Extracts from Queen's Speech debate (Lords) The Parliamentary
Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord Wolfson of
Tredegar) (Con):...We will publish a new tackling violence against
women and girls strategy and a domestic abuse strategy, which will
work in tandem to drive real change in this area. We received
180,000 responses to our call for evidence to inform these
strategies. The views of victims, survivors and the public will be
at the heart of our approach. We will also review...Request free trial
Extracts from
Queen's Speech debate (Lords)
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of
Justice () (Con):...We will publish a new
tackling violence against women and girls strategy and a domestic
abuse strategy, which will work in tandem to drive real change in
this area. We received 180,000 responses to our call for evidence
to inform these strategies. The views of victims, survivors and the
public will be at the heart of our approach. We will also review
our national statement of expectations, to ensure that
Police
and Crime Commissioners approach these crimes in a
collaborative and robust way...
(Lab) [V]:...This is the first time in five
years I have not had to declare an interest when addressing the
House. I stood down as Police and Crime
Commissioner for Leicestershire and Rutland only last
week, and from now I look forward to once again playing a slightly
greater role in the House’s debates, not least on the Police,
Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, which I suspect will take up
quite a lot of time later this year.
Given the recent publication of the Home Office’s first
report into Police and Crime Commissioners
and, of course, in the context of the gracious Speech, I want
to speak a little about my experience as a police and crime
commissioner—perhaps setting out a few early thoughts on leaving
the role.
PCCs, Police and Crime Commissioners
are now an established part of the policing scene: after all,
they have existed for eight and a half years and have been through
three sets of elections. Their role is probably not what the noble
Lord, , had in mind when he persuaded the then leader of the
Opposition, , to introduce them. However, they clearly play a
significant role in every police force area.
On the whole, PCCs have shown moderation and good sense
whatever political party—or none—they belong to. The Home Office
and the police have always been concerned that this would not be
the case. Thankfully we now have an association that is worthy of
the name. It is now well lead and provides an excellent service to
all its members. However, I have concerns that now, for the first
time, there are no independent PCCs and one party has many
more Police and Crime Commissioners
than the other. There may be something of an outbreak of
party-political grandstanding. I hope noble Lords agree that that
would be a grave mistake. It would put the police in obvious
difficulties as they are, of course, politically neutral, and
members of the public—to put it mildly—would not like it...
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Extract from
Topical Justice Questions (Commons)
(North East
Bedfordshire) (Con): , the
inspirational police and crime commissioner for
Bedfordshire, has championed the use of addiction recovery
programmes for low-risk offenders. Will the Minister tell the House
what encouragement he is likely to give to Police and Crime Commissioners to
expand the role of such programmes? In particular, what
encouragement will he give to Festus for his campaigns?
The Minister for Crime and Policing ():
I join my hon. Friend in celebrating the election of
Commissioner Akinbusoye, who is one of the 29 Conservative
police and crime commissioners—a full 70% of the
available slots were secured by the Conservative party at the
elections two weeks ago. My hon. Friend is quite right that
Police and Crime Commissioners
have a critical role to play in offender management, given
that more than half of crime is committed by reoffenders. At the
severe end in particular, we know that, on average, all murderers
in the country have committed at least seven previous offences. In
my role as Policing Minister, I will work closely with
Police and Crime Commissioners to
make sure that not only as chairs of their local criminal justice
board but more widely they can play an important role in driving
down reoffending.
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