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Ms Julia Drown (South Swindon): Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Mr. Heald: Unfortunately, I do not have time to give way.
Last week, the Minister told us about a new complaints procedure. However, 90 police stations have closed in the past year, so where does one go to make a complaint? He has spoken of improving police equipment and technology but, in April, on average almost a quarter of the Metropolitan police's vehicles were off the road every day
for repairs. He has announced new communications for the police, but 999 calls are now being answered by a recorded message machine.The Minister talks about cutting bureaucracy for the police yet the White Paper on licensing will give them a new role as the licensing authority for church fetes and other temporary events. While he tells us that he is considering rural sparsity funding, the National Farmers Union estimates that the cost of rural crime to farmers has risen by £100 million per annum.
What do the public think when they see a headline that says, "Yard operators are 'losing it' in a 999 crisis"? A recent article says that Scotland Yard, which used be the gold standard of policing in Britain,
- is in danger of being overwhelmed with emergency calls amid a staffing crisis and a surge in the number of people dialling 999.
- they are coping with a surge in calls.
When an operator was asked about the problem, he said:
- On one recent shift 20 to 30 calls were being held in a queue.
- The problem is caused partly by . . . a rise in the number of calls.
Mr. Straw: I did not say what the hon. Gentleman suggests.
Mr. Heald: Goodness knows what the right hon. Gentleman said. Perhaps I did not hear him correctly. I thought that he said, "That was very professional". The operator was explaining the shortcomings of the Home Office and the difficulties that he faces in trying to answer people's calls at the most desperate moments when people are frightened and afraid. I thought that it was at those comments that the Home Secretary was sneering.
People are entitled to feel safe in their communities. The Conservative party is committed to providing answers, particularly to the central question of police numbers. The public want to know when the Government will respond positively. The public want the answer that the Government will restore police numbers to the level that they inherited and that they will be tough on crime and the causes of crime. In other words, the public want the Government to live up to their promises; they do not want the current position, which is all talk, all sweet words and no delivery.
6.49 pm
The Minister of State, Home Office (Mr. Charles Clarke): Our debate has been quite thoughtful--at least Back Benchers' contributions were. I welcome our discussions, as it is important to have a political debate about the issues, and I am glad that the Opposition decided to table the motion. However, I regret the fact that only three Conservative Back Benchers were present for most of the debate, and think that that is significant.
I intend to try to set out the strategy that the Government are seeking to follow. We inherited problems after 18 years of Conservative Government. I shall not get into trite questions about whether crime doubled or, indeed, go through that whole debate. However, I shall indicate the problem that we are trying to address in each policy area and how we are doing that.
I do not think that the problems that we inherited were those of a great liberal establishment. Indeed, Margaret Thatcher, who was Prime Minister for a considerable part of that period, would not have been very pleased to be described as part of such an establishment. For much of her life, she represented Finchley--a Hampstead liberal if ever there was one. Authoritarian ineffectiveness, to reverse the words of the hon. Member for Hertsmere (Mr. Clappison), was characteristic of that whole period of government.
Our strategy has been to build our way out of the crisis that we inherited. We believe that it is important to address anti-social behaviour, and we all know of such problems in our constituencies. As an aside, let me say that the young people causing such problems are the children of the no-such-thing-as-society generation. We did not have the necessary legal instruments, which had not been provided by the previous Government, so we set about establishing them. Of course, we have to do a great deal more, and do it better, so criticism on that is perfectly justified. However, we got the legal instruments in place as we needed to do, and we are addressing the problem.
Partnership is another element of our strategy. There was no legal basis to the partnerships when we came to power. Everyone acknowledges that the most important legislation on changing the culture of policing and other issues has been introduced by us. We have set about achieving a legal basis for the partnerships and have changed Metropolitan police boundaries to get them going. We have also put resources into closed circuit television, neighbourhood wardens and so on to make those partnerships work. We have set about that process, although I accept that we have not done enough. However, we are going to do more.
The hon. Member for North-East Hertfordshire (Mr. Heald) made some rather jeering remarks about technology. We have inherited a situation in which 43 police authorities each use different technologies and so cannot communicate with one another. Police, prisons, the probation service, the crown courts, the magistrates courts and the Crown Prosecution Service all have entirely different systems and cannot relate to one another effectively. We are investing to solve that important problem, which should have been addressed a hell of a long time ago.
We are putting money into DNA testing and are improving the police national computer. Those are significant matters, as it is important to use technology to benefit policing. Modernisation of the police is important,
as is training, as most people would acknowledge. The Police Federation certainly did when the hon. Member for North-East Hertfordshire and I attended its conference. It is important to establish a best value regime that addresses significantly different levels of performance by different basic command units and different police authorities throughout the country.We have worked on establishing an independent complaints procedure and dealing with the relationship with the community and related issues following the Macpherson report. Major issues have to be addressed, but so do ridiculous issues. Different police forces have different height requirements for special constables. People with glasses can be recruited in some forces, but not others. That is a ludicrous state of affairs which we must modernise and get straight. We have had to deal with all the mess that was left behind.
Serious and organised crime is another important matter which we tackled by getting real joint working between the National Criminal Intelligence Service, the security services, Customs and Excise, and the immigration and nationality directorate. That had not been done before, and we have got a strategy to get those key agencies working together. Of course, there is a great deal more to be achieved but, again, we are moving in the right direction.
Mr. Clarke: I shall not give way, because of the time constraint that the hon. Gentleman himself mentioned.
Drugs involved the same problems. We had to get the agencies working together properly and we introduced new legal instruments to try and address the issues involved. As everyone acknowledges, drugs are the core of a great deal of crime, and we have tried to make our strategy on them move forward.
I agreed with much of what the hon. Member for Southwark, North and Bermondsey (Mr. Hughes) said about support for victims and witnesses, and I can assure him that we will consider those points. We need more such support. The right hon. and learned Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Mr. Howard) was right to pay tribute to the courage of witnesses, and he will acknowledge that it is the duty of the state to give them all possible support. That is why we are making available more money and resources and providing better support for Victim Support. We have a lot further to go, but we are building on the inadequate provision that we inherited.
We are tackling reoffending by dealing with the situation of those who have been convicted, whether they require help with drug problems or education in literacy and numeracy. We are setting up a coherent programme to try to prevent people from reoffending. That is difficult and involves tackling cultural questions and significant problems.
Several hon. Members mentioned bobbies on the beat. We have made clear our intention, by the end of the Parliament, to increase police numbers to the level that we inherited.
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