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Points of Order
3.31 pm
Mr. David Winnick (Walsall, North) (Lab): On a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I know that you wanted to get through questions as quickly as possible, and indeed the second half have all been completed. May I, for the record, point out that there is another point of view in addition to that given by the Second Church Estates Commissioner, the hon. Member for Middlesbrough (Sir Stuart Bell) at Question 22? There was no opportunity for that point of view to be expressed, but it should be said that many of us are deeply concerned at the demolition of properties in the occupied territories.
Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Alan Haselhurst): The hon. Gentleman is a sufficiently experienced Member of the House to know that he must not continue the debate under the guise of a point of order. I was quite aware of the importance of the matter, but equally, the balance of questions between the two hon. Gentlemen answering was such that I wanted to try to ensure that the Member representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission was reached, so that those questions could be put.
Ms Celia Barlow (Hove) (Lab): On a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. One week ago today, my hon. Friend the Member for Leicester, East (Keith Vaz) raised a point of order about the visit by three Liberal Democrat MPs to his constituency without prior notice. You ruled that it is customary that when hon. Members visit another's constituency for political reasons, they notify that Member in advance. The hon. Member for Eastleigh (Chris Huhne) visited my constituency, Hove and Portslade, last month and attended St. Patrick's night shelter, which currently has funding difficulties. I have been in correspondence with all the parties concerned with the shelter. It is a sensitive local issue, which I consider highly unsuitable to become a political football in an uninspiring leadership campaign. Will you raise awareness of the rule among hon. Members? After last Thursday's result, the hon. Gentleman might find it opportune to spend more time in his own constituency, rather than in mine.
Mr. Deputy Speaker:
I can only say to the hon. Lady what Mr. Speaker has said on many occasions and what I said most recently: it is a general courtesy between Members that when they visit another constituency for political purposes, prior notification should be given. We are all on an equal basis in the House and we should all respect each other's rights in relation to our constituencies. That is on the record again. Hopefully, hon. Members read Hansard.
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Orders of the Day
Police and Justice Bill
Order for Second Reading read.
3.33 pm
The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. Charles Clarke): I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time.
The central objective of the Bill is to help build safer communities, and the Bill seeks to do that in two ways—first, by taking forward our agenda for delivering real, sustained and lasting reforms to the police service in various ways, and secondly, by helping to create a modern culture of respect based on the needs, rights and responsibilities of the law-abiding majority, by implementing key measures in the respect action plan launched by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister in January.
Working with the police service and its community safety partners, we have made significant strides in reducing crime in the past nine years in government, and I want to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the police service and its partners, which can be justifiably proud of their record of achievement. However, more needs to be done. Crime and antisocial behaviour are still too high, and public expectations around quality of service are quite properly rising and need to be properly met by all public services, including the police. Further reform of the police is necessary, and the Bill includes measures for reconfiguring the police service to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
The primary task of the police service is, and will remain, to prevent, deter, detect and reduce crime and antisocial behaviour. To achieve that end, we must first embed neighbourhood policing, which is central to every part of the proposal, in every community with improved police responsiveness and customer focus. Secondly, we must further modernise the police work force so that it is fully equipped to meet those challenges, which involve building an effective policing team between the police service and those who work with it. Thirdly, we must ensure greater involvement by communities in determining how they are policed.
The Bill will contribute to these goals by ensuring that we have the right structures in place to deliver sustained improvements in performance, that the accountability framework for police forces and their community safety partners is robust and responds to the voice of the citizen and that the police and community support officers have the powers that they need to tackle crime and antisocial behaviour effectively.
The Bill will impact on each of the five tiers of policing—neighbourhood policing, the borough, which is the basic command unit level, the strategic force, the national policing institutions and internationally—and drive forward our modernisation proposals.
Keith Vaz (Leicester, East) (Lab):
Will my right hon. Friend confirm that one of the central points of the proposal is a partnership between local communities and the police? In particular, we must ensure that young people have a good relationship with the police, which means providing them with good local facilities. My
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right hon. Friend the Minister for Policing, Security and Community Safety visited Leicester on Friday, when she saw such facilities, which are key to building a strong and positive relationship between young people and the police.
Mr. Clarke: As my hon. Friend has said, that partnership is central to the proposal. When we fight crime, it is not simply a matter for the police—it is a matter for the police working with every agency concerned. My right hon. Friend the Minister for Policing, Security and Community Safety has told me about her visit and how impressed she was by what is happening. Better youth facilities are a key factor.
Mr. Jim Cunningham (Coventry, South) (Lab): I note that my right hon. Friend has made tremendous progress in certain areas in the fight against crime. However, will he clarify the situation in the west midlands, where we are getting mixed signals about the transitional costs of amalgamation? Are West Midlands police and the other police forces wholly behind the change?
Mr. Clarke: The Bill does not specifically concern the force amalgamations in the west midlands to which my hon. Friend referred. West Midlands police, Staffordshire police and Warwickshire police are strongly in favour of the change, and West Mercia police is not, which is why I gave notice last week that I intend to lay an order in four months' time to bring about that change following the proper statutory period of consultation.
Mark Pritchard (The Wrekin) (Con): One reason why West Mercia police is not in favour of the proposal to amalgamate into a larger force is that market towns such as Shifnal, Newport and Wellington in my constituency will experience less neighbourhood policing rather than more neighbourhood policing. The chief of police will be in Birmingham rather than in the next-door county, which is the current situation.
Mr. Clarke: That perception is utterly wrong. When a major issue such as a tragic murder arises in a small police force area such as that of West Mercia police, the only way to deal with the matter effectively is to move people from the neighbourhood level. The development of strategic policing is central to the proposal.
The development of neighbourhood-level policing is at the centre of every change made in the Bill and in the reorganisation of police forces that was mentioned in the previous two interventions. What really matters to people is how crime and disorder are tackled in their own neighbourhoods. Issues as basic as abandoned cars, discarded syringes, truanting children drinking in local open spaces, graffiti and antisocial behaviour are absolutely central and put at the top of the agenda the method of policing that is at the core of the Bill.
Mr. Clarke:
I will not give way for the moment.
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This means instilling a modern culture of respect at the neighbourhood level. The respect action plan set out a package of practical measures, which the Bill takes forward, to address the issue head on.
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