HC Deb 21 April 1988 vol 131 cc975-7
4. Mr. John Marshall

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement about the latest trends in crime in Greater London.

Mr. Hurd

I welcome the fall in recorded crime in the Metropolitan police district in 1987, when 4 per cent. fewer notifiable offences were recorded than in 1986.

Mr. Marshall

Does my right hon. Friend agree that this very welcome decline is due to the fact that we have more bobbies on the beat and that neighbourhood watch is working in London? Does he also agree that we should commend the efforts of the. Metropolitan police and congratulate them, not snipe at them as some hon. Members do?

Mr. Hurd

I agree with all my hon. Friend's points. It is notable that in the last year the number of hours spent on street duty by uniformed police officers was almost 10 per cent. up on the year before. That is the equivalent of 300 more police officers on the street each day.

Mr. Bermingham

Does the Home Secretary agree that the position would be even better and further improved if hundreds of Metropolitan police officers did not have to spend their time as temporary gaolers? When will that situation end?

Mr. Hurd

The hon. Gentleman, who represents a constituency outside London, will welcome the reductions in crime also in Greater Manchester, Merseyside and the west midlands. The hon. Gentleman is right when he talks about using police officers as temporary gaolers. It is a lousy use of police officers to control people who ought to be in prison. That was because of an overflow, which, unfortunately, was necessary for the reasons that I set out in my statement on 30 March. The numbers are now declining from about 1,500 a each night to about 1,100 each night. The numbers are still far too high, but, as the measures that I announced on 30 March come into effect, they will further decline.

Mr. Budgen

Will my right hon. Friend reconsider the problems of persistent prostitution in Greater London and now recognise that it was a mistake to take away from the courts the right to gaol women convicted of persistent prostitution? Is he aware that in Wolverhampton it is plain that fining these women is no deterrent at all? However reluctantly, he will have to recognise that it may be necessary to imprison some of them.

Mr. Hurd

I shall be very reluctant to go down the road suggested by my hon. Friend. If he would send me the facts and figures as far as they are available for Wolverhampton, I shall look into them.

Mr. Hattersley

Is the Home Secretary aware of the great disquiet in London caused by the policy that the Metropolitan police describe as crime screening, which results in many crimes not even being investigated? As the police authority for London, can he say whether he approves of that scheme and how it will affect the clear-up rate in London? Can he also say how many London burglaries and thefts, now running at more than 500,000 a year, will not be investigated in future because of the screening?

Mr. Hurd

The right hon. Gentleman knows perfectly well that the London and national clear-up rates have improved, and the rate of burglaries in London and elsewhere has declined.

The answer to his specific question is yes. Crime screening is a method of focusing the detecting resources of the police and enabling them to target those crimes that offer the best prospects for successful detection. I support the Commissioner in his operation of that scheme.

Mr. Marlow

As a means of reducing the level of crime still further, will my right hon. Friend consider the reactivation of a modern system of stocks as being a particularly appropriate punishment for dealing with vandalism, graffiti artists and some forms of football hooliganism? Will he confirm that this punishment is still on the statute book and that, it is just a question of the courts taking advantage of it.

Mr. Hurd

In answer to a previous question I expounded the idea of improving ways of punishing people in the community outside prison. I am not quite sure that we in the Home Office have got quite as far as reinventing stocks.