Mr. Greenway: Let me give the right hon. Gentleman the figures; then perhaps he will explain them to us.
The three most recent Metropolitan police annual reports show that the number of constables has fallen from 20,957 in March 1997, to 20,635 last year, to 20,396 now--a fall of 600 officers in two years. So the conclusion is damning: front-line policing is being cut under Labour.
Mr. Straw:
Exchanging tales about police numbers is an unwise path for the hon. Gentleman to tread. If he wishes to turn this into a partisan debate, I shall give him some simple, incontrovertible facts about police numbers in London. Between 1992 and March 1998, police numbers in London fell by nearly 2,000--300 a year for
Mr. Greenway:
First, it was not my Administration. None the less, the right hon. Gentleman is wrong. If he wants to continue down that path, we could pursue matters much further. When he was in opposition and standing at this Dispatch Box, he stated each year that the number of police officers available for front-line duties was falling. The figures show that the number of constables available for front-line duties rose under the previous Government, and particularly so during the previous Parliament. The fall was in senior ranks. If the right hon. Gentleman is saying that it was not a good idea to get rid of some commander, chief superintendent and chief inspector ranks, which were administrative posts that could be filled by civilians, and to improve the management structure to create a flatter style, all of which took place under the stewardship of my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Folkestone and Hythe, I would be amazed, given that, as Home Secretary, he places such great store by the need for the police to make more and more efficiency savings in order to retain the funds with which to ensure sufficient police officers.
Mr. John Randall (Uxbridge):
Does my hon. Friend agree that all this bandying of figures means nothing to my constituents and others in the Hillingdon division because the reality is that, this year, the division lost 13 police officers and five civil staff; since January 1997, it has lost more than 15 per cent. of staff; and we are extremely worried that we will lose another 17 members of staff in the coming year?
Mr. Greenway:
There we are; up-to-date information from the street, as it were. The Home Secretary may smile, but he and I represent constituencies in which we have our own problems with police numbers and markedly different situations. I suspect that, from the experiences in the constituencies of right hon. and hon. Members, this debate will show that the number of officers available for duty is falling.
The Home Secretary says that he believes that the position has stabilised but, sadly, for both serving police officers and the people of the capital, that is the height of complacency because all evidence is that the decline in numbers is set to worsen.
First, the age profile of the Metropolitan police is increasing. In February 1999, the Minister of State, the hon. Member for Brent, South (Mr. Boateng), gave me some written answers, confirming that the average age of serving police officers in the Metropolitan police had increased from 35 to 38 in only five years. Of currently serving officers, 3,300 have more than 25 years' service and more than 1,000 have more than 30 years' service.
To replace those officers as they retire and as others leave the police service for other reasons, the Metropolitan police need to attract new recruits.
The Home Secretary added a little caveat to his comment--he said that numbers would increase provided that the Metropolitan police can recruit the officers that they need. I share with the House some information given to me this week by the Metropolitan Police Federation: in the past few months, the recruitment rate has declined sharply. The Metropolitan police look to attract new recruits at the rate of 190 every five weeks, for 10 training courses at the police training centre at Hendon. In both of the last two five-weekly intakes, the number of recruits fell to below 100--at 98 and a mere 88 respectively.
Within months, the effect of that decline in recruitment will be fewer officers and increased pressure on those who remain in post. Remember that the Metropolitan police are some 500 officers short already, with another 750 officers moving on secondment to other police forces because of the change in the Metropolitan police boundaries associated with the introduction of the Greater London police authority. I say in all sincerity to the Home Secretary that that does not augur well for the increase in ethnic recruitment that he has rightly targeted. We support such an increase, and the objectives arising from the Macpherson report.
There is much other evidence of cuts. Police stations are closing; yesterday, my hon. Friend the Member for Orpington (Mr. Horam) confirmed to me that four are targeted for closure in his area alone. There are problems within the criminal investigation department. Detective inspector posts are not being filled. Uniformed inspectors with no CID experience are in charge of CID branches at major divisional headquarters, and the detective constable is the most senior detective in many of our police stations. There is no proper career structure within the CID; that is a cause of the difficulty. There are also cuts in the mounted section.
That catalogue of general decline does not augur well for the policing of London. It is all very well for the Home Secretary to tell us about the many successes, all of which we applaud; he cannot ignore the evidence before his eyes of a declining police force in our capital, and it is shameful that, today, he refuses to recognise the problem.
As the Home Secretary said, in each of the next three years, the Metropolitan police must make efficiency savings of 2 per cent. In a conversation with me, the Commissioner said that he was confident that he could meet that target for the year ahead, but I question the extent to which that arbitrary 2 per cent. target--which has been set not only for the Metropolitan police but, I say to my hon. Friend the Member for Banbury, for other police forces in England and Wales--can be achieved year on year without some effect on the budget available for police manpower.
The increasing age profile has consequences for pensions. The prospect of more than 3,000 Metropolitan police officers taking normal retirement over the next three years or so has huge implications. The Commissioner has warned that, before long, as much as a quarter of his budget could be absorbed by police pensions. Conservative Members are the first to acknowledge that there is no easy solution to the pension funding problem. If there had been, it would have been implemented; the Home Secretary knows that.
We acknowledge, too, that there are implications for public expenditure in stemming the tide of reductions in manpower. As the Home Secretary said, the Metropolitan police get about a quarter of the total police budget. However, I believe that it is entirely right for us to point to the fact that all the good work of the previous Government in rebuilding police strength and morale in the capital is being undermined. The increased strength in manpower that we witnessed during many years of Conservative government is evaporating. If the Government gave the police a priority equal to that given to them by Conservative Governments over 18 years, we would not be in this position. As it is, the Government's policies are making matters worse by imposing funding cuts disguised as arbitrary efficiency targets.
Above all, we contend that enforced cuts and other features of police policy are deeply damaging morale in the police service and making it more and more difficult to recruit the young men and women who are needed to maintain police numbers at levels adequate to uphold the standard of policing in London that the police want to achieve and that the people of London deserve and have every right to expect.
Mr. Tony McNulty (Harrow, East):
If the previous Government had such a record of success, will the hon. Gentleman dissociate himself from the remarks of one Ivan Massow, who apparently has joined the list of clowns seeking to run for London mayor for the Conservatives? He said:
Mr. Greenway:
I will confirm what the Home Secretary confirmed, which is that, over five years, the number of crimes in the capital fell year on year, and that was because of the action taken by the previous Government. I will not engage in an argument about an article and a comment that I have not read. However, I do say, in conclusion on this matter, that I do not relish having to come to the House on a day like this, with a responsibility to bring the Home Secretary up short on his complacency about police numbers. I simply relate to him and the House what the Metropolitan Police Federation, serving police officers and even divisional commanders are saying to me, and I dare say to him. We cannot go on like this. The number is set to decline further. In our next debate, we shall see who is proved right.
"Londoners are fed up with a police force that is managed like British Leyland in the 1970s and split into competing fiefdoms."
If it is the success story that the hon. Gentleman says, this Mr. Massow is wrong. Will he confirm that he is wrong and dissociate himself from his remarks?
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