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Police Funding

6. Tony Lloyd (Manchester Central) (Lab): What steps he has taken to define objective measures of performance of policing to provide a standard base of funding for police forces in England. [191195]

The Minister for Crime Reduction, Policing and Community Safety (Ms Hazel Blears): Most grant funding is distributed by formula broadly to reflect the relative needs of forces, taking account of local resources; it is not based on performance. We are working with the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Association of Police Authorities to ensure that the formula remains up to date and continues to take account of the requirements of modern-day policing.

Tony Lloyd: My constituents inevitably judge the local police force by things such as the police not answering the telephone or failing to respond to serious incidents in a timely fashion, but we need proper, objective standards to enable us to judge whether the Greater Manchester police force really deserves its place near the bottom of the ranking by most objective measures of policing, or whether the force is improving, as my hon. Friend the Minister has told me it is. In the end, Greater Manchester police's contention that they are underfunded would be better addressed if we could arrive at an objective view on whether their performance is good or bad compared with other inner-city police forces.

Ms Blears: My hon. Friend is right, and I have a personal interest in making sure that GMP's performance is of the highest possible standard. I refer him to the police performance monitors, which were published about six weeks ago and provide an objective assessment of a police force's performances compared with that of similar forces. Although Greater Manchester still has a long way to go, it improved its performance in reducing crime, with burglary down by nearly 11 per cent., vehicle crime by 12 per cent. and robbery by 14 per cent., and there has been quite a good improvement in detections. Even though it is not doing anything as well as it ought to, its efforts to reduce the
 
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fear of crime have improved significantly. Police performance monitors provide the objective assessment that my hon. Friend is seeking.

Mr. Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con): Would not the best way of improving police performance and getting value from funding be to have less central control and paperwork so that police officers did not take several hours to perform a simple arrest and spend vast amounts of time filling forms with information, much of which is used for those ever increasing numbers of performance measures?

Ms Blears: Perhaps the hon. Gentleman has not heard about fixed-penalty notices, which provide the police with a cost-effective way of disposing of crime. Twenty thousand such notices have been issued for disorder offences, and each one saves the police two and a half hours. That is just one example of the way in which we are freeing up police forces from the bureaucracy that has been imposed on them. A measure of central intervention and support is vital. If the hon. Gentleman looks at the performance of the forces engaged with the Police Standards Unit, he will see that their reductions in crime are greater than those for forces that are not so engaged, which shows that if the centre and the forces work together, we can reduce crime and protect our communities better.

Jon Trickett (Hemsworth) (Lab): Thanks to changes both to funding and to the formula, West Yorkshire police have received an increase of about £30 for every single citizen in west Yorkshire since 1997, for which we thank the Minister, and we have gone from being below average to above average. During the recess, I met residents of Girnhill lane in Featherstone, who said that their partnership with the police was becoming stronger every day. In Moorthorpe in my constituency, I heard how the recidivists—40 of the worst criminals in the area—were going to be tackled. Despite the increases, we are still underfunded relative to comparable authorities. Will the Minister look at making further increases in police funding over the coming period?

Ms Blears: I am delighted to hear such a great deal about the improvements in west Yorkshire, particularly the evidence of a stronger partnership between the police and local residents. However, I realise that this year's funding settlement impacted on the force's funding. We are keen to return to a system of floors and ceilings rather than a flat-rate increase if we can, and we are doing everything we can to maximise the settlement for the police. I am delighted, however, that the settlement is having such a good effect in my hon. Friend's constituency.

Prison Population

7. Mr. Desmond Swayne (New Forest, West) (Con): What forecasts he has made for the prison population over the next 10 years. [191196]

8. Sir Teddy Taylor (Rochford and Southend, East) (Con): What recent assessment he has made of the reasons for the change in the numbers of women in prison over the past 10 years. [191197]
 
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Paul Goggins): The most recent prison population projections were published in September 2003. A new projection, which will take into account changes in sentencing trends and reforms to the criminal justice system, will be published later this year. Between 1993 and 2003, the female prison population increased by almost 200 per cent. The main reasons for this increase were a growth in the number of women sentenced for drugs offences and more severe sentencing.

Mr. Swayne: My experience over a number of years as a prison visitor leads me to believe that we must never underestimate the redemptive power of grace, but given the growth in violent crime, does the Minister agree that it is both expedient and prudent to continue to plan to accommodate a significant increase in the prison population?

Paul Goggins: I pay tribute to the hon. Gentleman for his important work as a prison visitor. I agree entirely that people who commit acts of violence should go to prison and, as my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary made clear earlier, should go to prison for longer than they have done in the past. That is why he announced at the end of September that, following some new investment, we would have more than 80,000 prison places available by 2006. We are also investing in the probation service so that we can deliver robust community sentences as an alternative to short-term prison sentences.

Sir Teddy Taylor: Does the Minister share my concern and alarm about the massive increase in the number of women in prison? In the 10 years until the end of last year, the number was up by 173 per cent. from 1,500 to 4,299. The number is now up by 200 per cent. As this is the largest increase ever recorded in the history of the United Kingdom, should not he give us a more detailed explanation of why he thinks there has been such a huge increase, particularly as the number of men in prison increased by only 55 per cent. in the same period? Is he wise to say that the increase has to do with tougher sentencing, bearing in mind that there has been a more liberal attitude to letting women out of prison? Should not we have a detailed study to find out why things have gone so terribly wrong and what we can do about it?

Paul Goggins: The reason more women have gone to prison is that sentences have sent them there. My responsibility as the Minister for Correctional Services is to ensure that we have robust alternatives to prison sentences, where that is merited. I share the hon. Gentleman's concerns about the increase in the number of women going to prison, which is why, earlier this year, I launched the women's offending reduction programme, which looks at the causes of women's offending and seeks to reduce the number of women in prison. Last Friday there were fewer women in prison than there were on the same Friday the previous year, so we are making some progress. There are fewer women in prison this year than last year.
 
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Mrs. Helen Clark (Peterborough) (Lab): Will my hon. Friend join me in welcoming the new prison in Peterborough, and will he condemn the Peterborough Conservative Association, which clearly does not understand the policy of its own party or its own shadow Home—

Mr. Speaker: Order. [Interruption.] The hon. Lady must please have a seat; she has finished. The Minister may mention the prison in his reply, but not the Conservative party.

Paul Goggins: I join my hon. Friend the Member for Peterborough (Mrs. Clark) in welcoming the opening this year of Bronzefield prison for women and, next year, of Peterborough prison for men and women. That is adding to the quality of the prison estate, which we need to invest in so that we have a prison estate that is fit for purpose.

Mr. Huw Edwards (Monmouth) (Lab): Does my hon. Friend acknowledge that because of overcrowding, decisions have been made to house sex offenders in open conditions at Prescoed in my constituency? Within two days of a prisoner being allocated there the week before last, a very serious sex offender absconded. Does the Minister understand the deep anxiety in my constituency about the fact that, despite all the assurances that the prisoners would be low risk, one who absconded was deemed to be a danger to children? I ask the Minister to reverse the policy.

Paul Goggins: The decision to place a limited number of sex offenders who are coming to the end of their prison sentence in Prescoed prison was not the result of overcrowding but part of a planned programme under which suitable risk assessment takes place. Of course, I understand the anxiety that my hon. Friend expresses on behalf of his constituents. I have written to him and to other local representatives to confirm that I will monitor the programme carefully. I will meet him and other representatives in the near future to discuss the issue.

Sir Patrick Cormack (South Staffordshire) (Con): Should not whoever dreamed up the title "Minister for Correctional Services" be sentenced to detention to study the Queen's English?

Paul Goggins: I apologise to the House; it slipped out, as it occasionally does. I am the Minister with responsibility for prisons and probation.

Linda Gilroy (Plymouth, Sutton) (Lab/Co-op): May I welcome the visit that my hon. Friend the Minister and other hon. Friends paid to Devon and Cornwall, and say how much I learned from accompanying him on the visit to Exeter prison about how to try to prevent the revolving-door syndrome? On women prisoners, has he discussed with the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, my hon. Friend the Member for Don Valley (Caroline Flint), the very good provision in Plymouth that she visited? Trevi house is a model for preventing women from going into prison so that they may stay with young children and learn not only how to kick their drug habit, but how to become good mothers.
 
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Paul Goggins: I thank my hon. Friend for accompanying me on the visit to Exeter prison. It was indeed an encouraging visit, during which we saw many dedicated staff working very hard with prisoners on resettlement. I saw similar work at Dartmoor prison the following day. I pay tribute to all the staff involved and to the facility that she mentioned, which works with women who have a drug problem. Of course, such a problem needs to be dealt with and it sometimes can be dealt with outside prison. If women can keep contact with their children, so much the better. We are also seeking to develop a range of other alternatives, including the greater use of intermittent custody, which allows women to serve part of their sentence in prison during the week and to look after their children at other times. We have to be imaginative in trying to tackle this problem, but we are determined to do so.

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