HC Deb 20 October 1976 vol 917 cc1619-30

Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjorn.—[Mr. Bates.]

11.38 p.m.

Mr. Neil Macfarlane (Sutton and Cheam)

I am grateful to have this opportunity of raising, under the Adjournment procedure, the problems facing the police in Greater London. I am also grateful to the Under-Secretary of State for being here this evening to answer this brief debate.

I suppose it is true to say that the problems facing the police of London are not so different from those facing the police of any other city in the United Kingdom. All of us in this establishment and elsewhere in London have good reason to be grateful for the magnificent police work in keeping the bombers at bay in the early and mid-'seventies—the long months of death and destruction in 1974, 1975 and 1976.

Obviously, in this brief debate it will be impossible for me to cover all the problems facing the police of Greater London, but I feel that it is a worthwhile debate, despite its brevity. I should tell the Minister that over the past six months I have had several meetings with the senior police officers in my constituency and in the division that covers my constituency. I have also spent the late hours and early hours with a panda patrol. I do not suggest that that makes me an expert an all police matters, but I hope it serves to provide a modest understanding of the problems facing police in Greater London and in my constituency, the outer London borough of Sutton.

I am sure that the Minister will be well aware that there are many fears in London. Londoners are fearful of the growth of muggings and the new ferocity of so-called football fans. Both these more recent aspects of crime throw greater burdens on the police force in Greater London and are predominently the product of our society in the 1960s and 1970s.

I am certain that the Home Secretary will view with concern the contents of an article by Peter Gladstone-Smith that appeared in last week's edition of the Sunday Telegraph. The article referred, among other things, to a massive rise in muggings extending throughout inner London. But the problem is present not only in Inner London. In Sutton there has been a steadily rising crime rate in recent years. That has not been more graphically illustrated than in the two newspapers in my constituency, the Sutton and Cheam Advertiser and the Sutton and Cheam Herald. They underline the fact that violent crime in on the increase not only in the inner city area but throughout other parts of the city.

I shall quote briefly from reports which I have seen in one or two editions of the local newspapers this year. One states: Four men, one armed with a shotgun, clubbed a Royal Marsden Hospital porter, Bill Fisher, and escaped with £6,500 in wages. Another states: An armed man got away with £1,400 from a newsagent and tobacconist in Sutton High Street. Another states: One of them fired a shot at one of the guards. Both guards were forced to lie face down. And the raiders got away with £16,500. A fourth states: The muggers who kicked and punched Mr. Jones stole £3.10 and his cheque book. Finally, there has been a brutal slaying at a sweet shop.

It is becoming increasingly clear that police forces, both uniformed and CID, are stretched. The size of the Metropolitan Police Force is the first matter I wish to raise. At present we know that police force strength in the metropolitan area is 22,000. The establishment is set at 26,000. Although recruitment, in the word of one senior police officer I met a few weeks ago, is "booming", I am concerned that it is inadequate to achieve the twin number one objectives of successful detection and effective prevention.

It is a sad commentary on our society that lawlessness has virtually reached a stage where persons and property can no longer be protected. In many respects the mugger, burglar and armed robber can reckon that crime pays.

I urge the hon. Lady to tell her right hon. Friend the Home Secretary that one way of reducing the problems of the police in Greater London, Sutton and elsewhere, is by encouraging a massive recruitment to our Metropolitan force. It should be aimed at reaching a strength—not an establishment—of 28,000 policemen and women by mid way through 1977.

The relationship between strength and establishment is anomalous.

I quote a detective chief inspector who said in January, when the local newspaper ran a feature on the violence in the streets of Sutton, The shortage of police officers was a terrible thing. The journalist continues: When I spoke to him last week the officer said that the situation was even worse but that apart from the murders there have not been so many violent crimes in the area. But we are a lot better off than many places. Croydon and Brixton have been having a terrible time recently. A letter reached my desk on Saturday morning two days after I had applied successfully for this debate. It is from a police officer residing in my constituency. It reads: I am writing to you as a serving policeman in the Metropolitan police force. Our force is many thousands of men under strength. Crime figures and other statistics show that the police have never been under such pressure and the demand for their services has never been greater. I leave that thought with the hon. Lady.

Another problem facing the police in Greater London is the major events in central London itself, be they demonstrations or major sporting events. These are becoming too much a regular feature in the lives of the police. In recent years, we have witnessed the violence in Red Lion Square, soon after which a Sutton resident, Inspector David Gisborne, died. This year we have seen the spectacle of the bloody clash in Notting Hill Gate when four young policemen who had been drafted in from my constituency to help were severely injured.

Extra police are required to assist at football rituals such as those at Wembley, Tottenham, West Ham and elsewhere. Police from my constituency are drafted into inner London to help at Crystal Palace, which decreases the strength of the force in Sutton, as it does that of other areas similarly affected. It would be interesting to analyse the dates and times when so many crimes take place—perhaps when these outer areas are weakened while their policemen are working in central London. My hon. Friend the Member for Ealing, Acton (Sir G. Young) would confirm that in his constituency the police have to assist frequently at Heathrow to augment the force there when there is a major demonstration.

It must follow, therefore, that the shortage of police in central London creates a serious deficiency in outer London and elsewhere when any major event takes place in central London. The outer areas are seriously undermanned in crime prevention duties. It is also a niggling matter in the lives of police families when an expected day off has to be cancelled at the last moment. The routine of police officers, with long hours and snatched meals, would be recognisable to many of us in this House, but there is no respite for the policeman when crime takes place, and the job of a panda car officer, for example, is a lonely one.

Another limitation is imposed by the Criminal Justice Act 1971 and earlier Acts. People electing to go for trial create a vast amount of documentation for police officers. It can often take months to prepare for a rather small trial. I am told that the amount of paper work involved in such cases is a disincentive.

I urge that the 1971 Act be reviewed urgently. If the hon. Lady has any influence over what is to go into the Queen's Speech for the next Session of Parliament, I suggest that the maximum fine in the Act of £400 is seriously low and should be reviewed. The residents of London and my constituency, and the police, would pour scorn on some of the absurdly light sentences passed by judges and magistrates in recent months.

There is a dual responsibility between the Lord Chancellor and the Home Secretary, but my constituents would, I am sure, like the Home Secretary to take the lead in updating certain features of our legislation so as to hit our thugs and hooligans as hard as they are hitting society. There is little doubt that the police are baffled by the leniency shown in many courts, and this is seriously undermining the morale of the force.

I turn now to the question of pay. I am aware of the difficulties currently existing between the Home Office and the Police Council as a result of phase 1 of the Government's and TUC's incomes policy, but I support the view of my right hon. Friend the Member for Penrith and The Border (Mr. Whitelaw) in urging the Government to consider as a very special case the claim made by the police force. Recruitment would undoubtedly be much more attractive if the rates of pay were to be increased.

We expect more and more each year from our police in London. Each year, the crime rate increases and the strength of the force remains relatively small. In recent years, the House of Commons and the Greater London Council have added to the burdens of the police with increased legislation. For example, last year the GLC sought the assistance of the police in manning the bus routes to make certain that they were used solely by buses.

There is the likelihood of the House retrieving in the next Session the legislation concerning the compulsory wearing of seat belts—again further legislation which will place an extra burden on the police force. Then there are the problems which society has created—the major sporting events, the pop concerts and out-door festivals. All these provide an extra burden for the police force.

Finally, there exists at present an excessive list of mischievous complaints against the police. At Notting Hill Gate recently it was our police force who were kicked, punched and beaten, then criticised, and finally complained against. It seems to be a farcical situation when we subject our police to this kind of indignity.

I close by urging on the Under-Secretary of State that the battle against inflation and the fight to save the pound are critical for our nation, but the maintenance of law and order in our society is of paramount importance.

11.51 p.m.

The Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Dr. Shirley Summer-skill)

The hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam (Mr. Macfarlane) has raised the most important subject of the problems facing the police in Greater London. He has presented a picture of an embattled police force, to some extent neglected by the Government, and of a city about to be engulfed by a flood of crime. I certainly would not wish to under-estimate the problems facing the Metropolitan Police, but I am glad to have this opportunity to set these problems in perspective and to say what the Government are doing to assist the Metropolitan force in its task.

The task is undoubtedly a difficult one. The fact that London is our capital city itself imposes special burdens, as the hon. Member recognises. Ceremonial occasions, public demonstrations, the targets afforded terrorists—in addition to the wider opportunities for crime provided by the fact that London is a world centre for financial, commercial and social activities—are just some of them.

However, what is impressive about the policing of London is not so much the scope of the problems but the effective way they are handled. To take only one example, we had the effective outcome, without injury or loss of life, of the sieges at the Spaghetti House in Knightsbridge and at Balcombe Street last year. It would be right for me to take this opportunity to express the thanks of the whole House, and of the public as well, to the Commissioner and the members of his force for the professional skill which they devote to dealing with the many difficult situations which they face.

The main problem with which the Metropolitan Police, as other forces in the United Kingdom, are confronted is the increase in crime. In 1975, the total number of indictable offences known to the police in the Metropolitan Police District was 486,669—an increase of 8.8 per cent. over 1974. That was in fact a lower percentage increase than in the preceding year, when the increase was 16.9 per cent., although it is still clearly extremely disturbing.

The latest information available relates to the first six months of this year when, compared with the same period last year, total indictable crime rose by some 7 per cent. The Government share the hon. Member's concern that crime is increasing, and we have consistently sought to strengthen and assist the police service to deal with it, as I shall demonstrate in a moment.

Before doing so, I shall deal briefly with a particular point which I know is worrying the hon. Member—his belief that crime is moving out of the inner London boroughs into those, like his constituency, in outer London. The Metropolitan Police tell me that there is no evidence of this.

Taking the figures for the first six months of this year, compared with the first six months of 1975, total indictable crimes known rose by 8 per cent. in the inner London Metropolitan Police divisions, as against 6 per cent. in the outer London divisions. For crimes of violence the figures were 20 per cent. and 19 per cent. respectively, for burglary 14 per cent. and 7 per cent., and for other theft, handling and autocrime 6 per cent. and 3 per cent. The outer London boroughs do not seem to be suffering disproportion- ately from the overall increase in crime levels.

Nevertheless, I accept that the hon. Member is rightly concerned about the general increase in crime. We share this concern and have taken positive steps to support the police service in dealing with it, in spite of the present difficult economic situation. First, almost alone among the public services the police have remained free—so far as the Government are concerned—to recruit up to authorised establishments. An additional £11 million has been provided to cover the cost of the growth in the number of police officers up to 31st March 1978. This relates to all police forces in England and Wales, but the Metropolitan Police Force has been among those to benefit most.

Mr. Macfarlane

Can the hon. Lady clarify the relationship between the recognised strength at the moment and the establishment, which was fixed in 1965 and which never has been reached? If she can assure the House that the establishment figure will be reached by mid-1977, that will go a long way towards alleviating the genuine concern and—confirmed by the statistics which she has quoted—some of the growing fears amongst many inner and outer London residents. I should like some clarification of the link between current strength and present establishment.

Dr. Summerskill

I do not pretend that the Metropolitan Police force is up to establishment. The current authorised establishment is 26,628. The strength of the force is now 22,032. That means that on 31st August there was a deficiency of 4,596. I do not attempt to conceal that fact, and obviously everything is being done to recruit to the force. However, at 22,032 the strength of the force is higher than it has ever been and I think that we should remember that it is increasing all the time. It continues to increase at the rate of about 100 a month.

Mr. Macfarlane

So does the population of London.

Dr. Summerskill

And so is crime increasing. It is a very serious situation when, as fast as the strength increases, the crime rate increases and, therefore, a greater establishment is needed, and so on.

The force is now taking in as many recruits as it can safely absorb on operational duties. To do this the arrangements for selection have been augmented, and initial training arrangements have been expanded, with Home Office encouragement. As new officers complete their initial training and gain operational experience, I am confident that the full effect of these recent gains will become more apparent.

The hon. Member mentioned the current dispute over police pay. I must make it clear that the Government are not complacent about the present dispute. My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary recently met representatives of the Police Federation and had a frank exchange of views about the problems of the police service at the present time, including the way police pay is negotiated. Further talks will be held both with the federation and with the other interested parties.

As far as the current establishment of the Metropolitan Police is concerned this was last increased, in November 1974, to 26,628 in recognition of the additional work resulting from the transfer of responsibility for policing Heathrow Airport to the force. The first priority, however, must be to fill as many as possible of the existing 4,500 vacancies, and there is the closest co-operation between the Home Office and the force to that end.

The hon. Member also raised the question of how the Commissioner deploys his men. This is entirely a matter for the Commissioner's professional judgment. I understand the hon. Member is concerned about the situation in his own constituency. East station has a target level at which its strength should ideally be maintained. This is calculated on the basis of all the relevant policing factors. In the case of Sutton the force is above its target strength. My noble Friend will be writing further to the hon. Member on this point. The Commissioner assures me that the deployment of manpower and the crime situation in each area covered by his force are kept under review so that the best use is made of the available personnel and resources. There are standing arrangements for police forces to seek assistance from one another. Assistance may be given to the Metropolitan Police from provincial forces. The decision whether to seek such assistance is for the Commissioner's professional judgment.

Apart from assistance with recruiting, another way in which the Government are seeking to increase resources is by developing scientific and technological aids. The Government have in fact, given priority to maintaining technical support for the police. Apart from improvements in the well-established fields such as forensic science and police radio schemes, the police are increasingly taking advantage of the benefits obtainable from systems which use computers, with proper safeguards for privacy. The police national computer now provides all police forces—including the Metropolitan Police—with essential information faster than ever before. Its first use, on stolen vehicles, has been an immediate success. Forces now also consider the help which computers can give to the police officers in control rooms who despatch operational policemen to deal with incidents and crime, and there are many other ways in which equipment of various kinds can help the policeman on the ground to be more effective.

The Metropolitan Police are well aware of all these developments. They give priority to technical support for police operations, and are constantly looking for new ways of providing it. Of course these efforts will not provide an instant solution to the problems of crime and disorder, but they undoubtedly help to make the best possible use of police manpower.

I turn now to deal with some of the other points raised by the hon. Member. First, he expressed concern about the increase in crimes of violence, particularly mugging. Crimes of violence in the Metropolitan Police district have risen at an extremely worrying rate. For the Metropolitan Police district as a whole the increase in the first six months of this year over the first six months of 1975 was 19 per cent. In the Sutton sub-division the number of these crimes increased from 56 in the first six months of 1975 to 70 during the same period this year. Within the category of crimes of violence some idea of the extent of the commission of offences described colloquially as "mugging" can be gained from Appendix 18 to the Commissioner's Report for 1975. That is the last full year for which figures are available.

Mr. Macfarlane

Will the Minister inquire whether the surveys have been conducted at about the time of these events and whether they might have occurred when the police have been sapped of their strength through transfers to work in other areas?

Dr. Summerskill

I intended to refer to that. There is no easy explanation of this increase in muggings in London and there is no simple solution. The Metropolitan Police are, however, very much alive to the situation and have taken special measures to deal with it, mainly by identifying the areas of greatest risk and concentrating manpower and effort on those areas at such times. Their first task is to find out when and where these offences are going on. I cannot give the hon. Member exact details of the times and areas, but this point is obviously being examined. The forces are being concentrated in these areas.

Special squads have been formed in a number of divisions and have been increased in strength in areas of particular difficulty. Steps have been taken to give appropriate advice to the public and to local authorities. I can assure the hon. Member that the Home Office is in close touch with the police on this serious problem. My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary discussed this very issue at a special meeting with the Commissioner, Sir Robert Mark, this afternoon.

I am afraid that I cannot accept the hon. Member's arguments that penalties for offences are inadequate at present. The maximum penalties for violent offenders are already very considerable, ranging up to life imprisonment for the worst offences. Life imprisonment is also the maximum penalty for robbery and assualts with intent to rob, or mugging as it has become known. Never-the less the sentencing powers of the courts are kept under constant review, and were they to be proved inadequate, we would of course seek an appropriate opportunity to revise them. As I have said before, it is for the courts to determine the sentence to be imposed in the light of all the circumstances of the offence and the offender.

The hon. Member has dwelt on the problems facing the Metropolitan Police. Their range exceeds even the breadth of those mentioned this evening. In tackling them the Commissioner and his force have the full support of my right hon. Friend and his colleagues.

We have mentioned the problems facing the Metropolitan force at length, but let us not forget its successes. Whether it has been in handling terrorist incidents, in dealing with seiges, kidnappings or bank robberies—to mention only a few examples—the force has continually shown that it is at least among the best in the world. At a time when as a nation we have much to concern us, we can be rightly proud of the police and the work that they do.

Question put and agreed to.

Adjourned accordingly at eight minutes past Twelve o'clock.