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Police Reform
5.36 p.m.
Lord Rooker: My Lords, with the leave of the House, I shall now repeat a Statement made by my right honourable friend the Home Secretary in another place regarding police reform.
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XWith permission, I wish to make a Statement on police reform, tackling crime and anti-social behaviour.
XThere is not a Member of this House who would not testify that the greatest priority of their constituents is to live free from crime and anti-social behaviour. Freeing people from fear and the insecurity which damages their quality of life is a fundamental tenet of government. That is why I am placing before the House a radical reform agenda for both the police service and those who work alongside them.
XIt is time to act to protect the victims of crime and disorder and to help rebuild and renew our communities. I pay tribute to the professionalism and expertise of the police and the civilian staff working with them. We all owe a debt of gratitude for the bravery often displayed by policemen and women.
XOur reform agenda will build on success. The British Crime Survey recently recorded an overall fall in crime of 12 per cent. This is the largest annual reduction in 20 years and the fear of crime has fallen from its peak in 1994. But there is no room for complacency.
XModernisation is built on increasing police numbers. By the spring of next year we shall have reached an all-time record of 128,290. Today, I am able to announce a new commitment, to meet the target of 130,000 officers by the spring of 2003, a year early. This will be alongside an increase in civilian staff who will be additional to uniformed officers.
XBut action is needed to improve consistency and overall performance. Only one in four recorded crimes is detected and only one in 10 results in a conviction. The variations across the country are unacceptable. The time has come to tackle the differences in performance and in absence.
XDetection rates vary from a high of 63 per cent to a low of 15 per cent. For robbery, the rate varies from a low of less than 15 per cent to over 50 per cent. One force achieved as few as eight days per officer lost through sickness, and another twice that rate. One force achieved a medical retirement rate of 9 per cent, in another almost two-thirds retired on ill health grounds.
XWe have established a standards unit to work alongside a refocused inspectorate. This will ensure that the best can be replicated by the rest. A new central police training and development authority will draw together leadership, management and training. A new national centre for policing excellence will develop and disseminate best practice on investigation and operational policing.
XWe shall seek to improve personnel policies and shall establish a new, locally delivered national occupational health service.
XTo achieve the goal of safer communities, there must be a dramatic modernisation of working practices. Through the Police Negotiating Board, we are seeking consensus on a programme of change and reform. We wish to ensure that those at the sharp end of public service are properly rewarded for the difficult job that they do. We are looking to enhance the status of, and rewards for, those doing the most dangerous, difficult or unsociable jobs.
XWe want to see more flexible working arrangements and an end to unnecessarily restrictive regulations. The Police Negotiating Board has been asked to agree changes to part-time working, the current 16-hour minimum and the requirement to fix rotas a year in advance.
XReform must be underpinned by support. We shall cut bureaucracy and halve the number of best-value indicators. The diary of a police officer illustrated that more than two-fifths of police time was spent inside the station. We shall civilianise and computerise many of the tasks undertaken by those who would be better deployed out of the station.
XWe shall increase the number of specialist investigatory teams, develop a cadre of specialist detectives and accelerate the expansion of forensic work. Technology can also play a key role in enabling officers to do their job more effectively.
XThe Airwave programme will now be extended across the country at a cost of #500 million, ensuring proper communication within and between forces. We shall widen the number of those who can work with and assist the uniformed police. The number of special constables will be accelerated dramatically. Community support officers—sometimes called 'auxiliaries'—will be trained aides to the police. The expanded 'police family' will allow street wardens, traffic wardens and others to be accredited by the police for specific duties within strictly defined limits. They will be trained appropriately.
XOur endeavour is to face down the anti-social and thuggish behaviour which bedevils our streets, parks, and open spaces. This will help with our civic renewal agenda, ensuring that the community becomes part of the solution. The police cannot reduce crime and disorder and tackle the scourge of hard drugs alone. Families have a key part to play in teaching right from wrong and respect for others. Local authorities, schools, the health service and the voluntary and private sectors must work together.
- All of us have a role to play in combating criminality and social disintegration. Decency and respect are the responsibility of us all.
XIt is through the crime and disorder reduction partnerships and our community renewal programmes that we shall be able to restore confidence. By supporting Neighbourhood Watch and other local initiatives and by mobilising the community itself, we really can make a difference.
XThe reform is for a purpose. Those whom we represent do not have a choice of policing services. That is why standards are at the heart of this reform. I am proposing today a three-tier approach to ensuring that the public are served to the standard they expect and deserve.
XRegulations setting out mandatory requirements, where it is necessary for all forces to adhere to national standards, will drive consistency across the country. Codes of practice will be issued by and in the name of the Home Secretary. These will be developed by the national centre for policing excellence, drawing on the expertise of the Association of Chief Police Officers. And guidance, where local flexibility and responsiveness require a light touch, will provide a menu of best practice.
XThere is no intention that the Government will interfere in the day-to-day operational independence of the police. That would not be in the interests of the people we serve, the police service or the Government. However, where action is needed, it is the duty of government to respond. Using the expertise of the standards unit and the inspectorate, we shall establish new powers of intervention where consistent failure provides inadequate protection for the public.
XBasic command units, as well as the police force area, will provide comparison like with like. We shall work with Chief Constables and Commanders to establish and spread best practice. We shall provide support through multi-disciplinary approaches to tackle the worst repeat offending and repeat victimisation, mobilise the community against drug-related crime and establish policing priority areas. We shall update the role of the National Crime Squad and the National Criminal Intelligence Service.
XIt is essential that we provide a greater degree of accountability, as well as devolution and delegation. We shall establish pilots for decentralising budgets to basic command units, enabling greater flexibility in the use of resources and in the response to local needs. In addition, we shall support the developing role of the police authority in reaching out and responding to the community. When things go wrong, it is important that people have confidence in the process. That is why I confirm today that in the police reform Bill we shall establish an independent police complaints commission.
XI spoke of our pride and confidence in the police service. That is why the Government have decided that we should award the Queen's Jubilee Medal to
- the police service. It is a symbol of our support. But the test will be the difference that we make to the well-being of those whom we serve. I want to put to rest forever the cry so often heard: 'There is nothing we can do'. Our job is to make sure that those who need help get it. Those who fear to walk down their local street or in their local park must be able to do so once again. Our job—my job—is to mobilise all the forces at our disposal to make that a reality, and I am determined that we should do so".
5.46 p.m.
Lord Dixon-Smith: My Lords, I thank the Minister for repeating the Statement made by his right honourable friend in another place. It follows a long and distinguished line of Statements made by many distinguished predecessors. To that extent, this a very welcome.
What is particularly nice about the Statement is the thanks and recognition given to the police service and by the police service to the community. It is particularly gratifying to see that the Government have now decided that the Queen's Jubilee Medal should be awarded to the police. That is very important from the police's point of view. It is also very gratifying to see in the Statement a clear acknowledgement of the important part that families play in setting the tone within the community and in bringing up children with clear ideas of standards, behaviour, morality and of what is right and what is wrong.
I have always held that anything that is done can be done better. As I have already said, this Statement follows many previous Statements, and one hopes to keep improving matters. But British police practice, with local police services, has generally served the country very well. Certainly, some of the individual forces have a dynamic management and do a remarkably good job. It is inevitable that there will always be the good and the less good. Not everyone can perform at the top level because that is a statistical nonsense. Therefore, spreading best practice—the Statement makes much of that—is vital.
However, the Statement causes me some concern because it gives the impression that the Home Office might in future try to undertake a management role.
- XRegulations setting out mandatory requirements, where it is necessary for all forces to adhere to national standards, will drive consistency across the country",
- XCodes of practice will be issued by and in the name of the Home Secretary . . . developed by the National Centre for Policing Excellence",
As have so many others, I have spent a long time in public life in this country. All too often when I have seen those words I have seen governments of all complexions try to take over the management of affairs locally. One would think that, with all the experience that governments have in this country, they should know better.
I ask the Minister for an assurance that the regulations, codes of practice and guidance will, none the less, leave local forces the freedom to organise and manage their affairs to meet local circumstances. Circumstances are not uniform across the country. What is the meaning of the new powers of intervention?
I note that there is to be a new standards unit to work alongside the police inspectorate within the Home Office. I have always had the greatest respect for the work done by the police inspectorate. I have heard nothing to diminish that respect. However, will the Minister say something about the relationship between the inspectorate and the standards unit? How will they work together? What is their precise working relationship?
I was fascinated, too, by a new, locally-delivered occupational health service. I am sure that that is to be welcomed. However, again, I should like a little more explanation as to precisely what is meant. Equally, I welcome the fact that the Home Office intends to use the Police Negotiating Board to modernise work practice and introduce more flexible working. I should like an assurance that the Police Negotiating Board will reach agreement rather than trying to dictate conclusions.
Also welcome is the fact that, where appropriate, the civilianisation of functions within police stations and police headquarters is to be increased. An increase in the use of special constables, community support officers, street wardens and traffic wardens might assist the police. However, what will be the relationship between those people and the ordinary police? Special constables have a known working relationship and are particularly well trained. Community officers are a less well-defined group. What will be their function? How are they to work? What training and function will street wardens and traffic wardens have?
More importantly, there is no suggestion in the Statement of the numbers of those people or of the functions from which they will relieve the ordinary police. I hope that the Minister can assure us that any expansion in those areas will not be at the expense of the existing police service and police force.
There is much to welcome in the Statement. However, a number of points cause concern. I hope that the Minister will be able to answer them when he responds.
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