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Gillian Merron: My hon. Friend is aware that I think that the report on sparsity should be put into action. I have
pressed him on that matter, and I am pleased that he has said that change will be actively sought. I hope that it will come soon. I welcome the boost to police recruitment. The Government have awarded Lincolnshire about 80 per cent. of the police authority's bid. The authority was one of the most successful in its bid to the new crime fighting fund. Congratulations are due to Lincolnshire police on the quality of their application and to the Government on their award of the funds.
Mr. Clarke: I congratulate my hon. Friend on raising that point, which is entirely correct. If I may reinforce it, may I just place on the record the remarks of the chief constable, who has been mentioned, on the fund? Mr. Richard Childs--a very fine chief constable--said in his press release:
- "We were realistic in our bid for a portion of the Crime Fighting Fund and have been given an additional 41 officers over the next three years . . . We bid for a further 50 . . . and based that . . . number on specific crime and disorder initiatives focused particularly on rural communities where there is a real gap between actual crime and the fear of crime . . . Lincolnshire has been allocated resources to recruit"--
- "From April we will be able to start redressing the perceived absence of officers across the whole County . . . They are not of course the only officers we will be recruiting as we anticipate replacing those that resign and retire as well as catching up on a few we were unable to recruit this year . . . With our increased investment in information technology to support the front line officers, I am confident we will meet the continuation criteria imposed by the Home Office to ensure we can recruit our full allocation".
- "intention to invest heavily in IT and . . . touches upon our ability to recruit as many as leave next year. This is possible only as a direct result of the very significant reorganisation we have gone through and the effective problem solving focus we have adopted within the Force".
Mr. Hogg: The hon. Gentleman has expressed warm words about the need to introduce to the formula an element to reflect sparsity. Can he give the House an
undertaking that, at the end of the moratorium period, he will introduce to the formula the sparsity factor recommended by his Home Office consultants?
Mr. Clarke: No, I cannot give that undertaking. The right hon. and learned Gentleman is a very experienced--I hate to use the word "statesman"--political leader in his own right. He knows that undertakings cannot be given by Ministers when major reviews of funding systems are taking place. The purpose of the review of funding systems is to weigh up the issues and form a view, including in this case on sparsity.
I can give the right hon. and learned Gentleman an undertaking that the issue of sparsity will be very seriously considered--in fact, is being very seriously considered--throughout that process. I can give him an undertaking that the Government intend to focus even more sharply on rural crime as a very important element of our initiatives to build a safe community countrywide. However, I cannot give him an undertaking about the outcome of that review process. No Minister could, and under the Conservatives, no Minister could either, simply because a process is taking place which will give rise to conclusions.
However, I do want to say that, in addition to the sparsity element in the crime fighting fund announcements that we made yesterday, in the CCTV announcements we gave priority to rural funding issues and our new guidelines will reinforce that still further; and we are actively considering, in the context of the Government's priority on rural issues as a whole, the ways in which we can fight rural crime both with resources and with a range of other and different initiatives. I really do believe that the Government are seeking to address these issues very seriously and to ensure that we can address the issues in the fullest possible way.
On rural crime, a wide range of other issues are of concern. We are pursuing a range of inter-related initiatives to reduce crime and the fear of crime. We are delivering new powers to the local crime reduction partnerships and we are providing a significant amount of money through the crime reduction scheme and for CCTV schemes to focus on those most at risk.
We strongly believe that we must address the issues of confidence in rural communities, such as those represented by the hon. Member for Gainsborough. I genuinely commend him on securing the debate. I genuinely believe that the issues of rural crime are important, and he is right to raise them in the way that he has, not only for his constituents but for the wider good. I also genuinely believe that the Government are seriously trying to address these issues in a sharp and focused way.
Question put and agreed to.
Adjourned accordingly at twenty-nine minutes past Seven o'clock.
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