The Minister for Crime, Policing and Fire (Chris Philp) With
permission, Mr Speaker, I will make a statement about the
Government’s police uplift programme. Today is a significant day
for policing. We can officially announce that our unprecedented
officer recruitment campaign has met its target. We said we would
recruit an extra 20,000 officers since 2019, and we have; in fact,
we have recruited an extra 20,951 additional officers. That means
that we now have a record...Request free
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The Minister for Crime, Policing and Fire ()
With permission, Mr Speaker, I will make a statement about the
Government’s police uplift programme.
Today is a significant day for policing. We can officially
announce that our unprecedented officer recruitment campaign has
met its target. We said we would recruit an extra 20,000 officers
since 2019, and we have; in fact, we have recruited an extra
20,951 additional officers. That means that we now have a record
number of officers—149,572—across England and Wales, 3,542 more
than the previous peak. I am sure that colleagues will want to
join me in celebrating those record police numbers.
This is the culmination of a colossal amount of work from police
forces, the National Police Chiefs’ Council, the College of
Policing, the Home Office and beyond. They have my heartfelt
gratitude and admiration, and I pay tribute to the officials and
police officers who made this possible. I feel honoured and
privileged to have been able to take this programme to its
successful conclusion. I especially express my thanks to my right
hon. Friends the Members for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (), for Witham (), and for North West Hampshire
() for their work, as well as to the Prime Minister
for his work as Chancellor, financing this programme. Their
vision and leadership were instrumental in helping us reach this
point, and I know they will share my delight today. I also pay
tribute to my right hon. and learned Friend the Home Secretary,
who has energetically steered this campaign to its successful
conclusion, and again to my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister,
for his continued support and encouragement.
This was not a simple task. There have been challenges along the
way and people doubted our prospects of success, but by sticking
to the course and believing unequivocally in the cause, we have
done it. To every single new recruit who has joined up and helped
us reach our goal, I say thank you. There is no greater or more
noble example of public service, and they have chosen a career
like no other. Not everyone will be as happy as we are today.
Criminals must be cursing their luck, and so they should, because
these extra police officers are coming after them.
Not only are there more police officers than there have ever been
at any point before, but the workforce is more diverse than it
has been before, too. There are now a record 53,083 female police
officers in post, compared with 39,135 in 2010. There are 12,087
officers identifying as ethnic minorities, compared with 6,704 in
2010. That is a significant increase, which I am sure the shadow
Home Secretary, the right hon. Member for Normanton, Pontefract
and Castleford () will shortly be warmly
welcoming. There are more officers working in public protection,
in local policing and in crime investigations. There are now 725
more officers working in regional organised crime units tackling
serious and organised crime, as promised.
While it is right today that we pause and reflect on the
tremendous success of the police uplift programme, this is not
the end. It is about more than just hitting a number. It is the
latest step in our mission to crush crime and make our country
safer. The public want to see more officers on the beat,
patrolling local neighbourhoods, and that is what they are
seeing. The public want to see courageous and upstanding public
servants in whom they can have pride and can trust, and we are
working to deliver that, too. The public rightly expect police
forces to use this increased strength and resources to the best
available effect. They want to see criminals caught and locked
up, so that they feel safe and secure, whether in their homes or
out and about. They want police officers to focus on the issues
that matter most to them.
We have made extremely good progress already. Since 2010, crime
in England and Wales, excluding fraud and computer misuse, has
fallen by 50%. It was double under the last Labour Government,
and I have still not received an apology from the shadow Home
Secretary for having served in a Government who presided over
crime levels twice what they are now. The crime survey of England
and Wales, approved by the Office for National Statistics, also
shows burglary down 56% since the last Labour Government left
office, robbery down 57% and criminal damage down by
65%—[Interruption.] The Opposition do not like to hear it, but I
am going to keep telling them. Violence is down by 38%, and for
people who are into riding bicycles, even bicycle theft is down
by 49% under this Government. Figures also show reductions in
homicide, serious violence and neighbourhood crime since December
2019.
Crime, however, is a broad and ever-evolving menace, which is why
we are addressing it from all angles, acting to turn the tide on
drug misuse with our 10-year strategy and cracking down on county
lines, of which we have closed down thousands in the past three
years. We are stepping up our efforts to tackle domestic abuse,
violence against women and girls and child sexual abuse. I can
see in her place my colleague who is leading that work, the
safeguarding Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Derbyshire
Dales (Miss Dines). We are supporting law enforcement in the
fight against serious and organised crime, terrorism, cyber-crime
and fraud. We have shown that where our constituents express
concern about an issue, we listen and we act, as demonstrated by
the recent antisocial behaviour plan.
We are going to keep up the momentum in this area. We will
challenge the police, of course, but also support them. We expect
police forces to maintain these officer numbers going forward. We
expect to see these police on the streets protecting the public,
preventing crime and prosecuting criminals. It is vital that
police forces up and down the country seize the opportunity
created by these record numbers of police officers. As the Home
Secretary has made clear, common-sense policing is the way
forward.
The Government are holding up our side of the bargain. We
introduced measures recently to cut the amount of red tape that
has been wasting police time. We are introducing new measures to
improve issues concerning ethics and integrity in police conduct,
which have rightly been of recent concern. If any colleague wants
to come and discuss these issues with me in more detail, I will
be in the large ministerial conference room under this Chamber at
3 o’clock for half an hour and I am very happy to meet colleagues
to discuss these issues in more detail.
We said that we would recruit an extra 20,000 officers since 2019
and we have delivered that. We said that we would have record
numbers of police officers and we have delivered that. We said
that we would cut crime since 2010 and, according to the crime
survey of England and Wales, we have delivered that as well. I
commend this statement to the House.
Mr Speaker
I call the shadow Home Secretary.
12.40pm
(Normanton, Pontefract and
Castleford) (Lab)
The Home Secretary has been out on the airwaves this morning but
she is scared to defend her record in this House, and little
wonder because that statement was a joke. Where are the Tories
pretending to have been for the last 13 years? They cut 20,000
police officers. Belatedly, they set a target to patch up their
own cuts and now they want us all to be grateful. They want the
country to applaud them for their attempts to patch up some of
the criminal damage this party of Tory vandals has done to
policing and the criminal justice system over the last 13
years.
They were warned about the damage their cuts would do: arrests
have halved; prosecutions near-halved; community penalties
halved; crimes solved halved; more crimes reported and recorded,
but hundreds of thousands fewer crimes are being solved—hundreds
of thousands fewer victims getting justice every year. The Home
Secretary claimed on the television this morning, “Oh, it’s
irrelevant what happened over the last 10 years”: not to the
millions fewer victims who have had justice in the last decade as
a result of what this Tory Government have done.
As for the policing Minister’s claim that “Criminals must be
cursing their luck” because we are “coming after them”, who is he
kidding? The charge rate hit a record low last year: 95% of
criminals not charged—for rape it is over 98%. The charge rate
has dropped by two thirds since 2015 alone. That is record levels
of criminals getting off under the Tories; they are not cursing
their luck, they are thanking their lucky stars. Under the Tories
the criminals have never had it so good; they are pathetically
weak on crime and weak on the causes of crime.
As for meeting records, well, yes, they are meeting some records:
a record number of crimes not being solved; a record number of
people saying they never see police on the street; record numbers
of police officers leaving policing last year; record low charge
rates last year for rape and sexual offences. And then we have
got serious violence rising: knife crime up; gun crime up. And of
course the fraud and online crime that they never want to talk
about is also at a record high. What has the Home Secretary got
to say about that this morning—just some more waffle about woke.
She has got nothing new to say to tackle the problems.
Then there is the chaotic recruitment process, with forces ending
up cutting standards to meet deadlines. Most of last year, the
average monthly increase from recruitment was 475 officers each
month; in March, just before the deadline, it was suddenly 2,400
in a month. No one believes that this is a properly managed and
sustainable recruitment plan. We have had reports of people who
were initially turned down being asked to reapply at the last
minute to meet targets; reports of people with addiction, and
with criminal histories, being encouraged to apply and let in. A
massive variation of standards applied across forces so that Matt
Parr in His Majesty’s inspectorate said that hundreds of people
have joined the police in the last three years who should not
have, and then he said,
“certainly in the hundreds if not low thousands.”
Have the Tories learned nothing from Wayne Couzens and David
Carrick? We have still not got proper national mandatory
standards in place; have they learned nothing of the need to
raise standards? So is the Minister confident that all these new
recruits meet the standards we should expect from policing?
Look at the numbers that the Government have announced: this is
not an uplift programme, it is a damage mitigation programme, and
they have not even achieved that. In Hampshire the Home
Secretary’s own force, in Cleveland, in Durham, Northumbria, and
Merseyside, they all still have fewer police than they had in
2010. Compared to our growing population, there are 9,000 fewer
officers compared to the rates in 2010. They have cut 8,000
police community support officers and 6,000 police staff,
including intelligence and analysts, forensics, digital, vetting
and standards checks. And worst of all, they are refusing to do
Labour’s plan for 13,000 more neighbourhood police. Instead we
have got 10,000 fewer police and PCSOs in neighbourhood teams
since 2015. So when will the Government reverse those cuts to the
police on the beat the public want to see? That is what people
see and what people feel.
The reality is that half the country say they do not see the
police on the beat at all any more—half the country, up from a
quarter of the country in 2010. That is why people know all this
boasting from the Minister is out of touch. That is the reality
that no amount of boasting, crowing or fake headlines can cover
up. Let me just say to all the Tory Back Benchers: the only thing
that all this boasting and crowing does is tell the country you
are even more out of touch than we thought.
The shadow Home Secretary asked about police numbers in the years
following 2010, during the coalition Government. She will recall
that the outgoing Chief Secretary to the Treasury, her colleague,
left a message saying the money had all gone and that led to
difficult decisions that had to be made. But I am not sure if she
was listening to what I said before because the number of
officers that we now have—149,572—is higher, by 3,542, than the
number of officers left behind by the Labour party. These are
record ever numbers. Never in our country’s history have we had
as many officers as we have today. It is important that the
shadow Home Secretary keeps that in mind.
She asked about neighbourhood policing. The way the figures are
reported, neighbourhood policing, emergency response policing and
local policing are reported together. Since 2015, local policing,
neighbourhood policing and emergency policing taken together is
in fact higher.
She asked about crime. She asked about crime numbers. The only
source of crime data endorsed by the Office for National
Statistics is the crime survey for England and Wales. I have got
the figures here. If she is unfamiliar with them, I can hand them
to her afterwards, but they show domestic burglary down 56%,
robbery down 57%, vehicle theft down 39%, violence down 38% and
criminal damage down 65%. She may not like the figures from the
Office for National Statistics, but those are the figures.
She asked about standards in police recruitment. For every police
officer recruited in the last three years, there were about 10
applicants, so there was a good degree of selectivity. In
relation to vetting, the College of Policing has just finished
consulting on a new statutory code of practice for vetting, which
will be adopted shortly, and police forces up and down the
country are implementing the 43 recommendations made by the
inspectorate on vetting standards. We are also conducting a
review in the Home Office, which will conclude in the next few
weeks, on police dismissals, so that where misconduct is
uncovered officers can be removed quickly, which is absolutely
right.
The message to the country is clear. We have record levels of
police officers—higher than we have ever had before—and according
to the crime survey, crime has gone down compared with the last
Labour Government that she served in.
Mr Speaker
Order. Can I just say to the right hon. Member: calling somebody
“she”—does he really want to use that type of language? For all
our benefit, I would say to everybody: let us show a bit more
respect to each other than we seem to be at the moment. I
understand there might be a bit of anger, but respect does no
harm. I would like to see a bit more and this will be a great
example—Kit Malthouse.
(North West Hampshire) (Con)
Can I offer my congratulations to the Minister, the team at the
Home Office, the National Police Chiefs’ Council and everybody
involved in what has been a massive effort over the last three
years to recruit the extra 20,000? Remembering that the gross
recruitment to backfill retirements is about 45,000, it has been
an enormous job and they have done a fantastic job, not least
given that they were doing so in the teeth of a pandemic, which
required some ingenuity.
As the Minister says, however, this is only half the battle.
Maintaining the number where it currently stands will be the next
stage. Can he confirm that funding will be provided to police and
crime commissioners on the basis that they are incentivised to
maintain police officer numbers in their forces, not least
because, as we have seen over the last decade, in areas
controlled by Labour or independent police and crime
commissioners, they have failed to prioritise police numbers,
which is why, proportionally, they may now be below the numbers
in areas that are controlled by Conservatives?
First, let me just thank my right hon. Friend, whose work over a
number of years did more than just lay the foundations for this
programme: it really got it under way and on the road to success,
so I thank him personally for his work on this. He is absolutely
right about the importance of maintaining officer numbers. We
have created financial incentives to ensure that happens, and I
know police and crime commissioners and chief constables are very
keen to make sure those numbers are maintained.
On individual police and crime commissioners, my right hon.
Friend is right. In some parts of the country, in the years when
we were repairing the financial damage of the last Labour
Government, some PCCs did not protect frontline numbers, meaning
they were coming up from a much lower base. When the former Prime
Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South
Ruislip (), was Mayor of London and my
right hon. Friend was Deputy Mayor for Policing in London, they
protected police numbers, which is why London, in common with 27
other police forces, has record numbers.
Mr Speaker
We now come to the Chair of the Select Committee.
(Kingston upon Hull North)
(Lab)
Sir Mark Rowley gave evidence to the Home Affairs Committee this
morning. According to the Home Office, the Metropolitan Police
Service missed its uplift allocation of 4,557 additional officers
by 1,089, missing the target by 23.9%. When I questioned Sir Mark
about why that had happened, he pointed to a range of reasons,
including the erosion in the starting pay of a police constable
and the hot employment market in London. Can the Minister say
what the implications are for the ability of the Metropolitan
Police Service to perform its UK-wide responsibilities, as well
as to keep Londoners safe, particularly at this point when we
have had the Casey review and we know that the Metropolitan
police are in the engage phase with the inspectorate? What is the
Policing Minister going to do to address those concerns?
I thank the Select Committee Chair for her question. It is first
worth observing that the Metropolitan police have by far the
highest per capita funding of any police force in the country. I
think the average for forces outside London is about £200 per
capita and in London it is about £300 per capita, so the funding
is very much higher. On the issues identified by the Casey
report, there are a series of recommendations, most of which are
for the Met and the Mayor of London, . I expect them to implement
those recommendations. On numbers, every single police force met
its uplift target, with just one exception: the Metropolitan
police. It is certainly a question I will be asking as the politician responsible.
It was the only force not to meet the target. As the right hon.
Lady said, it recruited an extra 3,468 officers and it should
have recruited an extra 4,557. The funding was there to do that
and I will certainly be asking why he failed. But I am pleased
to be able to reassure the House that, despite that shortfall,
the Metropolitan police still have a record number: 35,411
officers.
(Cities of London and
Westminster) (Con)
From the thousands of responses I received from my local crime
survey in Westminster, the people’s priority was clear: they want
to see more police on the street. I therefore welcome the
Government’s announcement today that we have now reached our
20,000 target. Does the Minister agree that, to ensure that
people feel safer in their neighbourhoods and that we prevent
crime, it is important that we see more police on the beat?
Yes, I entirely agree. It is important that we see more police on
the beat and more criminals getting prosecuted. In addition to
hiring all those police officers to deliver a record number, we
are trying to remove some of the burdens that have prevented
police from spending their time fighting crime. For example, we
changed the Home Office counting rules recently to reduce the
amount of time spent on unnecessary administration. We are
looking, with the Department of Health and Social Care, at how we
can ensure the police do not spend time essentially with mental
health patients, who would be better treated by the health
service. We are absolutely focused on getting those police on the
street, where our constituents can see them.
(Lewisham West and Penge)
(Lab)
Confidence in the police from women is at an all-time low and
nothing in the Minister’s statement today is likely to do
anything to change that: still nothing on having domestic abuse
call handlers in every 999 control room; still nothing on having
a specialist rape and sexual assault unit in every police force
across the country; and still nothing on national standards on
training and vetting to make sure the scandal of Wayne Couzens
and David Carrick never happens again. When will the Minister
finally get a grip and address those issues?
I am delighted to say that we now have more female police
officers, by a very large margin, than at any time in history. In
the most recent recruitment over the last three years, 43% of the
new recruits were female, which is a very big step. We would like
it to be 50%, but 43% is a very big step forward. On the
prosecution of rape and serious sexual assault, by the end of
June this year, we will have Operation Soteria Bluestone, an
academically endorsed method for investigating rape cases, rolled
out across the country. In early adopting forces such as Avon and
Somerset, we have seen material increases in the number of
charges and prosecutions. On specialist officers, every force has
specialist officers. Some are organised into units and some are
not. That is something I will look at in the coming months. The
Government conducted a rape review. We have a violence against
women and girls strategy. The safeguarding Minister, the
Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, my hon. Friend
the Member for Derbyshire Dales (Miss Dines), is leading work in
that area, but I fully acknowledge there is more work to do on
prosecutions and confidence. It is an area that the Government
are working on extremely actively.
(South Holland and The Deepings)
(Con)
Our diligent Policing Minister deserves great credit for what he
has achieved and for his statement today. He serves under an
outstanding Home Secretary, of course. However, does he recognise
that in rural areas such as Lincolnshire there are profound
problems with the police funding formula? He will know that
Lincolnshire is one of the lowest-funded police authorities in
the country. Indeed, sadly, the force has had to cut the number
of police community support officers this year. He has previously
agreed to look at that. Will he now agree to an urgent meeting
with me, so that Lincolnshire can benefit in the way that so many
other areas have?
Of course, I would be delighted to meet my right hon. Friend to
discuss police funding in Lincolnshire as soon as possible. It is
a topic I discuss with the excellent police and crime
commissioner regularly. The current police
funding formula has been around for quite a long time and needs
refreshing. We intend to consult on the formula to start the
process of getting it updated, so that areas such as
Lincolnshire, which the police funding formula does not treat as
generously as some other areas, can be addressed.
(Hemsworth) (Lab)
Of course we all thank police officers who work diligently within
the rules, but I came to Parliament this week from Northfield
Primary School in South Kirkby, where there is an urgent problem
with antisocial behaviour. Two points were made to me. First,
where are the police? We do not see them in the villages in our
area. Secondly, the 20,000 police officers who were lost each had
many years of service and they are being replaced by people who
are new to the job. In the vacuum that was left during the years
when the Government cut the police service, criminality and
antisocial behaviour became rife. Of course, they then cut £1
billion from youth services and mental health services. The
Government’s record is a disgrace. They left communities ill
defended and we are now seeing the consequences.
I do not accept that. I have read out twice now—I will not repeat
them—the ONS figures in the crime survey for England and Wales
showing reductions in crime since 2010. On antisocial behaviour,
the Government agree that more needs to be done. That is why,
just a week or two ago, the Prime Minister personally launched an
antisocial behaviour action plan designed to rid our streets of
the scourge of ASB. On police officers being visible, I agree
with the hon. Gentleman and my hon. Friend the Member for Cities
of London and Westminster () that we want visible police
and we expect to see that with all the extra officers who have
been recruited.
(Ashford) (Con)
I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Minister on the success
of this policy. I also congratulate and thank Kent’s police and
crime commissioner, . Since 2010, we now have 400
extra police officers in Kent. Even more importantly, measurably,
it is working. In the last four years, overall crime is down 12%,
residential burglaries are down 44%, vehicle crime is down 25%
and violent crime is down 5.2%. Does my right hon. Friend agree
that, clearly and measurably, Kent’s streets are safer now than
they were 15 years ago?
I agree with my right hon. Friend and join him in paying tribute
to the excellent police and crime commissioner in Kent, . I am delighted to hear that
crime is dropping in Kent thanks to the work of the Kent police
and the PCC. On the police numbers in Kent, the most recent
figures out this morning are actually a bit better than he
suggested. The number of police in Kent today compared with 2010
stands at 4,261, up from 3,862—a significant increase. I am sure
everybody in Kent will be delighted by it.
(Eltham) (Lab)
If the media are good enough for the Secretary of State to talk
to, I do not understand why she is not here to make this
statement and answer questions. The Government did not just let
20,000 police officers wither; it was a stated intention by the
Conservatives to cut 20,000 posts from the police. They were
warned that we would lose experienced police officers, with a
knock-on effect on charges and criminal conviction rates.
Recorded knife crime is now up 70%, and 90% of crimes go
unsolved. Sexual crimes are at a record high. Since 2015, we have
seen 10,000 officers cut from our neighbourhood policing. That
was all on the Tories’ watch—13 years of mismanagement of our
police and criminal justice system. Is it not time that they
started to listen to our communities, put the police back in
local neighbourhood policing and adopted Labour’s policy of
putting 13,000 officers on our streets?
I have already explained that local policing numbers—the
emergency response teams and neighbourhood teams together—are
higher now than in 2015. Opposition Members should stop saying
that again and again, because it is not accurate; it is
misleading. It is not just about backfilling what may have
happened in the past. We have more officers now—3,542 more than
at any time in this country’s history. Yes, quite a few officers
recently are less experienced. That is why we are keen for
experienced officers to stay on beyond their 30 years. Mechanisms
are in place to do that. We want mentors and experienced officers
to help to train and induct new officers to make sure that they
become effective. We are seeing the benefits of that already, and
Members across the House should welcome that.
(Cleethorpes) (Con)
I welcome the Minister’s statement. He will be aware that my
constituency falls within the Humberside force area. Let me take
the opportunity to congratulate it on its outstanding rating. The
Minister mentioned police on the beat. As we know, that is what
our constituents want. Serious crime must take priority, but
low-level antisocial behaviour blights the lives of so many
constituents. Can the Minister assure me that he will continue to
ensure that the police focus on antisocial behaviour?
The Humberside force is doing a good job and recently had a good
inspection. I thank Chief Constable Lee Freeman for his work. The
Humberside force also has a record number of officers—188 more
than in 2010. I agree with my hon. Friend that neighbourhood
policing and visible policing on the street are critical. That is
why we launched the antisocial behaviour action plan a few weeks
ago. We expect that to be tackled by police forces up and down
the country, including in Humberside, so I completely agree.
(Vauxhall)
(Lab/Co-op)
One of the issues raised in the Casey review, which the shadow
Home Secretary referenced, was standards and vetting. It is all
well and good for the Minister to talk about new recruits and
figures in the thousands, but even police officers are
highlighting concerns with senior ranking officers. Why has it
taken so long for this Government to introduce mandatory national
standards on vetting, misconduct and training for all new
recruits? That would help to address some of the issues that we
see not only in the Met police but right across other police
forces—the very same police forces that are in special measures.
It is all well and good saying that we have new recruits, but
that is no good if they have no confidence that if they raise an
issue with their superiors it will be dealt with. That could be
addressed by having a national vetting procedure for all new
recruits.
The College of Policing has just finished consulting on an
updated statutory code of practice for vetting standards, which
will come into force in the near future. As I said, we are also
looking at the rules on dismissing police officers, because in
the past it has been quite hard for chief officers and chief
constables to dismiss police officers for misconduct. We would
like to give chief officers and chief constables more power to do
that where they uncover misconduct, to address some of the issues
that Baroness Casey and others have raised.
(Buckingham) (Con)
I warmly welcome today’s statement, and I congratulate my right
hon. Friend on the momentous achievement of beating our manifesto
commitment three and a half years into the Parliament. Will he
confirm that, proportionally, it is even better news for Thames
Valley police, whose headcount now stands at 5,034? That is 518
more officers than in 2010—an 11% uplift.
My hon. Friend is right to point to the fantastic police officer
numbers in the Thames Valley. He is right that they are about 500
higher than in 2010. That is good news for people across the
Thames Valley force area, who will see more police on their
streets than under the last Labour Government, more criminals
getting caught and more neighbourhoods protected.
(Oxford West and Abingdon)
(LD)
My constituents will be listening and some of this will ring
hollow, because their experience in Thames Valley is that 174
crimes go unsolved every single day. Just next door in
Gloucestershire, the new Justice Secretary’s backyard, it takes
an average of 18.5 hours for the police to respond if they are
called. Those are shameful figures. Does the Minister agree that
the real litmus test is the day-to-day experiences of our
constituents, not the boastful numbers?
The numbers are important; if they had gone down, Opposition
Members would be the first to complain. There are around 500 more
officers in the Thames Valley force than under the last Labour
Government, which is significant. We expect the police to respond
to crime quickly, to protect neighbourhoods and to get
prosecutions up. That is why we have gone through this enormous
recruiting process.
(Chipping Barnet)
(Con)
It is really good news that the Conservatives are delivering the
20,000 officers. The officers will need somewhere to work, so
will the Minister ask the Mayor of London to scrap his police
station closure plan, so that we can save Barnet police
station?
I join my right hon. Friend in calling for the Mayor of London,
to reconsider his unwise plans.
As I said, the Metropolitan police has by far the highest per
capita funding of any force in the country. I do not think any of
us want police stations to close, so I join her in calling on
to reconsider.
(Luton North) (Lab)
After years of devastating cuts, any extra police officers are
welcome, but it is not just about numbers; it is about quality
and experience too. Can the Minister confirm how many new police
officers are student officers, not yet qualified, such as the 300
in Bedfordshire? Does he agree that Luton, Bedford and Dunstable
are clearly not rural areas? When will the farce of funding
Bedfordshire police as a rural force end, so that the police
finally have the resources to keep people safe in Luton?
As I am sure the hon. Lady knows, Bedfordshire police has
additional support through the police special grant, giving it
extra money particularly to fight organised criminality. I
corresponded with Bedfordshire’s excellent police and crime
commissioner on that topic just recently. I am glad that she
raised the question of police officer numbers in Bedford, because
Bedfordshire has around 200 extra officers compared with the
number under the last Labour Government.
(Southend West) (Con)
I congratulate the Minister on delivering more police officers
than we promised in our manifesto. There is much to welcome. He
points out that crime is at half the level it was in 2010,
despite Labour voting 44 times to stop us introducing tougher
penalties on violent offenders. I welcome the extra 1,000
officers for Essex and the 83 for Southend. Will he join me in
congratulating , our excellent police and
crime commissioner in Essex? Antisocial behaviour is down by 55%,
burglary is down by 45% and murder is down by a third. Is it not
true that the Conservatives are keeping our streets safer?
Yes, it is. I am delighted to note that Essex has 150 more police
officers than under the last Labour Government. The police and
crime commissioner and Chief Constable BJ
Harrington are doing a fantastic job reducing crime in Essex. On
being tough on crime, I meant to say in response to the shadow
Home Secretary that I was shocked in Bill Committee a year or two
ago when Labour Members voted against a clause specifically
introduced to keep rapists in prison for longer. I think we know
who is on the side of victims.
(Wirral West) (Lab)
Merseyside has more than 300 fewer police officers compared with
2010, which has serious implications for the safety of our
communities and police morale. A recent survey of police officers
on Merseyside, carried out by the Police Federation of England
and Wales, found that 17% of respondents intended to resign from
the police service either within the next two years or as soon as
they can. What steps will the Minister take to improve the morale
of police officers, boost retention and boost the numbers on
Merseyside?
I pay tribute to Chief Constable Serena Kennedy, who leads the
Merseyside force. I was up in Merseyside and Liverpool just a few
weeks ago meeting officers. The target of the police recruitment
programme in Merseyside was to recruit an extra 665 officers; in
fact, 724 have been recruited.
In terms of people leaving the police, we have surveyed thousands
of police officers recently recruited through the uplift
programme. About 80% are very satisfied with the job and a
similar proportion intend to make policing their long-term
career. In terms of supporting and looking after police officers,
I chair the police covenant wellbeing board. I have not got time
to list all the initiatives now, but we are doing a number of
things to ensure that serving and former officers get looked
after and that morale is maintained.
(Middlesbrough South and East
Cleveland) (Con)
Having 20,000 more officers across the country is a fantastic
achievement. It is a Conservative promise made and delivered that
will help crack down antisocial behaviour in Cleveland, drawing
on our new antisocial behaviour strategy. Does my right hon.
Friend agree with me that cracking down on problem areas, such as
the Norfolk shops in Berwick Hills, is exactly the activity that
more officers will enable us to deliver?
I agree completely with my right hon. Friend. That is exactly the
kind of thing those officers will do. Cleveland had a target of
239 extra officers to recruit. They beat that target and have
recruited an extra 267 since 2019, and I am sure those 267 new
officers will be on patrol in exactly the place my right hon.
Friend would like to see them.
(Hammersmith) (Lab)
My constituents feel under siege from drug dealers, antisocial
behaviour and online fraudsters. They will feel insulted by the
Minister’s attempt to whitewash this Government’s record. Why did
he destroy neighbourhood policing, and why does he ignore fraud,
which represents 40% of crime but gets virtually no policing
resources?
As I have said, the Metropolitan police have record numbers; they
are up to 35,411. They have never in their history had more
officers. Had the Mayor of London used all the funding available,
they would have about 1,000 more, so perhaps that is a question
the hon. Gentleman might like to take up with .
We want to see more action on antisocial behaviour; that is a
fair comment. That is why we have launched the antisocial
behaviour action plan. Fraud is another important area, and an
updated fraud action plan will be delivered by the Home Secretary
and the Minister for Security very shortly.
(Broxtowe) (Con)
I wholeheartedly welcome the Minister’s announcement about the
extra 20,000 police officers. That will benefit the people of
Broxtowe, which currently has a significant problem with
antisocial behaviour in Beeston and Chilwell. Will he comment on
the military service leavers pathway into policing course, first
set up in Nottinghamshire by the police and crime commissioner
and chief constable, so that ex-military personnel, with similar
values to police officers of sense of duty, teamwork and public
service, will increase those numbers still?
I congratulate the excellent police and crime commissioner in
Nottinghamshire, , who beat the police uplift
target, delivering an extra 418 officers instead of the target of
357. If only had done the same in London.
I strongly commend the programme that has been pioneered in
Nottinghamshire to get people leaving the military to come into
policing. Just yesterday evening I was discussing with colleagues
at the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the Home Office
getting that model rolled out across the whole country, which we
should urgently work on doing.
(Tiverton and Honiton)
(LD)
The announcement rings hollow for our constituents and serving
police officers alike. I recently met with police officers at
Honiton police station and it was plain that they receive way
more priority calls than they have officers to deal with them.
Earlier this month, we discovered that over 45,000 burglaries
reported last year went unattended in England and Wales. Will the
Minister get behind a Liberal Democrat Bill to create a statutory
duty on police officers and police forces to attend and properly
investigate every domestic burglary?
I congratulate the excellent police and crime commissioner for
Devon and Cornwall, , for delivering record
officer numbers. There are 3,716 police officers in Devon and
Cornwall, which is nearly 100 more than there were in March
2010.
In relation to domestic burglaries, I am afraid the Liberal
Democrat party is a little behind the curve, because last autumn
the Home Secretary launched an initiative to ensure every
residential burglary got a police visit, which is something I am
sure everyone in the House would support.
(Truro and Falmouth)
(Con)
I and my constituents also welcome the uplift to over 3,500
officers in the Devon and Cornwall
Police area that the Minister just mentioned. I also welcome
what the Minister said about investing in police forces. I draw
the House’s attention to the fact that in the south-west we have
five hard-working Conservative PCCs, who already have a voluntary
vetting service between their five forces, so that is starting to
work. Will the Minister meet with me and our excellent police and
crime commissioner, , to talk about the summer
funding that Cornwall and Devon so desperately need? We welcome
more visitors to our area than any other part of the country,
except London, and we need extra funding to help deal with the
additional antisocial behaviour we see every year.
I am aware of the financial and policing pressures that summer
tourism creates in places such as Devon and Cornwall, the Lake
district, Dorset and many other parts of the country. We plan to
address that in the new police funding formula, which we intend
to consult on. In the meantime, I would be delighted to meet with
my hon. Friend and the fantastic police and crime commissioner
for Devon and Cornwall, .
Mr Speaker
I call .
(Carmarthen East and
Dinefwr) (Ind)
Diolch yn fawr iawn, Mr Speaker. One of the unintended
consequences of the programme is that police forces have to
reduce backroom police staff because of the financial penalties
they receive if they do not increase officer numbers, leaving
police officers undertaking non-public-facing roles. As 50% of
funding for Dyfed-Powys police now comes from the police precept,
should the police and crime commissioner and the chief constable
not have a greater role in determining the force’s optimal
workforce mix? For how long will the Home Office maintain those
financial penalties?
Chief constables and police and crime commissioners are able to
decide how to spend their budget and whether they spend it on
physical equipment, buildings, police staff or police community
support officers. They have operational independence, so they can
make those decisions. I am pleased to say that every single one
of Wales’s four police forces—North Wales, South Wales,
Dyfed–Powys and Gwent police—have record officer numbers, and
more officers than they had in 2010, under the last Labour
Government.
(Clwyd South) (Con)
I congratulate the Minister on the recruitment of 207 extra
police officers in north Wales. Would he agree with me that that
is vital in combating antisocial behaviour in parts of my
constituency of Clwyd South? Will he comment on the work he is
doing to streamline paperwork, which takes up far too much police
time?
Yes, I certainly agree. North Wales police has 105 extra officers
compared with March 2010. We expect them to be catching
criminals. I agree with my hon. Friend that we want to minimise
the bureaucratic burdens on policing. We recently changed Home
Office accounting laws to reduce some of the bureaucratic
burdens. We are working with the Department of Health and Social
Care to ensure that people who are suffering mental health
episodes that do not pose a threat to themselves or the public,
and where no criminality is involved, are dealt with properly by
the health service rather than by the police, so I completely
agree with his point.
(Strangford) (DUP)
I thank the Minister for his statement. The positivity in
relation to recruitment is to be welcomed. It is great to hear
about England and Wales hitting the pledge of 20,000 new police
officers. In Northern Ireland, we have a different situation
whereby our terrorism threat level has been increased and our
police officers are at risk of violence, with Detective John
Caldwell having been brutally shot. What discussions has the
Minister had with the Police Service of Northern Ireland about
meeting the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
national pledge to keep our police officers safe while on
duty?
The hon. Gentleman raises an important point about police officer
safety. Of course, that concerns all of us, across the whole
United Kingdom, but officers in Northern Ireland face unusually
elevated risks, as we saw with the tragic shooting just a few
weeks ago. I am sure the whole House wishes the victim of that
terrible attack a speedy recovery.
We have dialogue with the PSNI on a number of issues, including
officer safety. I can confirm to the hon. Gentleman that those
discussions continue. I know he will be working closely with the
Northern Ireland Office to ensure that the PSNI has the resources
it needs to keep his constituents and the people of Northern
Ireland safe.
(Bury North) (Con)
I refer to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial
Interests. Before I came to this House, I was a criminal defence
solicitor for 17 years. Many of the inefficiencies in the
criminal justice system are related to Labour’s disastrous
decision to move charging from the police to the Crown
Prosecution Service, which has led to endless paperwork, form
filling and inefficiencies. To assist the new recruits in
tackling crime, cutting bureaucracy and doing the best job they
can on behalf of all our constituents, will my right hon. Friend
return full charging powers to the police?
We have regular discussions about this topic with the Attorney
General’s Office and with the Director of Public Prosecutions,
Max Hill. Some police officers feel that they would benefit from
taking more charging decisions; some feel that DG6, the sixth
edition of the director’s guidance, could be improved; some are
concerned about the burdens that redaction places on police
officers. Those are all matters that we are discussing actively
with the Crown Prosecution Service. I would welcome a meeting
with my hon. Friend to discuss in more detail how we can remove
and reduce the bureaucratic burdens.
(Crawley) (Con)
I welcome the Government’s remarkable achievement of a record
number of police officers across England and Wales. In Sussex,
the Government’s uplift since 2019 has resulted in an extra 429
police officers. Will the Minister join me in paying tribute to
the Sussex police and crime commissioner, ? After 10 years of remarkable
service, she has achieved an additional 250 police officers in
Sussex, who have been recruited through a local initiative on top
of the Government’s uplift.
I thank my hon. Friend for his campaigning work for the police
and the public in Sussex. , the police and crime
commissioner, does a fantastic job. I have met her many times to
discuss policing in Sussex; indeed, I visited Brighton with her
just a few months ago. She has done a great job of recruiting
extra officers locally. More than that, she has exceeded her
police uplift target, delivering 439 extra officers in Sussex—10
more than the target of 429. I send huge congratulations to
and her whole team.
(Keighley) (Con)
I welcome today’s statement. Not only have the Government
fulfilled their manifesto pledge of an extra 20,000 police
officers since 2019, but the national police force has increased
by 3,542 officers from 2010 levels. Does the Minister share my
frustration that at every single opportunity the Labour party has
voted against measures to bring in the tougher sentences that I
am sure police officers want implemented, particularly for
violent and sexual offenders?
I concur entirely with my hon. Friend’s remarks about police
officer numbers. It is striking that the Labour party has
consistently voted against measures to toughen up sentencing. The
vote that most shocked me was the vote by Labour members of the
Public Bill Committee on the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts
Bill against the specific clause that would have kept rapists and
child sex offenders in prison for more of their sentence. I was
frankly horrified by that.
(Ipswich) (Con)
I welcome the 201 extra police officers we will have had in
Suffolk since 2019. However, Josh, who runs Essential Vintage in
Ipswich, which he set up over a year ago, has closed his doors.
In the past two or three months, he has had 600 or 700 quid’s
worth of items stolen from the shop, and he has closed his doors
because he has had enough. Does the Minister agree that Suffolk
police have a responsibility to look at the footage that Josh has
shared with them—it is clear footage; I have looked at it—and to
investigate it properly and punish those who are found guilty?
Thieving is debilitating for a town centre and debilitating for
local businesses. I welcome what the Minister says, but does he
agree with me about those key points?
Yes, I do. Suffolk has about 150 more officers than in March 2010
under the last Labour Government, and it is important that those
officers are used to investigate crimes such as shoplifting. I
completely agree with my hon. Friend: where a crime is reported
and there is a reasonable line of inquiry or actionable evidence
to pursue, I expect the police to follow it up and investigate it
in all cases, in exactly the way he sets out.
(Stockton South) (Con)
I welcome the news that there are already 267 more police on
Cleveland’s streets. Some years ago, our then Labour PCC closed
our community police base in Elm Tree, but since then I have been
working with local Conservative councillors, with our new
Conservative police and crime commissioner, with police and with
stakeholders to secure a new community police base in a shared
space on Bishopton Road. Does my right hon. Friend agree that
such a base in the community will allow the police to be more
visible and spend more time in Fairfield, Bishopsgarth and Elm
Tree, Grangefield and Hartburn?
That sounds like an excellent initiative to ensure that police
are based in local communities. I strongly commend my hon. Friend
and the local police and crime commissioner for their work to
make it happen. I urge all hon. Members to be on the lookout for
opportunities to base police in local communities: for example,
in my community in Croydon, south London, we now have police
based at Purley fire station to get them closer to the local
community. Any Member of Parliament on either side of the House
can be on the lookout for such opportunities to ensure that
police are based as close as possible to the communities they
serve.
Mr Speaker
For a final question, I call .
(Hastings and Rye)
(Con)
Thank you, Mr Speaker; I am afraid I am an echo. Under the
leadership of Conservative police and crime commissioner and Chief Constable Jo
Shiner—both wonderful women—Sussex police have increased the
number of police officers by 429 through the national uplift
programme and 250 through the local precept, beating the
Government’s uplift targets and helping to reduce crime in
Hastings and Rye. May I join the Minister in congratulating them
both?
That is a good note on which to end. Yes, police and crime
commissioner and Chief Constable Jo Shiner,
both of whom I have met, have done a fantastic job in Sussex of
protecting the public and beating crime, which is something I
hope the entire House can get behind.
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