Moved by
That the draft Regulations laid before the House on 9 June be
approved.
The Minister of State, Home Office () (Con)
My Lords, it is interesting to see how many people are in the
House following the previous debate; I followed it with great
interest. Before I start this debate, I just want to say that
this will be my 1,000th contribution in your Lordships’
House.
Through these regulations, we are proposing to change the name of
the Hampshire police area to “Hampshire and Isle of Wight”. This
will better reflect the make-up of the police area and the
communities it serves across both counties of Hampshire and the
Isle of Wight. I thank , the police and crime
commissioner for Hampshire, for her representations on this
important local matter.
There is significant local support for this amendment, with 82%
of local residents stating their support in a consultation
carried out by the PCC. The standout reason cited was the simple
fact that Hampshire Constabulary serves two counties: Hampshire
and the Isle of Wight. Respondents also noted that those on the
island sometimes feel forgotten, and there was a feeling that a
more inclusive name would help to address that.
The approval by Parliament of these regulations will therefore
respond to the specific requests of the people of the Isle of
Wight, recognising their strong sense of identity. It will also
better reflect Hampshire Constabulary’s full geographical
coverage and bring the force into line with the corresponding
fire service, which rebranded as Hampshire & Isle of Wight
Fire & Rescue Service following the recent merger of the
island and mainland fire services.
The names of police areas and the power to amend those names are
set out in the Police Act 1996. Section 31A of the Act contains
provisions that allow for the Secretary of State to amend these
names by regulations subject to the draft affirmative procedure.
This instrument will amend Schedule 1 to the Act, which sets out
the names of all police areas in England and Wales with the
exception of the Metropolitan Police District and the City of
London police area.
This instrument will also amend Articles 34 and 35 of the Police
and Crime Commissioner Elections Order 2012, which make provision
in relation to election expenses in police areas. These articles
include references to “Hampshire”, which, through these
regulations, will be substituted with “Hampshire and Isle of
Wight”. This will provide consistency throughout legislative
references to the Hampshire police area.
Should this amendment be approved in both Houses, the Government
intend to make a further statutory instrument, subject to the
negative resolution procedure, to come into force at the same
time as these regulations to reflect the name change in other
secondary legislation. Together with the strong local support, I
hope that I have made a clear case for enacting this important
local amendment. I beg to move.
(LD)
My Lords, I thank the Minister for explaining this statutory
instrument. I have only one question. When debates around the
amalgamation of police forces have occurred previously, in that
43 is considered to be too many, one of the main concerns has
been the cost—for example, in the changing of uniforms and the
changing of signage on police stations and vehicles. What
consideration has been given to those costs that are
consequential to the change in the police area’s name? Otherwise,
clearly there is considerable local support for this change. We
support it, provided that the money is made available and the
costs of any change to signage, uniforms and the like do not come
at the cost of providing policing services to local people.
6.00pm
(Lab)
My Lords, I congratulate the Minister on her 1,000th contribution
to this House; it is nice that it is on a non-contentious issue.
As she says, there is considerable local support for this change
in name. The question asked by the noble Lord, , about the cost implications
of this change in name was interesting, and I would be interested
to hear the answer, but we are happy to support this statutory
instrument.
(Con)
My Lords, I am pleased that my 1,000th contribution is on a
totally uncontroversial issue.
There will be no significant cost to the Government as a result
of the instrument. The PCC has provided assurances that,
similarly, there will be no significant costs incurred locally to
the detriment of the police force. To ensure that that is the
case, the change will be phased over a number of years when items
need replacing, to ensure that there is no unnecessary additional
cost and no major rebranding exercise. I happily commend the
regulations to the House.
Motion agreed.
