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Burglaries (Greater Manchester)
8. Ms Hazel Blears (Salford): What targets for burglary reduction he has set for Greater Manchester police. [121538]
The Minister of State, Home Office (Mr. Paul Boateng): Local crime reduction targets for police forces are set by local police authorities. Greater Manchester police authority has set a target of achieving a 25 per cent. reduction in domestic burglary by April 2005.
Ms Blears: I thank my right hon. Friend for that answer. I am delighted that Salford has recently received nearly £1 million to tackle burglary in the city and to help meet the 25 per cent. reduction target. However, we have serious criminals who launder money. I am particularly pleased by the announcement of plans to seize the assets of criminals.
Does my right hon. Friend recall that the criminal career of Al Capone was brought to an end by convictions for tax evasion rather than murder? Will he, like Eliot Ness, pursue serious criminals in equally innovative ways in future?
Mr. Boateng: I am not so sure that Eliot Ness and the Untouchables are the immediate analogies that spring to mind, but the answer is yes.
Special Constables
9. Mr. Andrew Stunell (Hazel Grove): What measures he plans to encourage recruitment of additional special constables. [121539]
The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. Jack Straw): The Government continue to support the efforts of the police to recruit more special constables. The Home Office has produced a recruitment video, a series of posters, and a recruitment brochure, and funded a two-week national radio and press campaign in March 2000, at a cost of £700,000. Research into why people join the special constabulary has been commissioned. The results of the research and the March campaign will be available shortly, will be made known to the House and will help focus plans for the next recruitment campaign.
Specials now meet higher recruitment standards and are better trained and equipped; and offer a much better support to their regular colleagues and, therefore, a better service to the public.
Mr. Stunell: I was pleased to hear the Home Secretary refer to a radio recruitment programme. Is he aware that in Stockport, which is part of Greater Manchester, special constables had to have their radios provided by funds from the local council because the Greater Manchester police force was not able to fund them? Does the right hon. Gentleman agree that there is a lack of status and a lack of funding, which make the job somewhat unattractive for those who really could play a constructive part in policing our community?
Mr. Straw: The way in which specials are used varies considerably from one force area to another. Some forces, and their regular officers, embrace the specials and use
them effectively. In other forces, there remains an implication that they are unpaid labour, and the regular officers are slightly stand-offish. In truth, these members of the community give of their time freely and voluntarily to supplement the work of regular officers, which they do extremely well. We have sought to raise recruitment and training standards for those officers so that they can be relied on more readily than may sometimes have been the case in the past. We have taken steps to improve their expenses and sick pay, and--which is important--to provide them with insurance in case of legal action against them.
Mr. David Winnick (Walsall, North): As the role of special constables is obviously to fight criminality, what message do they receive if a convicted rapist such as Tyson is allowed into the United Kingdom? Is my right hon. Friend aware that men, as well as women, are deeply opposed to letting him in? I hope that my right hon. Friend will understand the feelings on his Back Benches and reconsider his decision.
Mr. Straw: It is hard to see quite how that question arises on this matter, but it is my responsibility to take such decisions on the basis of the rules and the law as they exist. The simple fact is that that particular immigration rule had been observed more in the breach than in the observance. No proper arrangements had been made for requiring such information from those who were not visa nationals and who were arriving in this country. As it turned out, other people with more serious convictions had come and gone without notice. Above all, I had to take account of whether Mr. Tyson's entry would pose a risk to the safety of the public. On the basis of the history of his application--
Mr. Winnick: That is not the issue.
Mr. Straw: With great respect to my hon. Friend, on the basis of the history of the application and the need for fairness and consistency, I took the decision that I took. I also laid before the House a consultative document, on which my hon. Friend may wish to comment, proposing changes in the rules and their more consistent application in future.
Mr. Edward Garnier (Harborough): The Home Secretary will recognise that special constables are prime examples of the citizen in uniform. They perform many of the community policing roles that we would wish regular officers to play. What has the Home Secretary to say to the police about housing costs, which are one of the reasons why it is so difficult to encourage police officers to live in the more expensive parts of the country?
Mr. Straw: I have two things to say about housing costs. First, as the hon. and learned Gentleman will recognise, following the abolition of the housing allowance in 1994, under the Sheehy changes, some forces, particularly the Metropolitan police, have, because of rising prices, found it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain officers. Secondly, in recognition of the particular problems faced in the Metropolitan police service, I have authorised the offer of a substantial increase in the London allowance for post-1994
Metropolitan police officers. The offer is currently in arbitration, but I hope that there will be a satisfactory outcome as soon as possible.
Ms Claire Ward (Watford): Is my right hon. Friend aware that the pay increase in the Metropolitan police to which he has just referred is causing severe problems for Hertfordshire police and other constabularies around London? It is making it more difficult for other forces to recruit and retain officers, not only as special constables but as regulars. What plans has he to assist those constabularies to retain officers as well as recruiting them?
Mr. Straw: A working group in the Police Negotiating Board is considering the matter. I am aware of representations made to me personally by the chief constable of Hertfordshire and two other chief constables in the home counties. I have to say that the quicker they produce firm evidence about their recruiting problems, the quicker and better able we shall be to respond.
Child Curfew Orders
10. Mr. Desmond Swayne (New Forest, West): How many child curfew orders have been (a) applied for and (b) granted. [121540]
The Minister of State, Home Office (Mr. Paul Boateng): No applications have been received from local authorities to establish child curfew schemes. The failure of some local authorities to recognise the importance of ensuring that they use the full range of powers that are now available to them to counter anti-social behaviour is a matter of continuing concern.
Mr. Swayne: What is a matter of concern is that the arrangements are entirely unworkable. What is the Minister going to do to make them operable?
Mr. Boateng: The hon. Gentleman is misguided. If he consults his own crime and disorder partnership, he will find that it makes good use of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. Indeed, I have a copy of the partnership document; it indicates that a group has been established, led by the chief officer of police and the chief executive of the district council, to look at anti-social behaviour orders--which must be seen alongside the child curfew orders. That group is making considerable progress. The hon. Gentleman should be supporting his local partnerships, rather than knocking the Act that set them up.
Mr. Frank Roy (Motherwell and Wishaw): My right hon. Friend will be aware that child curfew orders have been used, as a last resort, on housing schemes in the west of Scotland. Does he agree that the use of role models is also important for children? If so, what would he tell children on the west of Scotland housing schemes whom I represent about looking to a rapist and a person who bites off someone else's ear during a boxing match as a role model. What would he tell children who think of Mike Tyson as a role model?
Mr. Boateng: I should tell them that a large range of role models is available and that they do not have to turn to Mike Tyson or anyone like him in order to find one.
Miss Anne McIntosh (Vale of York): The Minister referred to anti-social behaviour orders. Will he tell the House how many have been issued? Why does he think that the partnerships to which he referred actually work--rather than responsibility being taken by the police?
Mr. Boateng: Forty--and half of them were issued specifically in relation to juveniles. If the hon. Lady talks to her own local partnership, she will find that as valuable as the order itself is the fact that the Crime and Disorder Act has enabled local agencies--education, social services, health, probation and the police--to work together to tackle those problems, thus making it unnecessary in many cases to apply for an order. The important point is that the power exists; it is being used, and it is working.
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