Examination of Witnesses (Questions 80-82)
RT HON
JOHN REID
MP, SIR DAVID
NORMINGTON KCB, MS
LIN HOMER
AND MS
HELEN EDWARDS
CBE
12 DECEMBER 2006
Q80 Gwyn Prosser: Home Secretary,
you have made a number of references this morning to neighbourhood
policing, which is very popular with the public but it does rely
heavily on the treatment of community support officers. Why was
the Home Office's target, and now manifesto promise, to recruit
24,000 CSOs by 2008 dropped?
John Reid: Mr Prosser, I, like
you and the public, think that neighbourhood policing is one of
the best things that has happened in recent years in the police,
and I would not make any changes unless it was around a prediction
that neighbourhood policing will be delivered. It has rolled out
very well in the Met and it has rolled out throughout England
and we will keep to our dates on that. What happened was that
we have been told that neighbourhood policing can be delivered
with a lower level of PCSOs than was originally envisaged when
we made the promise. That coincided with a request from police
services, from ACPO and police chiefs, to have more flexibility
over how they used the resources rather than constant targets
from the centre in terms of outcome. So, in response to that,
we said, provided they could deliver neighbourhood policing, we
would give them a degree of flexibility on PCSOs that was not
initially there and, indeed, rather than retaining all of the
money that would have been allocated for that, we left, I think,
£35 million of that money still available to police services.
So the central point was that PCSOs were a means to providing
neighbourhood policing and policing it in the scale and timescale
we originally envisaged. That is now being delivered on the timescale
and in the reality we wanted, but the police say they can deliver
that without the higher number of PCSOs and they want a degree
of flexibility that was not, therefore, there in the beginning
to use the extra resources the way they see fit.
Q81 Gwyn Prosser: We understand that
the new target of 16,000 new PCSOs by the end of next year is
also in danger of being missed. What do you say to the Police
Constable of Kent, for instance, who tells me that the recent
cut in community support officer recruitment is severely going
to impede his ability to roll out neighbourhood policing across
the county?
John Reid: On your first point
I will write to you if I have got this wrong, but certainly we
still have a target for 16,000. No one has alerted me that this
is in significant danger of not being met in the timescale. As
I say, I will write to you, Chairman, if that is wrong. The cost
of the increase from 16,000 to 24,000, the monies provided for
that were £105 million. When we have dropped the target,
we have taken £70 million back but retained £35 million,
which will be available to police over and above the money that
was originally made available for the 16,000. We are still committed
to that, we are still informed that neighbourhood policing will
be rolled out as we expected by the dates that we expected it,
and if there is any difference to that, I will certainly write
to you, Mr Prosser, but that is not my understanding of it. We
should be able to deliver neighbourhood policing teams in every
area by April 2008. Over 7,000 PCSOs have already been recruited
by September of this year and although, as I said, we reduced
the anticipated funding, we have not reduced it completely above
the grant for the 16,000, we have left £35 million in there,
and basically of that 35 million, I think, from memory, more than
half of it went to the Met because they have already rolled out
effectively neighbourhood policing. Neighbourhood policing is
a success story, and I do not think anyone should diminish that.
We have retained the target 16,000 and, as far as I am aware,
we are going to hit that.
Gwyn Prosser: I will take up the issue
of Kent in particular perhaps privately in correspondence.
Q82 Chairman: Home Secretary, can
I thank you and your team very much today. Apologies to members
who had unanswered questions. Can I say, in extending now, at
least to end of the meeting if not the beginning, a merry Christmas
to yourself and your officials. I would also like to put on record
the fact that, despite sometimes the way in which we inevitably
raise questions about the Home Office in these and other sessions,
in the course of year this Committee meets a huge number of people
who are either directly employed by the Home Office or funded
by them through different services. We are far more often impressed
by the quality, dedication and commitment of those staff than
we are worried by lack of ability and lack of commitment. At the
end of the year I would like to put that on the record and thank
you for appearing here today.
John Reid: That is very kind of
you, Chairman. Thank you very much indeed on behalf of my colleagues
and me.
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