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Mr. Green: And rightly so. I am sure that the hon. Gentleman would agree that domestic violence is as serious as any other type of violence. If the statistics include that, so they should. I want to paint a realistic picture. Not every statistic from the Kent recorded crime statistics is going up. Burglary, theft and handling of stolen goods, and fraud and forgery are going down, but criminal damage is up hugely—18.8 per cent.—and overall, total violent crime is up 11.5 per cent. and total offences are up 5.1 per cent.
Perhaps the most alarming figure is the detection rate. In 1998 the detection rate in Kent was 34 per cent. This year it is 25 per cent. That is key to the problem. We all
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know that the best deterrence against crime being committed in the first place is the likelihood of being caught. It does not matter what we do with sentencing—if people do not believe they will get caught, they will not be deterred. It is axiomatic that for detection rates to rise, police intelligence needs to be good. For intelligence to be good, officers need to be out of the station talking to people. For officers to be out of the station, they must not be spending half their shift filling in forms. The pledge from my right hon. Friend the Member for Haltemprice and Howden to reduce the amount of paperwork and to increase the number of officers is central not just to solving the crimes that have been committed, but to deterring future crimes.
My final point relates to the patrol with which I went out. The patrol looked in at a number of potential trouble spots, or houses where dubious activity was known about, or where the neighbours had been complaining. I therefore spent most of my Saturday night in and around such areas in my constituency. I can tell the House that I was not spending it in the leafier, more comfortable parts of the town or the surrounding villages. The people most likely to be the victims of crime and disorder and with the constant threat of drug dealers around their area are those who are least comfortably off—those who need strong public services, including a strong police force, to make their lives tolerable.
No one can tell me that tough policing enforced constantly by highly visible police officers is uncompassionate. It is precisely on our most difficult and deprived estates that the quality of life must be improved by tough policing. The Government's failures in this area, by making the job of police officers more difficult, let down most of all the most vulnerable in our society. That is why we need a radical change in policies to cut crime, and why I urge the House to support the motion.
8.31 pm
Patrick Mercer (Newark) (Con): It is a pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Ashford (Mr. Green) and to reflect on many of the points that he made. The opening speech by my right hon. Friend the shadow Home Secretary posited some extremely powerful points. Although those on the Government Benches have criticised that speech for lacking practical points, I think that they are wrong. I hope to add some practical points that particularly relate to the problems and difficulties in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.
The hon. Member for Nottingham, South (Alan Simpson) made a powerful speech about the effects of crime, particularly gun crime, in Nottingham. I shall return to that. My constituency is in Newark and Retford, and although it is in Nottinghamshire, it is quite a long way from Nottingham. It takes a good hour to get to Nottingham from where I live. We do not have anything like the level of gun crime that the city of Nottingham has. We have it, but it is nothing like as serious. We do not have the same level of drug crime as Nottingham has. We have it, but it is nothing like as serious. We do not have the level of general violent crime that Nottingham has. We have it, but it is nothing like as serious.
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So why is the vast proportion of my postbag made up of complaints, observations and general whinges about policing in my constituency? The answer is simple. We live in a series of rather prosperous towns and villages, where the pace of life is thoroughly agreeable. But there is a lack of police officers on the streets of Newark and Retford to both deter and reassure, as a result of the operations of the police in Nottingham.
Perfectly reasonably, the chief constable has to make decisions to concentrate his resources where the problems occur, and that frequently means that officers from our constituency are taken away. It means that people such as Inspector Gary France from Retford and Inspector Jeremy Butler from Newark, whose performances year on year and month on month are impressive, and who are getting on top of the crime that we face in our small market towns and doing a good job, have grave difficulties in engaging with the public and making sure that the public whom they serve are thoroughly reassured. The difficulty is simply a lack of resources.
You could have been forgiven, Madam Deputy Speaker, for concluding from what has been said tonight that the city of Nottingham—I appreciate that there is at least one Nottingham Member on the Labour Benches, and one former Nottingham Member on the Opposition Benches—is some sort of lawless hell hole. Interestingly, however, Stephen Green, the chief constable, has pointed out that shootings in the city of Nottingham are 40 per cent. down over the past two years. There have been initiatives such as Operation Lance, which is a bit of political hot potato and is targeted principally against Jamaican drug crime. Some 340 drug arrests have occurred as a result of Operation Lance, while Operation Stealth, which has been running for the past two years, has resulted in the arrest of almost 1,000 people. The sentences of those convicted amount to more than 1,000 years, yet the operation has been carried out by only 25 officers. That suggests that things in Nottingham are not quite as bad as the press and public may perceive.
Ms Abbott: The hon. Gentleman said that Operation Lance was targeted against Jamaican drug crime. I am sure that that is the case, but I wish to make the point—it may be a minor one—that much of what is described as Jamaican drug crime is carried out by British-born black kids, and some of them are of Jamaican origin, while others are not. In a way, it is the involvement of the British-born black kids that is more frightening for society as it goes forward.
Patrick Mercer: I am grateful to the hon. Lady for her comments. That is why I underlined the fact that Operation Lance was a bit of a political hot potato. This operation has specifically targeted those who are Jamaicans by birth and are being welcomed into the city of Nottingham by a mixture of black and white drug gangs, and it has been very successful.
The hon. Member for Nottingham, South made the point that the sad and unnecessary shooting of Danielle Beccan was a watershed. That is absolutely right, because there is no doubt that we in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire felt that things were improving. Without detaining the House too long, I may say that it is interesting to note that this shooting came in a climate
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of lack of expectation; there was no warning and no intelligence to suggest what was going to happen. It seems to have been completely random, unlike the planned shootings that take place between criminal organised gangs. Such a shooting was almost impossible to stop from the point of view of Nottingham police, and it was particularly depressing in that regard.
The fact remains that if these remarkable statistics can be achieved by Nottingham and Nottinghamshire police, how much more could be achieved if the correct level of resourcing was given to them? In particular, what would happen if some specific points were being dealt with much more imaginatively? I wish to mention three of those points. First, the police would like to use covert operations much more than they currently can. The difficulty with such operations is clear; they are extremely expensive in terms of money, manpower and training. The "more cops for Notts" campaign is a pretty blunt and unrefined campaign. Perhaps the answer is not just more cops for Notts, but more specialised cops.
Secondly, as has been pointed out, there is the programme of witness protection. It is very difficult for the police to produce convictions if witnesses do not feel secure and are unwilling to come forward. Will the Minister comment on the possibility of anonymous evidence being permitted in court to allow witness protection to be more effective?
My final point is hardly innovative and has already been referred to in passing: there are hardened users of both drugs and guns, but on top of that a gun and knife culture exists, particularly inside the city of Nottingham. How can youngsters be weaned off that culture? How can they be taught that to be big on the street does not necessarily involve being tooled up and that they do not need to carry a firearm or blade?
We have heard several statistics tonight about youngsters from around the country being found with weapons on them. When children are found carrying weapons, the police are frequently blamed without much thought being given to the problem. Several different initiatives have been implemented in Nottingham, many of which were instigated by the city council. If those programmes were more coherent and subject to national leadership, if there were set targets and more proper organisations, and if the approach were less random, maybe the culture of the carriage of guns and weapons by children might be overcome.
So much for the city of Nottingham specifically, although it is interesting that since I was elected Nottinghamshire police have constantly discussed the need for an extra 1,000 officers. Tonight, we heard from my right hon. Friend the Member for Haltemprice and Howden (David Davis) that Nottinghamshire police have received about a 7 per cent. increase in their number of officers, and I have seen a number of CSOs deployed on to the streets of both Newark and Retford. However, a 7 per cent. increase and a few CSOs is only a handful of officers. Will the Minister tell me why nothing more has been done to add more officers and resources to Nottinghamshire constabulary? Is that just a convenient excuse that a failing police force trots out time and again to defend itself—I think not—or are Nottingham and Nottinghamshire a special case that needs special attention?
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To stop tragedies such as that of Danielle Beccan happening again, my county and that city need some form of special attention as a matter of urgency. In the comfortable towns of Newark and Retford, the police bear the blunt of the blame for the lack of officers. Instead of a trusting relationship between people and police, Government policy and Government under-investment mean that a wedge is being driven between the service and the people. That state of affairs is disgraceful, and I call upon the Government to do something about it now.
8.43 pm
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