HC Deb 23 January 1997 vol 288 cc1063-5
6. Mr. Bayley

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of crimes notified to the police were cleared up in the latest year for which figures are available. [10553]

The Minister of State, Home Office (Mr. David Maclean)

Clear-up rates vary considerably, depending on the type of crime. The overall clear-up rate for notifiable offences in 1995 was 26 per cent. For the most serious types of crime, clear-up rates were very high: 92 per cent. of all homicides, 77 per cent. of acts of violence against the person and 76 per cent. of sexual offences were cleared up.

Mr. Bayley

Is the Minister aware that since the Conservatives came to power in 1979 the number of offences committed in North Yorkshire has trebled from 20,000 to 59,000 a year? According to the chief constable's reports during that period, the detection rate has fallen from 49 per cent. to 23 per cent., and North Yorkshire now has fewer police officers than it had in 1979 under the Labour Government. Is that not a crushing indictment of the Conservatives' failure to control crime and convict criminals? Is it not time that the Conservatives went?

Mr. Maclean

I suggest that the hon. Gentleman brings his facts up to date. According to the figures that we have received from North Yorkshire, the chief constable expects to recruit 20 extra officers this year as a result of the additional funding that we are giving him. If the hon. Gentleman and his party were concerned about crime in North Yorkshire in the 1980s, they did not show much sign of it. They voted against everything that chief constables in North Yorkshire and elsewhere wanted in order to tackle crime. With regard to the power of the Attorney-General to review lenient sentences, for instance, Labour Members voted against that measure then, and they did not even have the guts to vote for the Crime (Sentences) Bill last week.

Mr. Bayley

You are lying, and you know it.

Madam Speaker

Order. The hon. Gentleman has used unparliamentary language, which is unacceptable. Will he withdraw what he has just said?

Mr. Bayley

The Minister's comments were—[Interruption.]

Madam Speaker

Order. I will deal with this matter.

Mr. Bayley

The Minister's comments were a total misrepresentation of the position in the 1980s, but if you require me to withdraw the word that I used, Madam Speaker, I do so.

Madam Speaker

I do require you to do so.

Mr. Nicholas Winterton

In seeking to cool the atmosphere, may I ask whether my right hon. and learned Friend accepts that closed circuit television has made a major contribution not just to reducing crime, but to bringing people who have committed offences before the courts? Will he continue to give maximum financial and other support to the establishment of closed circuit television systems in town centres, and particularly in the centre of my town of Macclesfield, which has submitted an application that I hope will be warmly endorsed by his Department?

Mr. Maclean

My hon. Friend is well known as one who pours oil on troubled waters whenever he can. He will know of the tremendous funding that we have given to the establishment of closed circuit television. We see CCTV as a means of preventing crime, of catching criminals and of helping to convict the guilty, which is why we put £5 million into it in the first year and £15 million last year. We are reviewing the bids for CCTV in the current round and we shall consider all representations carefully because we want to spend the £15 million as wisely as possible throughout the country. I thank my hon. Friend for his warm welcome for that initiative.

Mr. Michael

Can we cut through the Minister's rhetoric and deal with facts? Does the Minister not realise that the only people who are happy with the Government's record on crime are the criminals? As crime has doubled and prosecutions have dropped, the criminals are twice as likely to get away with it as they were under the last Labour Government, and three times as likely to get away with violent crimes. Is the Minister proud of his record?

Mr. Maclean

That was rhetoric if ever we heard it. The hon. Gentleman talks about criminals being happy. I think that it was the head of the Superintendents Association, Chief Superintendent Brian Mackenzie, who said this week—following Labour's behaviour in the other place—that criminals would be clapping their hands with joy because Labour peers had voted for two contradictory amendments. [Interruption.] I have not given the House rhetoric; I have given the House facts. I have given the House the facts of the Labour party's voting record, which has been consistent in the 1980s and the 1990s. Last week, when we discussed the Crime (Sentences) Bill—which gives powers to lock up automatically, for life, the most serious violent and dangerous offenders, powers to lock up drug dealers for seven years and powers to lock up persistent burglars for three years—Labour Members abstained. They voted against such legislation in the 1980s and abstained in the 1990s. That is why they will be rejected in a few months' time.