HC Deb 22 May 2000 vol 350 cc655-8
1. Mr. Owen Paterson (North Shropshire)

If he will make a statement on future trends in the number of police officers. [121530]

The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. Jack Straw)

I announced on 17 May that the additional funding in the Budget provided by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer will allow us to provide for the recruitment of the 5,000 officers allocated under the crimefighting fund by March 2002, a year ahead of my original plans, which were announced on 9 February. Police forces will be able to recruit 3,000 extra officers this year and 2,000 next year.

The projections of police numbers based on forces' estimates for recruitment and wastage now rise as follows: it is projected that, in March 2001, the number will be 126,500 and that, in March 2002, it will be 127,000.

Mr. Paterson

The Home Secretary did not tell us that the previous Government increased police numbers in West Mercia by 405. In only three years, his policies have reduced West Mercia's numbers by 101. The much trumpeted crimefighting fund will still leave West Mercia 12 officers behind in two years' time. When will he wake up to the needs of police in a rural area, get numbers up to those left by the Conservative Government and increase them?

Mr. Straw

As the hon. Gentleman says, police numbers have fallen in West Mercia. They are due to rise by 89 under the crimefighting fund. I congratulate the West Mercia police force: in the year up to September 1999, there was a reduction in recorded crime throughout West Mercia of 2.4 per cent.

Gillian Merron (Lincoln)

I welcome my right hon. Friend's announcement last week of 41 extra police officers for Lincolnshire, whom we will see in two years, not three. What further Government initiatives to support improved policing can we look forward to in Lincolnshire?

Mr. Straw

In addition to the extra investment in policing in Lincolnshire, which has enjoyed a 4 per cent. increase in support from Government this year, which is above the national average, and the additional investment under the crimefighting fund, there has been investment under the crime reduction programme, which has led to the introduction of closed circuit television and a range of other measures, all of which are designed to assist Lincolnshire police and their excellent record in reducing crime.

Mr. Gerald Howarth (Aldershot)

Is the Home Secretary aware that nothing better illustrates the need for more policemen than the nonsense that is going on in Whitehall? Is he aware that the whole of central London was paralysed on Friday for five hours? It has been paralysed again this morning. Right hon. and hon. Members have found it impossible to get to the House because of a whole load of foreigners who are demonstrating and blocking Whitehall. When I spoke to the inspector, he said that the police were still waiting for enough reinforcements to come to deal with those people. None of us has been able to work because of the noise from the helicopter. If the Home Secretary cannot find us a policeman, perhaps he could introduce some water cannon to deal with the problem, failing which, we still have a few paras left in Aldershot.

Mr. Straw

As you are aware, Madam Speaker, I am fully seized of the problems that have arisen in Parliament street and in Whitehall. I raised them with the Deputy Commissioner of the police in the absence of the Commissioner at 9 o'clock this morning as soon as I saw what the problem was. I understand that the northbound carriageway of Whitehall has been cleared to vehicular traffic and that the southbound carriageway has either been cleared or is about to be.

I say two things to the hon. Gentleman. First, in all the public order situations in which I have been involved since becoming Home Secretary, the Commissioner has never raised the issue of police numbers as something that has been holding him back in terms of dealing with those problems. Nor has it been raised this morning. Secondly, as is often the case, the situation has turned out to be more complicated to police. I suggest that water cannon would not have been entirely appropriate—although it is an operational matter for the Commissioner—because women and children were among those demonstrating in the carriageway.

Mrs. Maria Fyfe (Glasgow, Maryhill)

Has my right hon. Friend considered the policing requirements in relation to the Mike Tyson fight? Is he aware that one of the promoters of the fight has a violent criminal past and has connections with Glasgow's criminal underworld?

Mr. Straw

As far as that is relevant to this question—it is hard to see how it is; it is about policing in England and Wales—may I say that I took advice about the possible public order and policing consequences of the latest application in respect of Mr. Tyson, as I did in respect of the one earlier this year.

Mr. Oliver Heald (North-East Hertfordshire)

Does the Home Secretary agree that recruitment and retention of officers are vital to reversing the trend of declining police numbers? At a time when the police are saying that support and respect for the police are a key factor in recruitment, how can he justify the early release so far of 100 criminals jailed for assault on police under his early release scheme? Is that not a kick in the teeth for hard-pressed police? Does he not remember the era when even the Kray twins would think twice about assaulting a police officer? Is it not time that respect for the police was restored?

Mr. Straw

I fully support the need for respect to be shown for police in dealing with difficult operational matters. The home detention curfew scheme is a success, and it was backed fully by the unanimous report of the Home Affairs Select Committee, including the hon. Member for Surrey Heath (Mr. Hawkins).

Mr. Heald

No; not in serious cases.

Mr. Straw

Yes, it was backed in respect of summary offences, of which assault on police is one. I also do not think that we want to hear from Conservative Members about early releases from prison, given the fact that, in one short week, more than 500 prisoners were inadvertently and mistakenly released by the right hon. Member for Maidstone and The Weald (Miss Widdecombe) when she was a Minister of State at the Home Office.

As for respect for the police, the Opposition cannot have it both ways. Their continuous challenging of difficult operational decisions made by the police service in the policing of public demonstrations and in the investigation of difficult murder cases is undermining confidence in the police. It is the Opposition who are doing that.

Mr. Dennis Skinner (Bolsover)

Does my right hon. Friend recall that we were short of police in 1984, but that the Tory Government decided to concentrate use of police in the coalfields during the miners' strike? Does he remember that the result was that burglary and various other offences were committed elsewhere after those police officers had been herded into Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Scotland and Wales?

As for that demonstration in Whitehall, I have been seriously mistaken. When I spotted all those people, I thought that they were queueing up to see the baby.

Mr. Straw

My hon. Friend is entirely correct on his first point. All I can say on the baby is that I am sure that all of us wish the Prime Minister and his wife every congratulation. [HON. MEMBERS: "Hear, hear."] Those of us who are of a certain age might also wish to add that we are glad that it is him and not us. However, I am sure that we all wish to send the Blair family every congratulation on their fourth addition.

My hon. Friend's other serious point was very interesting. He is—as ever—correct that, in 1984, under the previous, Conservative Government, there were 4,500 fewer police officers than there are today. Notwithstanding that and rising crime, the then Conservative Government decided to abstract thousands and thousands of officers to fight industrial action, rather than to deal with that increasing crime. That—with the flawed introduction of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, and the thoroughly flawed introduction of the Crown Prosecution Service—explains why, although police numbers increased until 1993, crime doubled under the Conservatives. They lost the plot entirely on law and order.