HC Deb 04 July 1968 vol 767 cc1670-2
14. Mr. Gwilym Roberts

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will take steps to carry out a nation-wide organisation-and-methods inquiry into the use of manpower by the police forces, with the aim of cutting down the proportion of working time spent dealing with minor traffic offences, and concentrating more of the available manpower on crime prevention and detection.

The Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. Elystan Morgan)

Many forces have already taken advantage of O. and M. advice to make the most effective use of their resources, and the establishment of the Home Office Research and Development Branch is of further assistance. But it is for each chief officer of police to decide on the relative importance in his area of the different responsibilities that Parliament has laid on the police.

Mr. Gwilym Roberts

Does not my hon. Friend feel that such an inquiry is urgent in view of the high crime figures? Will my hon. Friend accept that such an inquiry might reveal that there is a strong case for setting up a separate "traffic cop" organisation to deal with traffic movement and prosecutions, leaving the other side of the police entirely free to deal with crime prevention and detection?

Mr. Morgan

Many forces have commissioned O. & M. studies either by local authority teams or by trained police O. & M. officers of various force departments. The statistics concerning crime show that the number of indictable offences known to the police continued to increase in 1967, but at a much lower rate than in 1966. The rate of increase was actually 0.6 per cent., the lowest since 1955.

Mr. Frederic Harris

Does the hon. Gentleman realise that I have raised this matter with the Home Office time and again over the last three years? There is strong public feeling that every available officer should be devoted to crime detection and prevention and not be wasted on these other duties which can be undertaken by others.

Mr. Morgan

It is not for me to say whether, where or when any particular police responsibility under the law should be given precedence over any other. This raises a question of substantial constitutional importance. The hon. Gentleman should not take for granted that the fact that officers should be diverted, for example, from minor traffic offences to more serious offences, of necessity makes those officers suitable for that specialist type of work.

Mr. Hogg

Whilst the hon. Gentleman will recognise that many will treat this as yet another reason for objecting to the curb on police recruitment, will he also see that the proposal from the benches opposite to split up the police force into specialised police forces would not go without challenge in this House?

Mr. Morgan

I am sure that the House is aware that traffic wardens are available to help the police with certain traffic functions. I do not think that the House should accept that a mere increase in manpower of necessity leads to direct beneficial results proportionate to the amount of manpower which has been channelled.

Mr. Paget

As we have now reached the stage at which it is probably fair to estimate that about one in 10,000 minor traffic offences results in prosecution, have we not reached the point at which the traffic law and its enforcement requires reconsideration?

Mr. Morgan

That is a totally different question and raises very much wider issues.