Street Crime
(Don Valley) (Con)
9. What fiscal steps he is taking to help reduce street crime.
[900045]
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury ()
May I warmly welcome my hon. Friend to his place, as a fellow
Yorkshire MP? I am pleased to tell him that the Government are
determined to keep our families and communities safe by backing
the police with the resources that they need. That is why we have
committed to finding 20,000 new police officers by the end of
2023 to help to keep our streets safe. To that end, we have
additionally announced £750 million of investment so that the
first 6,000 can be in place by the end of next year.
Will my right hon. Friend work closely with the Home Secretary to
ensure that Don Valley gets its fair share of the 20,000 police
officers so that my constituents not only feel safer but are
safer on the streets?
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I am pleased to tell him that
South Yorkshire will be allocated 151 of the initial wave of new
police officers. That comes on top of the 55 that are being
recruited this year, and, in addition, £1.6 million of funding
has been allocated to his local force for a violence reduction
unit that will further help. I hope that provides him and his
constituents with the reassurance they need. We are committed to
keeping them safe.
(Lancaster and Fleetwood) (Lab)
My constituents in Fleetwood have been left reeling over an
unprecedented spate of armed robberies in shops in the town over
the festive period. Does the Minister think that the cuts to
police numbers and the fact that they now have to be replaced was
the wrong decision to make a decade ago? Does he not see that not
just the cuts to police numbers but cuts to youth services that
help to work with young people have been the wrong decisions?
The hon. Lady talks about things a decade ago. A decade ago, this
country was borrowing £150 billion—the largest deficit in
peacetime history. That is why this Government had to take action
to restore our public finances to a place of sanity, and that is
why now, because of the careful management of the economy, we are
able to invest in 20,000 new police officers and additionally
give them the powers they need to keep us all safe.
(South Dorset) (Con)
We welcome the 50 new police officers for Dorset that we fought
so hard to get, and 120 more are planned over the next two years.
Can my right hon. Friend please confirm that we will definitely
get these extra officers for Dorset?
I am pleased to give my hon. Friend that reassurance. That is why
the Chancellor committed in the spending review to specific
additional funding of £750 million for the first year, for the
first 6,000, and additional funding will follow to ensure that we
deliver on the commitment of 20,000 new officers across the
country.
Mr (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)
Does the Minister agree that not only need more police officers
but a new partnership forged locally between youth services, the
police and the educational sector? Is it not time for some new
cross-party thinking about how we tackle the crime and disorder
on our streets at the moment?
I fully agree with the hon. Member’s comments. That is why we are
funding violence reduction units, which start to build
partnership working at a local level between social services,
police and local authorities. The Queen’s Speech contained a Bill
that will further strengthen that duty on local authorities,
police and other partners to work together to deliver the
benefits that he rightly observed.
