Asked by Lord Paddick To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action
they are taking to improve police force response times to emergency
calls. Lord Paddick (LD) My Lords, I beg leave to ask a Question of
which I have given private notice....Request free trial
Asked by
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To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are
taking to improve police force response times to
emergency calls.
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My Lords, I beg leave to ask a Question of which I have
given private notice.
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My Lords, no one in need of urgent help should have their
emergency call unanswered. While answering 999 calls is
an operational matter for the police, we have maintained
protection for police spending so that forces have the
resources that they need to carry out their important
work. It is for the police to determine how best to
allocate their resources and manage their communications
with the public.
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My Lords, today Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of
Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services has
highlighted major concern that policing is under
significant stress.
“About a quarter of forces are all too often overwhelmed
by the demand they face”,
and are not meeting the one-hour standard for responding
to 999 calls that require an immediate response, with one
force taking an average of 14 hours to respond to such
calls. Although these calls are not those where life is
immediately in danger, they include domestic assaults
where a partner has left the scene but could return at
any moment, a category of call that has increased by 88%
over the past year.
This week, the UK Statistics Authority ruled that the
Government misled the public with the claim of an extra
£450 million for local forces when, in fact, central
government funding is falling in real terms—and has been
for years. Would today, as we remember the sacrifice of
PC Keith Palmer, be a good day for the Government to
finally admit that the police service is now underfunded
and say that they are going to increase central
government funding for the police service?
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I first join the noble Lord in remembering today the
sacrifice that Keith Palmer made to protect people in the
Palace of Westminster. There will be a memorial in, I
think, about 20 minutes’ time in Westminster Hall to
remember the attack a year ago. The MPCC and the APCC
called for £440 million of extra funding in 2018-19, with
additional counterterrorism funding and increases in
council tax precepts on top. They wanted this funding for
an extra 5,000 front-line officers for proactive policing
by 2020. The funding increase for next year is made up of
main government grant, protected at flat cash; up to £270
million from increase in council tax precept income; a
£15 million increase in counterterrorism police funding;
and a £130 million increase in national priorities,
mostly special grant, for exceptional costs and
technology. On the point about domestic violence, I
totally agree with the noble Lord. We have provided £11
million through the police transformation fund to support
new police interventions to tackle domestic abuse, with a
focus on early intervention and prevention.
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My Lords, I join the noble Baroness and the noble Lord,
Lord Paddick, in paying tribute to PC Keith Palmer. The
crisis in police response times has been made in Downing
Street and the Home Office and is putting people’s safety
at risk. Does the Minister accept that the Government
have, in real terms, cut the funding to police? When she
responds, I am sure that she will have in mind the
comments of the UK Statistics Authority chair, Sir David
Norgrove, who criticised the Government and the Home
Office for incorrectly leading the public to assume that
the Government were increasing police funding.
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My Lords, every time I have stood at this Dispatch Box I
have tried to explain what the increase will look like. I
hope that I have made it quite clear. I have just
explained to the noble Lord, Lord Paddick, the breakdown
of the funding. Almost all PCCs in England intend to
increase the precept by £12, or very close to that. We
expect the funding increase for local force budgets to be
very close to the £270 million figure that I have just
outlined. Most PCCs have set out plans to use this
additional funding to protect or improve front-line
policing. As I have said before at this Dispatch Box, if
all forces delivered the level of productivity benefits
of mobile working of the best forces, the average officer
could spend an hour a day extra on the front line. This
has the potential to free up the equivalent of 11,000
extra officers across England and Wales.
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My Lords, it is unfortunate that we talk about criticism
of the police service on a day when we are recognising
the bravery of Keith Palmer and many other officers who
run towards danger rather than away from it—some of which
is of course not reported. Can we return, if we may, to
the question of emergency calls? A 999 call is the last
resort of people out there on the streets and in their
houses. There is no other course for people to take other
than to take matters into their own hands and, to use the
Inspector of the Constabulary’s words this morning on the
“Today” programme, “If they are mad enough to take
action, they will get an immediate response”.
I have listened to what the Minister has to say about
funding, but the issue is emergency calls. It is a triage
system that does not work and, if it is a question of
resources, surely Home Office procedures and action
should take care of these issues.
This is not just a question of answering 999 calls.
Again, if you look at the report and listen to the
Inspector of Constabulary, more importantly, it is a
matter of investigative resources. Detectives are short
of resources. Surely the noble Baroness will accept that
this needs to be monitored and followed up by a further
report by the Inspectorate of Constabulary to this House
or to the public.
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I agree with the noble Lord’s point about PC Keith Palmer
and the bravery of our police forces. They often put
their lives at risk in the line of duty. I also agree
with him that 999 is a last resort. He talked about
people who had been man enough to call deserving the
response required. Sometimes, it would be good if someone
were woman enough to call—because often these people are
victims of domestic violence—but I understand the point
of the noble Lord’s question.
In terms of resources, the Minister for Policing,
, has visited every police
force in the country. Hence, we have arrived at the
settlement that I outlined to both noble Lords who asked
about this. The police are operationally independent of
government. It is up to the police, to deploy the
resources that they get in their priority areas. It is
absolutely right that 999 calls are answered. If you look
around the different police forces, you will see
different performance levels. It is not necessarily those
police forces with the most money who perform best.
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I wrote last week to the Metropolitan Police
Commissioner, Cressida Dick, and pointed out that the
working conditions of the armed officers here on the
Palace Estate are not very good. They work a two-hour
shift. If they get wet or cold, as they did in the snow,
they are not very effective. I have photographs of
officers with snow on their shoulders and hats. I cannot
help but feel that, if they were horses or dogs, they
would get some shelter. Is the Minister going to do
something for these armed officers who are risking their
lives in their jobs?
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I can certainly take the noble Baroness’s comments back.
I agree with her that dogs and horses are sometimes more
important to the public than humans. I look forward to
hearing the response from Cressida Dick to the noble
Baroness.
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Should the police be encouraged to make greater use of
their stop-and-search powers, particularly in London?
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We have been mindful that stop and search has perhaps
been overused in the past. As we are more vigilant as a
nation to the dangers not only of serious and organised
crime but of potential terrorism on our streets, the
police-led intelligence work is probably going to have to
be more fine-tuned in terms of stop and search.
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My Lords, when a 999 call is made, there is a response
from the police and they determine the urgency of the
situation. Who measures the outcome of these urgent calls
over a period of time to see how effective the police’s
response has been?
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There is an assumption that every 999 call is urgent,
though it is not always the case. The police
operationally determine the seriousness of that call. In
recent times, police have been trained more acutely to
recognise signs of vulnerability from members of the
public who call, particularly in the area of domestic
violence.
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