§ 7. Mr. Clive Soley (Ealing, Acton and Shepherd's Bush)If he will make a statement on progress towards establishing dangerousness orders. [47066]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Beverley Hughes)We have acted already and are continuing to act to address the challenge to public safety posed by dangerous people. We have introduced a raft of measures, including sex offender orders, which we will further strengthen.
We also plan to introduce new measures to deal more effectively with the dangers posed by people with a severe personality disorder.
§ Mr. SoleyDoes my hon. Friend accept that this is a difficult but profoundly important subject to tackle, and that it involves a relatively small number of violent offenders who can wreck people's lives and kill? Does she accept that we need to introduce some legislation to deal with people who are acknowledged to pose a high risk to others? At times, they ask to be locked up to be prevented from doing what they fear they will do, as happened in at least one case a few years ago. Although this is a difficult matter, I ask my hon. Friend not to give up on it.
§ Beverley HughesI know that my hon. Friend has great interest and expertise in this matter, which he rightly describes as important. We all know of several cases that have exposed the gaps in legislation and in assessment and treatment, especially of those who are dangerous and have personality disorders. We are determined to close the gap; we have published proposals and will introduce legislation as soon as possible. In the meantime, we are developing four important pilot projects in two high-security prisons and two special hospitals. Development of assessment and treatment is also important.
We are also considering the way in which new sentences, including new orders, can help us better to ensure that a dangerous person, whether suffering from a personality disorder or not, will remain in custody or under supervision while continuing to present risk. Risk assessment and management is the key to that.
Mr. Edward Gamier (Harborough)Does the Minister accept that the need for dangerousness orders would be vastly reduced if the number of police was greatly increased? Often only two police officers patrol the whole rural area of Harborough district on Fridays and Saturdays. In the Oadby and Wigston borough council area, there are always far too few police officers to carry out necessary police work. It is annoying for the police to be continually harassed by Members of Parliament and members of the public about their inability to carry out their work. Why do not the Government stop talking and get on and do something?
§ Beverley HughesThe hon. and learned Gentleman is entirely wrong, and he has managed to divert a question 17 on another very important but different topic back to the subject of policing. The most important factor in protecting the public from dangerous offenders is not the number of police officers per se; it is effective and strong partnership between the police, the probation service, the health service and other agencies at local level. It is also crucial to have in place the measures to contain, treat, observe and survey those offenders. Since 1997 there has been a sea change in the way in which agencies work together, and we have introduced measures such as sex offenders orders to reduce the risk to the minimum level possible. We need to go further, but that is not a matter of having more police; it is a matter of better inter-agency working.