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Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Alan Haselhurst): Order. I cannot impose a time limit on speeches by Back-Bench Members at this stage in a debate, but if hon. Members can try to keep their remarks to about 10 minutes in length it will be possible for everyone to contribute.
12.57 pm
Mr. Nick St. Aubyn (Guildford): I rise to speak in this debate as a Surrey Member of Parliament. A significant part of the Metropolitan police was transferred back to the county of Surrey this year. Some years ago I was a London councillor and I represented an area that stretched as far as Paddington Green, in which there were several police section houses. I have followed the fortunes of the Metropolitan police very carefully over the past few years.
In his opening remarks, the Home Secretary spoke about the recruiting difficulties faced by the Metropolitan police. His observations contrast with what the Financial Secretary to the Treasury told a debate in Westminster Hall. Only two months ago, on 24 May, he said about the Metropolitan police,
- retention in the police is not a major problem.
Mr. Edward Davey: I happen to have the Hansard report of the debate to which the hon. Gentleman referred. Although it is not my job to defend the Financial Secretary, I can tell the House that, immediately after the sentence to which the hon. Member for Guildford (Mr. St. Aubyn) referred, he went on to say:
- However, there have been recruitment difficulties, which are being dealt with through the police negotiating board.--[Official Report, Westminster Hall, 24 May 2000; Vol. 350, c. 225WH.]
Clearly, there have been growing difficulties in the past year. Why have they developed? The problem seems to be about more than money. House prices and the cost of living in the capital have risen dramatically over the past eight years, but the really decisive problem over the past year or two has been the deterioration in morale in the Metropolitan police.
Recently, I attended a meeting with the Surrey police authority at the Surrey police headquarters at Mount Browne in my constituency. We were informed of the very low morale in the Metropolitan police. There is no doubt that a key reason for that drop in morale is the impact of the Macpherson report. The problem has to be dealt with sensitively and carefully, but we must address it in this debate. In 1988, the number of stop-and-search operations undertaken on a quarterly basis by the Metropolitan police was 85,000; by the middle of 1999, the number had dropped to only 60,000. During the same period, street crime rose by 30 per cent.
Some of the more recent recruitment difficulties for the Metropolitan police have reflected the serious consequences of the change in operational performance and the constraints that the police feel that they are now under.
Mr. Heald: Was my hon. Friend making a distinction between retention and recruitment? Does he agree that
about 6,000 officers a year are leaving the police service in Britain? Does he agree that that high figure is one of the reasons why measures such as the crime fighting fund will not achieve all that is hoped for them?
Mr. St. Aubyn: I agree and I feel that the Financial Secretary was being complacent in his remarks about the retention problems in the police force. I shall explain how retention in the Surrey police will be seriously affected by today's announcement by the Home Secretary, however well intentioned it may have been.
Clearly, the Macpherson report was well intentioned, but it has not achieved the results meant for it. In January, Sir Paul Condon said that police officers' lives had been damaged in a way from which they would never recover. The report was an attempt to address a real problem in the police--the problem, arguably even a culture, of racism. However, it was going too far to state that there was institutional racism. No one here would want to condone racism. I spent nearly a year living and working in Soweto in the era of apartheid. That was institutional racism. The Metropolitan police did not face a problem of that scale. Evidently, the way in which the problem was described had an impact on morale at a time when the police were already trying to deal with the problems in their ranks.
The new arrangements for post-Sheehy officers in the force are part of the price of failure that we have to pay for the Macpherson report and its consequences, and there will be a knock-on effect on other police authorities. In Surrey, we have a particular problem because part of Surrey's responsibility was taken over in April this year from the Metropolitan force. For a handover period, officers are being seconded from the Metropolitan police to Surrey. I would be grateful if the Minister would clarify the precise status of those officers and whether they are post-Sheehy officers, in terms of today's announcement.
If those officers are to be awarded the extra £64 a week on top of the existing differential over the Surrey officers with whom they will be working, that will highlight a discrepancy. If they do not receive the extra award of £64, they will find that they face all of the difficulties of their former colleagues--as very few of them will have moved house since they were seconded to Surrey--without any of the new help announced today by the Home Secretary.
That is a pivotal example of a wider problem that will face us in Surrey. Up until now, we have had a differential between Surrey and the Metropolitan police of around £3,000 a year. Following today's announcement, that will go up to £6,000 a year. The same will be true of the other home counties. I was grateful that the Home Secretary recognised the scale of the problem, which was expressed to me during the recent meeting at Mount Browne. The size of the differential has grown so much that there will be a transfer of police officers from Surrey and other surrounding forces, meaning that the recruitment problem has not been solved, but merely transferred. We fear that, at the same time, some of the problems of morale will be transferred, because we have discovered from London's experience of the past few years that it is one thing to lose morale, but a far harder thing to rebuild it.
Mr. Charles Clarke: I understand the hon. Gentleman's point and, as my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary said earlier, I am discussing the matter with the chief constables of the forces concerned. However, does
he believe that, for that reason, my right hon. Friend's announcement today should not have been made, or does he think it should have been made but more should be done? I should be grateful for clarification on that point.
Mr. St. Aubyn: I think that, as the Minister responsible for all policing in this country, the Home Secretary should have made an announcement that encompassed all policing in this country and not confined his remarks to the Metropolitan police. Of course, the Met will welcome the award and I acknowledge that there is a job to be done to rebuild the morale, effectiveness and success of the London force. The Home Secretary made the comparison between a London police constable of five years' experience who will now earn £27,600 a year and a London teacher of many years' experience who will earn only £26,300 a year and expressed the hope that that will attract more people into policing. However, the problems in policing cannot in the long term be addressed at the expense of other public services, so his approach is short-sighted.
The real problem at the heart of police and public service recruitment in London is the skills gap, represented by the fact that there are now in our economy 1 million vacancies, many of which are in the London area. That is the highest number of vacancies recorded at any time in the past 10 years or more, and it has serious consequences for the economy. In my opinion, it reflects directly the Government's failure to maintain the number of people going through college, especially further education colleges, that the Conservatives had achieved by the time they left office in 1997. Cumulatively, since 1997, 500,000 fewer students have completed FE courses. The knock-on effect of that is the growing skills gap. That, in turn, has affected recruitment to the police and other public services as private sector employers have used their flexibility to raise salaries. As a result, the police are now being forced to raise their salaries in London and I predict that there will be knock-on consequences for forces elsewhere in the country.
I am mindful of your comments, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I have appreciated the opportunity to participate in a well-informed debate and to hear the speeches of other hon. Members. I hope that the Minister will deal with the points that I have raised when he replies the debate.
1.7 pm
Mr. Harry Cohen (Leyton and Wanstead): To be able to speak in this important debate and reflect the views of my constituents, I have not gone on a visit to Northern Ireland with the Select Committee on Defence.
I recall a former Conservative Home Secretary meeting a group of Labour Members of Parliament and telling them that crime had a connection with enterprise. His audience was deeply unimpressed with that complacent excuse for the huge rise in crime recorded under Conservative Administrations. Crime doubled under the Conservatives: in London, violent crime increased by an astonishing 259 per cent. To an increasing extent, young offenders got away with their crimes; if they were caught, it took an age to get them to court. Nothing was done to tackle anti-social behaviour, including the vicious racial attacks that ruined many decent people's lives. In the capital, between 1993 and 1998, the number of police fell by almost 2,000. The right hon. Member for Maidstone
and The Weald (Miss Widdecombe), then a Home Office Minister, promised 5,000 more police officers, but instead delivered that reduction.Turning around that legacy of lawlessness is a difficult task, but I appreciate that the current Government are making relentless progress. Crime has fallen by 7 per cent., and the Government are well on the way to fulfilling the Prime Minister's election pledge to halve the time taken from arrest to sentencing of persistent young offenders. In London, the time taken getting them to court was reduced by 35 per cent. between 1997 and 1999. Laws have been passed making racial violence and harassment crimes--something I first proposed to the House in 1985--and enabling local authorities to evict anti-social neighbours. Anti-social behaviour orders and detention and training orders are now available to the courts, and youth offender teams have been set up in many communities.
The Government have allocated cash to recruit an extra 1,113 police officers for London over the next couple of years. That is in addition to the Commissioner's plans. The Met has been set a target to increase the number of its ethnic minority officers from 865 to 6,526 to match the proportion in the local population. It is right to do that.
Targets have been set to reduce vehicle crime by 31 per cent., burglary by 10 per cent. and robberies by 15 per cent. in London over the next five years. Crime reduction partnerships have been set up, involving the police, local authorities and other key players. Those are up and running in every part of London.
Despite such programmes, there is a crime wave in my constituency. It is one thing to have the various youth offence orders in place; it is another thing to catch the youths in the first place. The 7 per cent. crime reduction is welcome. For some crimes, such as burglary, there has been a substantial reduction, but for others, such as vehicle and street crime, there has been an increase. In some parts of the country, there has been a big reduction in crime, which is welcome, but in other parts an increase has taken place. That seems to be the case in Leyton and Wanstead, and neither I nor my constituents like it.
There have been some horrendous exceptional crimes recently in my constituency: a murder, a robbery with a sawn-off shotgun, another robbery in which a security man almost lost his hand, a sniper with an air gun--I pay tribute to the police who apprehended the sniper--and a vicious racial attack. On top of that, there has been a high tide of youth crime, in which youngsters are the perpetrators as well as the victims. That spills over into the rest of the community. In some cases adults are the victims, and a fear of crime builds up as a result.
I know that the Commissioner has set up a safer streets programme, but it has not yet reached Leyton and Wanstead. What is it? When will it apply? That is the Commissioner's first real test, and my constituents are waiting to see whether he will pass it.
I refer the House to some comments from my recent constituency casework. A woman came to my last advice surgery from the Avenue estate, Leytonstone. She told me about a roaming bunch of youths, some as young as eight, who were very much into car crime. At 12.30 pm one day they were setting out to torch a car--a petrol can was found on the scene--but, fortunately, they were disturbed.
The head of Norlington school in Leytonstone, Mr. Neil Primrose, telephoned me only yesterday and spoke about muggings having reached crisis levels and impacting on the performance of the children at his school. He said that whereas there used to be one or two muggings in a whole term, on Monday evening alone there were four. He has called a public meeting on the subject, which I shall have to attend.
Gill Morley of Voluntary place, Wanstead wrote to me, stating:
- Wanstead has no wish to become a crime "hot spot".
Christchurch Green has, in particular, turned into a late night meeting ground and walking along the High Street after dark usually means hearing screaming, shouting and the sound of fights. The park in daylight looks like a war zone--lights torn down, trees, benches and anything else to hand are trashed.
Would you please make every effort to ensure Wanstead has an efficient and energetic police presence.
- My home is located near Christchurch Green. I am appalled to see that this precious and valued green area which has for many years been used for the recreation and enjoyment of local people old and young has now become the chosen "hang out" for the ignorant and uncouth. . . Large groups "hang out" on the green at night and are very threatening.
- Petty crime and petty vandalism if ignored and tolerated eat their way through an area and it becomes a bad place to live.
Mr. Baptiste of Warren road in Wanstead also visited my advice surgery. He has been a resident for 30 years and is shocked at the current position. He said:
- Wanstead is being targeted as a soft touch because there is no police presence.
The safer streets programme must become effective; police must be around to capture youths so that the relevant orders can be implemented. The courts and the authorities must act because long-term, generalised plans alone are no good. There should be foot patrols and a car presence when needed--for example, at night and at weekends. Response times must be faster. The police charter talks about police responding to 80 per cent. of calls in 12 minutes. That is not being achieved. One Wanstead family who were threatened with violent assault by a gang who were stealing the wheels off their car in broad daylight waited 28 minutes for the police to arrive. The criminals were long gone by then.
I support the provision of CCTV for small shopping and business areas, and the campaign by the local Guardian. However, I suspect that the Government would not. They emphasise large shopping and business centres, not smaller ones. There is also a problem of matching funds: it is more difficult for smaller businesses to contribute. However, smaller urban centres are important. The Government's priorities for CCTV should change to help them. I have written to the Chancellor urging a tax break and an insurance premium break for those who install CCTV and take other security measures.
The number of police for normal borough policing should be increased. Police are currently siphoned off for other purposes, which are perhaps laudable--for example, to supplement murder teams and murder review teams, and to go on secondment to the home counties. However, the Government should tackle the problem. I am pleased that they have made a start with today's announcement of a £64 a week pay rise for junior officers. Police numbers must increase, and that must permeate to the boroughs.
Let us consider small police station closures and limited opening times. My constituents argue strongly that Wanstead police station should be open seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Monday to Friday opening, from 10 am to 6 pm, is the plan. Even that is not achieved because of the inability to recruit suitable reception staff. A sergeant and two officers are based there. My efforts have led to the appointment of another two officers, but they cover a slightly larger area. The assumptions about the closure programme for small police stations should be reconsidered. Closures are made on the basis of cost and on the presumption of faster response times, which are not happening. The closures and run-downs make areas such as Wanstead vulnerable to crime.
Small urban shopping areas are like rural areas, but it is easier for the villains to gain access to them and to get away from them. The Government are trying to improve the policing of rural areas; they should do the same for smaller, urban parts of London. I note that there was no Conservative commitment to reopening police stations that have been closed or to opening them for longer.
The Tory years emphasised consumerism and instant gratification, without having to earn it. The Tory Government ignored young people: they did not listen to them, they took away their training and education opportunities, they did not provide proper work for them, and they closed down their youth clubs. That has created a yobbish culture, which is a serious problem at home and abroad. It shames Britain, as happened in Brussels last week. That is compounded by allegedly pro-British boorishness, lack of civility, xenophobia and racism, and the belief that other races and other nationalities are less human and can, therefore, be disrespected.
The Government have acted on several fronts, some of which I mentioned at the beginning of my speech. Youth employment has been a particular achievement. We need to tackle the youth issue from several directions. The general plan of anti-crime partnerships must result in sustained action on the ground. That is not happening yet.
The Home Secretary should set up an urgent inquiry to ascertain what more needs to be done to turn the tide. The Chancellor of the Exchequer should loosen his purse strings to implement its recommendations, which I would expect to include more youth clubs, more mentors and ways to utilise our youth as an asset to the community, rather than a threat. Obviously, there must also be more effective policing throughout London.
Crime gets people down; the Government must get crime down. I know that Ministers are determined to do that.
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