| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
7.41 pm
The Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Fiona Mactaggart): I thank the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton) for raising this very important issue. As he pointed out, he has been an assiduous advocate of the work of Community Alerts, and of the work on the child rescue alert scheme done by Sussex police.
The hon. Gentleman gave an account of the response to the scheme of my colleagues that was to some degree partial, but I can understand that. I have much sympathy for the frustration that he felt at the difficulty in obtaining a meeting that he pointed out had been promised earlier by my right hon. Friend the Member for Leeds, Central (Hilary Benn). However, he did not remind the House that my hon. Friend the Minister for Crime Reduction, Policing, and Community Safety asked him in June whether he wanted a meeting. I am glad that that meeting has now been organised, as it is important that the Government should be accountable to hon. Members who pursue a matter with such assiduity. We must provide them with opportunities to raise such matters, and I am glad that such an opportunity has been arranged for the hon. Gentleman.
We all agree that protecting children is a top priority. It is a very serious challenge for the police and their partner agencies, and they must respond sensitively and effectively. There has been a worrying increase in the number of child abductions of all types, with the 2001–02 figure of 584 rising to 846 in 2002–03. That rise concerns the Government greatly.
I have put in hand some detailed analysis to determine which types of abductions have increased, and why. That information is important when it comes to providing an appropriate response to such cases. For example, we need to identify the proportion of abductions carried out by parents, known family members or friends outside the immediate family circle, and that carried out by strangers. We need to know how many incidents are reported and subsequently resolved when the missing child is located soon after. The hon. Gentleman referred to the case in his area involving a child who was quite safe in a neighbour's house, even though no one knew that was the case. We need to know the real frequency of abductions that lead to more serious and sometimes fatal consequences. I expect to have some initial findings next month. That sort of information will feed into how the Government respond.
Against that background, the Government were pleased to see the initiative taken by Sussex police earlier this year with the child rescue scheme pilot, which the hon. Gentleman described in detail. It is a good example of innovative policing, even if the experiences of those involved have sometimes been frustrating. He communicated that frustration to the House well.
The scheme makes creative use of available technology and local partnerships. It has the potential to be a powerful tool in combating child abductions. However, every care has to be taken in judging whether to use it for a particular abduction and at what stage. One of the key aspects in handling child abductions is to act so as to avoid unintended effects. When deciding to trigger an alert, the police must have every confidence in both the underlying technology and the operational procedures that follow from its use.
That is why the Association of Chief Police Officers has tasked its working group on missing persons to draw together best practice on police handling of child abductions. It is doing so not because it is trying to delay matters, but because the example that the hon. Gentleman cited from Sussex is one of a series of pieces of work that need to be drawn together—how to respond, how to marshal resources, how to co-operate with partner agencies and how to communicate, as well as how to use technology such as the child alert system that he described.
There is a great wealth of experience, for example, in the police national missing persons bureau, based in New Scotland Yard. Sussex has much to offer from its experience of setting up and running the pilot. Indeed, as the hon. Gentleman pointed out, ACPO's missing persons working group is meeting Sussex police next week. I do not believe that that meeting is a consequence of this debate. It is part of the work that ACPO is pulling together and in which it is playing the lead, with the Home Office actively assisting, in planning a national scheme to decide the best way forward, with Sussex being a key contributor.
I undertake to try to ensure that the points of view of the company that has been involved in the scheme, as well as that of Sussex police—if there is a possibility of a gap between the two, as he suggests—are also fed into the work of the ACPO committee. It is important that, in its work to develop a code of best practice, which it has undertaken should be available by April 2004, the best evidence and experience is brought to bear. The aim is to phase in the implementation of the code of best practice, to give all forces the benefit of those with the most experience in this area and those that have learned from new approaches and innovations, such as what happened in Sussex.
I understand the hon. Gentleman's concern that the pilot report has not been published, but to maintain the greatest frankness about how the system works, Sussex police did not say that they would publish it in the first place. The lessons that can be learned from such a pilot are best learned if the report is used to inform police practice. To do so, it needs to be very frank. I am not sure that his constituents' best interests are protected by publishing the pilot; they will be protected by ensuring that the experience feeds properly into the work that ACPO is taking forward.
I undertake to ensure that all the points of view of those involved in the pilot—not only the report that might be in the ownership of the Sussex police, but also the company that contributed to it—
Tim Loughton: I have not disagreed with anything that the Minister has said. I do not think that there is a problem with the code of conduct. It worked quite clearly. The question mark is about whether we should involve a company that has been a good partner to Sussex police and has technology that no one else has. Does she think that it is a good way to treat a company that has worked in partnership with Sussex police to say, "Thanks very much and goodbye"? Does she also agree with me and with that company that the best way forward is an arm's-length approach to gathering subscribers to the scheme? As previous experience has shown, if everything is controlled by the police, the scheme will not work.
Fiona Mactaggart: I agree that the question about the arm's-length approach must be addressed, although I do not know the answer. The hon. Gentleman's case has merit but we need a clear examination of the pros and cons of the process, which is why I undertook to ensure that the views and perspective of Community Alerts can be fed into the work of the ACPO missing persons working group, which is taking the process forward. The group will act as a gatekeeper until the code of practice is published and has promised to resource 24/7 contact to any police force that has to respond to a child abduction. All forces will have immediate recourse to best practice to suit the particular situation that they face.
The child alert initiative requires robust and secure technology, as the hon. Gentleman pointed out. The police need to be able to extend alerts and searches across the area covered by one force to another. The process must be able to deal with such issues so that individuals, businesses and so on can participate as effectively as possible.
One possible way forward, and the one that is being most closely examined, is to use some of the infrastructure provided by the police message board system, which has been developed by the Police Information Technology Organisation, and is a secure part of the police website. The results of an end-to-end stress test of the new message board will be received shortly.
The Sussex pilot has shown that engagement with local media and key agencies is enhanced through a child alert facility. After we have learned the lessons from that, further consideration should be given to how best to engage individual members of the public. That may be through the text messaging service on mobile phones. Intensive publicity campaigns might not always recruit the largest number of public subscribers.
How best to use available technology in response to child abduction will be taken forward in tandem with best practice procedures. Technology and best practice will work together. The ACPO missing persons group will again lead and co-ordinate. Its chair, Richard Brian, is meeting Sussex police early next week and I have undertaken to inform the hon. Gentleman of the views of the pilot process formed by the company involved.
The Government are concerned to see that every avenue is explored to help make our country a safer place for children. We are pleased to recognise and encourage local enterprise in public services, such as that shown by the Sussex police with their child alert pilot. We also believe that local successes should be available to every police force and child protection agency as soon as practicable. Where technology can be leveraged to achieve that, it is all to the good. To achieve the best with any new system, it must be properly planned to deliver real benefits and the Sussex pilot has shown what can be achieved. The ACPO missing persons group will drive the whole process forward to ensure that best practice is married to appropriate technology and that the experience of forces, through pilots such as the one in Sussex, means that we achieve a safer environment for our most vulnerable citizens.
I am glad that my colleague has agreed to meet the hon. Gentleman and his police colleagues. I have undertaken to ensure that the point of view of the company involved in the pilot will properly be communicated to ACPO, which is rightly providing the national lead. I hope that those two actions will deliver the end that he seeks.
| Next Section
| Index | Home Page |