| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
5.51 pm
Mr. James Clappison (Hertsmere): I welcome the opportunity to take part in this debate. It is an especial pleasure to follow the outstanding speech by my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Mr. Howard). I also agreed with the sentiments with which the hon. Member for Waveney (Mr. Blizzard) concluded, as well as with many of the earlier parts of his speech, when he spoke about the growing public perception of crime. As well as crime itself, the fear of
crime is growing. It is also a question of police numbers. Elderly people feel the most vulnerable and fear that the help may not be available to them should they fall victim to crime.It was absolutely right to choose this as a subject for debate. In my constituency, it is a matter of growing importance. My right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Folkestone and Hythe got the big picture absolutely right. We are getting used to the Government's great selectivity with statistics, but the striking thing about the history of crime in this country is its remorseless rise, decade after decade. It has certainly been on a steadily rising curve over my lifetime. The only point at which the trend was departed from was from 1992 onwards. That was the only sustained period in which crime fell. It rose during the rest of the Conservative period of office, but it fell significantly in the period from 1992, with many fewer victims.
It is worrying that that trend seems to have been reversed and crime seems to be resuming its upward trend. We must do whatever we can to reverse the trend and prevent people from falling victim to crime. That is another reason why it was right to choose this subject.
My constituency has been badly affected by crime over the past three years, for reasons that have a local character quite apart from the general matters that we have been discussing. When the big increase in crime in Hertsmere is discussed, it will not do for Ministers or Labour Members to tell my constituents that it has something to do with the previous Government. That excuse is wearing thin generally, and certainly in the case of Hertsmere.
Up to 1997, Hertsmere had been policed for a long time by the Metropolitan police, generally without complaint about their performance. Shortly after that, the decision was taken to transfer Hertsmere to the Hertfordshire police, with effect from 1 April 2000, as a result of the new arrangements for the governance of London. Hertsmere was subject to a lengthy period of transitional policing by the Metropolitan police, and it is the widespread perception--which I suspect is backed up by the figures, although they are hard to obtain because policing districts were changed--that there was a substantial reduction in police numbers. That was certainly the complaint of all three political parties in Hertsmere.
Especially in the past year, the result has been a disastrous policing performance, with total crime up 11 per cent., violent crime up 51 per cent.--from 557 to 840 incidents--and robbery up 58 per cent. Robbery was very rare in Hertsmere before. The clear-up rate collapsed, falling by 27 per cent. The local paper was right to run a banner headline calling that a huge rise in crime figures. It certainly was, and it has caused great distress and discontent among my constituents.
Hertsmere has now been taken over by Hertfordshire police, who have certainly shown a commitment that has been warmly welcomed. Everybody is now backing them and giving them their strongest possible support, and their attitude has been praised. We look for better things in the future.
My constituents are certainly entitled to feel some disquiet and despair when they set that against the big picture of what the Labour party promised about policing before the general election. We were promised a
crackdown on anti-social behaviour, but such behaviour has grown in Hertsmere. The Prime Minister and the Home Secretary were very strong on the subject.The Home Secretary said that he would go to war against all anti-social elements, even down to the squeegee merchants. The Prime Minister said that he was in favour of zero tolerance policing. At a Labour party press conference, he said:
- I am absolutely passionate about this . . . You go out and ask old people who face these types of problem and they will say zero tolerance is a good idea. If you refuse to tolerate the small crimes then you can create a different climate within local communities.
Those orders were at the core of the Act. It is no good Ministers playing them down and saying that there are examples of previous laws that have not been given much effect. They were the flagship measures in the Government's flagship Bill. The anti-social behaviour order was trailed countless times, with press releases, visits to inner-city estates and announcements by different Ministers and by the Prime Minister himself.
The Government were warned by some that the orders were impractical and broke new ground legally. It has been interesting to hear some of the complaints from Labour Members in this debate. The hon. Member for Manchester, Central (Mr. Lloyd) said that the anti-social behaviour order process was complicated. He can say that again. We understand that others have made the same complaint.
What is beyond peradventure, given that the anti-social behaviour orders have been in operation for more than a year, is that they have not lived up to the expectations built up for them by the Home Secretary and the Prime Minister. About 40 or 45 orders have been issued, and I understand that at last we have had one in Hertfordshire.
It is very interesting that Ministers' tone is beginning to change. It is going through a distinct evolutionary phase. When the failure of the courts to issue more of the orders was pointed out to Ministers, they said that it would take time for them to bed down. When it became clear that they were not bedding down at any perceptible rate, they said that the deterrent effect was the most important thing.
In olden days, public executions had a deterrent effect, but there have to be some in an area for there to be any effect at all, and large parts of the country have not seen a single anti-social behaviour order. Until recently, the nearest one to Hertfordshire had been in Camden.
We have moved on to a new phase, which right hon. and hon. Members will recognise, in the evolution of a struggling policy. The Government have stopped trying to pretend that the policy has been a success or that it has had some sort of remote effects that have been successful. Now the Government are looking for someone else to blame, but they cannot make up their mind who should be blamed. The Minister of State, Home Office said during Question Time on Monday that local authorities could be
criticised for their approach. The Home Secretary has aimed higher and chosen a different target. In an angry outburst at a recent conference, he made what was described by the Press Association as
- a scathing attack on "well heeled" civil liberties lawyers.
- I had in mind some of the lawyers and so called legal experts who have been running a campaign against Anti Social Behaviour Orders suggesting ludicrously that they go against the European Convention of Human Rights. I think there is a huge issue of hypocrisy here. They represent the perpetrator of crime and then get into their BMWs and drive off into areas where they are immune from much of the crime.
The Minister of State, Home Office (Mr. Charles Clarke): You are.
Mr. Clappison: The Minister has beaten me to it. I knew that it would end up being our fault.
I have a helpful suggestion about the anti-social behaviour orders. Some of the suggestions that I have made in the past have been adopted by other hon. Members. If the orders are to be used in targeting what the Government have described as sub-criminal behaviour, they will have to employ many more police officers. As the House will have gathered tonight, the police officers we have are already fully stretched dealing with criminal behaviour. It is not possible for the frontiers of crime fighting to be stretched to cover sub-criminal behaviour when the Government have such difficulty dealing with actual criminal behaviour.
In the debate on police numbers, we have heard much from the Government about initiatives, strategies, partnerships and fighting funds. If we had an extra police officer for every time we have heard one of those buzzwords, we would all be happier. What is the real picture on police numbers? The Home Secretary told us on Monday at Question Time about the Government's plans for police numbers. It is an accepted fact that in every year under this Government so far the number of police officers has fallen and, according to Labour Members, after three years of this Government, that fall is all the Conservatives' fault. The Home Secretary said:
- The projections of police numbers based on forces' estimates for recruitment and wastage now rise as follows: it is projected that, in March 2001, the number will be 126,500 and that, in March 2002, it will be 127,000.--[Official Report, 22 May 2000; Vol. 350, c. 655.]
For some strange reason, the Home Secretary finished his prediction at March 2002. Can the Minister confirm that the Home Office police resources unit has a projection for March 2003 that police numbers will start to fall again, to 125,900? That unit gives the same projection for other years as the Home Secretary gave the House on Monday. If the Minister can confirm that point, it is worrying and my right hon. and hon. Friends are right to highlight the subject.
While there cannot be said to be a clear link between police numbers and the incidence of crime, the public expect visible policing. They also expect a speedy response from the police for the victims of crime. Visible policing is vital for the elderly, because it does so much for the quality of their lives when they see a bobby on the beat when they are out and about. [Interruption.] The hon. Member for Eltham (Mr. Efford) represents a constituency covered by the Metropolitan police force, so he had better be very careful.
| Next Section
| Index | Home Page |