Extract from Commons
debate on Town Centre Safety
(Newcastle upon Tyne
North) (Lab):...The Government’s approach to police funding has
left the country with 10,000 fewer neighbourhood police and PCSOs
since 2010. The Government congratulate themselves on putting an
uplift back in place, but Northumbria
police remains 427 officers short compared with pre-2010
levels. Those officers could be combating these issues and making
communities feel safe and be safer, which is what we need to see.
The hollowing out of neighbourhood policing has allowed
antisocial behaviour to blight certain parts and communities,
preventing people from shopping locally and driving people back
into their homes or back to shopping online, when we know that we
need to support these shops and make sure that people feel
confident to go out shopping...
For context, OPEN HERE
Extracts from
Westminster Hall debate on Violence and Abuse towards the Retail
Workforce
(Blaydon) (Lab):...The lack of
confidence in our institutions has been reflected by a drop in
the reporting of incidents of violence and abuse. The British
Retail Consortium notes that there has been a decline in
reporting of such incidents to 32%, as workers have increasingly
lost faith that the police will take action. The commitments made
in the retail crime action plan, which tells police to prioritise
incidents involving violence, are welcome, but we must ensure
that local police forces are encouraged and supported to
implement that approach on the ground. We must also ensure that
they have the resources to respond. In my area, Northumbria
police are still 400 police officers down from 2010, and
it is the same in other parts of the north-east...
...I thank the Minister. Will he address the issue that I raised
about the resourcing of the police? In my local Northumbria
police area, we are still 400 police officers down.
That is irrespective of whatever the picture is nationally, and
the situation is the same across the north-east. Clearly, that
affects the response of the police. What can he say about that?
Can he commit to increasing the numbers in Northumbria?
The Minister for Crime, Policing and Fire (): I can confirm that across
England and Wales as a whole, as I think the hon. Lady knows, we
have 149,566 police officers; that is as of 31 March this year.
The number is higher than it has ever been in history and it is
about 3,500 higher than the previous peak in March 2010, so there
is a record number nationally. As for each individual force area,
the choices made by individual PCCs—
rose—
: I am going to conclude,
because I do not want to overburden the Chamber and I wish to
finish answering the point. The numbers in individual force areas
reflect choices made by individual PCCs over time, for example,
about the precept and about the balance between officer numbers,
police stations and so on. What we have done in government is
make sure that there are record numbers nationally. We have also
put more money into policing, so this year PCCs had £550 million
more available to them than last year. In addition, we fully
funded the 7% pay rise between 2.5% and 7%, which this year
entailed an extra £330 million...
To read the whole debate, OPEN HERE
