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Lord Brookman: My Lords, has my noble friend any idea as to whether or not the Government wish to reintroduce the old white £5 notes? Some on these Benches still have many in their possession.
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: My Lords, a share-out is called for! I remember them with affection. Perhaps my noble friend would like to go back to before 1855 when all bank notes had to be filled in by the cashier with the name of the payee. We do not intend to go that far back.
Lord Sheldon: My Lords, since the present £5 note is worth approximately the same amount as half-a-crown in 1939, has any consideration been given to producing a £5 coin?
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: My Lords, yes. The Bank of England does not believe that that would be appropriate at the present time. The £2 coins are doing rather well; let us wait until they settle in.
Lord Marlesford: My Lords, is the Minister aware that if the £50 note was adjusted for inflation since its original introduction, it would now be worth over £115? Is there not a case for introducing at least a £100 note given that euro notes go up to 500 euros, which is about £300?
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: My Lords, I am not sure we want to follow the euro in having such large denominational notes. They are only in circulation in some European countries. There is a risk of money laundering being made easier because one can carry an awful lot of money in a single briefcase. I should have thought we had to be quite careful about introducing larger denomination notes.
Lord Graham of Edmonton: My Lords, has the Minister seen the survey carried out among its members by the British Retail Consortium? It clearly shows that the £5 note remains a popular and vital part of our currency. Will the Minister take on board the fact that banks are acting in their own interests and not in the interests of the general public?
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: My Lords, that is why we are grateful to high street retailers, members of the British Retail Consortium, for the help that they are giving to the Bank of England to keep £5 notes in circulation. Clearly, we shall not interfere in the commercial decisions of banks, but the Bank of England is taking steps to circumvent them.
Baroness Gardner of Parkes: My Lords, when people mention £5 coins, an automatic answer seems to be that they are too large and too heavy. Has consideration been given to the possibility of making higher value coins much smaller and lighter than lower value coins, as happens in Australia? Would not that be an answer with the £5 coin?
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: My Lords, for many years there has been a tendency for coins of any given denomination to become smaller and lighter. That is clearly welcome, but we still find heavy weights in our pockets and any additional coins, as opposed to notes, would not be attractive.
Lord Weatherill: My Lords, without wishing to prolong this discussion, if your Lordships wish to have brand new £5 notes, or even brand new £5 coins, they need go only to the post office in Central Lobby.
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: My Lords, that is a helpful suggestion.
Baroness Trumpington: My Lords, my ambition in life is to be smaller and lighter. Following a conversation at lunch, does the Minister agree that it is important to maintain the difference in size of different notes to help blind people, to whom size is important?
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: My Lords, whatever changes the noble Baroness, Lady Trumpington, makes, she will never be less impressive. Let me make clear that her lunch was not with me, but the new £5 note will be the same size as the existing £5 note and the difference in size between existing denominations will be maintained.
Street Crime
3.22 p.m.
Baroness Blatch asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What policy initiatives are in place or are due to be introduced to ensure that street crime is brought under control by the end of September.
Lord Bassam of Brighton: My Lords, the Government are introducing a comprehensive package of anti-street crime initiatives in the 10 force areas with the worst problem. Those include the fast-tracking of video identity parades; the establishment of specialist courts to deal with street crime and fast-tracking of cases; the extension of juvenile tagging on bail; clarification of the legality of bail door-stepping conditions; new powers for the courts to remand young people to secure accommodation; better systems for sharing information between schools and the police; more schemes involving police in schools; measures to crack down on truancy and bad behaviour in schools; and provision of full-time education for excluded pupils in the worst affected areas.
I can assure the House that there will be further announcements as more initiatives come on stream.
Baroness Blatch: My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for his list. The Prime Minister pledged to bring street crime under control by September. That pledge comes against a background of crime across England rising by 21 per cent; robberies up by 42 per cent; the number of police down by 500 since 1997; and the number of Specials down by 37 per cent—a mighty 7,100. If the Prime Minister is now pledged to bring all that under control in 16 weeks' time, why has he not been more successful during the past five years?
Lord Bassam of Brighton: My Lords, the Government's record on crime is extremely impressive. Since 1997, crime has reduced by 21 per cent overall. I accept that robberies have increased during that time. That is precisely why the Government—the Prime Minister, the Home Secretary and the Government as a whole—are fully committed to introducing a range of measures to tackle crimes such as robbery and to ensure that they are swept from our streets.
Lord Mackenzie of Framwellgate: My Lords, given that much street crime is caused by the misuse of hard drugs, does my noble friend agree that the approach of the Association of Chief Police Officers—to provide more treatment, as opposed to punishment—is sensible to deal with the problem? Those who argue that that is going soft on drugs are wrong, because that deals with the problem in a far smarter way by providing exits from the addiction that drives people to commit street crime.
Lord Bassam of Brighton: My Lords, it is commonly accepted and widely known that drugs drive crime—street crime in particular. That is why the Government
have in the past couple of Budgets announced more resources to tackle crime. As part of that initiative, the Department of Health will ensure that the necessary drug treatments are in place, so that services are fully engaged in exchanging information—in particular, about children at risk from drugs and drug offences. So we are fully committed to ensuring that we do everything that we can to tackle the drugs menace.
Lord Dholakia: My Lords, can the Minister tell us of any additional financial resources available to criminal justice agencies to reduce crime by September? What advice—research advice in particular—did the Prime Minister receive about withdrawal of benefits from parents and its impact on crime?
Lord Bassam of Brighton: My Lords, yesterday, the Home Office made an announcement of a budget boost to tackle street crime, along with a package of measures to assist the police in countering terrorism. On the question of child benefit and its withdrawal, the Prime Minister made plain yesterday that that is one of a number of proposals being actively considered as part of the Government's overall drive against anti-social behaviour.
Lord Renton: My Lords, does the noble Lord recollect that until about 30 or 40 years ago, streets in many of our urban areas were patrolled, even through the night, by pairs of police officers on foot? That helped to keep crime down. Might that not be an advantage now in some urban areas?
Lord Bassam of Brighton: My Lords, of course we fully support, encourage and fund active beat patrolling by police officers. It is for the 34 chief constables and their senior officers to deploy their police resources as best they can. The Government are fully committed to ensuring that we have more police officers. By March next year, we will have 130,000 police officers serving in this country—a record number.
Lord Elton: My Lords, to what level will street crime have to be reduced for the Prime Minister to say that it has been brought under control? In other words, what is the Government's view of an acceptable level of street crime? Can we have a figure, so that we will know when we get there?
Lord Bassam of Brighton: My Lords, any street crime is unacceptable. There is a Public Service Agreement target, which is to reduce robberies by 14 per cent during the next five years, but I expect that your Lordships' House would like street crime to be eradicated in its entirety.
Lord Campbell of Alloway: My Lords, who will treat all those people; where will they be treated; and what will happen if they refuse to accept treatment—after all, they have committed crimes? What is the essence of the working of the plan?
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