§ LORD SNELL had given Notice that he would ask His Majesty's Government if their attention has been called to the Report of the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis on the state of the section houses, married quarters and stations in the Metropolitan Police District, and enquire whether it is the intention of His Majesty's Government to proceed as rapidly as possible with the building of new section houses, the improvement of old ones, the married quarters and stations; and move for Papers.
§ The noble Lord said: My Lords, there is, I hope, no need to assure you that this Question which is upon the Order Paper in my name is not in any sense a Party question, nor is it introduced with the intention of making any attack upon His Majesty's Government. The criticisms I desire to make will be directed against a long line of previous Governments as well as upon His Majesty's present advisers. My concern with the present Government is to try to induce them to take the complaints that I shall make into their immediate and serious consideration, and to bring to a speedy end what is in fact a long-standing public scandal. Since I placed this Question on the Order Paper His Majesty's gracious Speech from the 112 Throne has informed us that it is the intention of His Majesty's Government, if time permits, to introduce a, measure "for providing better housing of the Metropolitan Police." The Government are therefore committed to the principle of the reforms that I desire to urge upon them, and my plea to-day is that time should be found in order to deal with the matter. The subject is not in any sense controversial. The time required for such a measure would be very short, and the measure itself would in all probability be welcomed by members of all Parties.
§ The conditions under which young policemen, some several thousands of them, are expected to live in the present section houses are, frankly, quite disgraceful. There is no class of public servant more necessary, more reliable, more considerate than the members of the Metropolitan Police. They perform their duties with discretion and with an understanding tolerance and helpful courtesy which are generally admired and which have won for them the trust and good will of the London public. The members of the force who suffer specially from the conditions at present existing are young officers who at the very beginning of their service are required to live in these section houses. These young constables have been subjected to tests of character. Many of them come from country homes where they have been accustomed to the decencies and privacy of civilised life. They are healthy, virile, and at an age when they are most susceptible to temptations which need not here be mentioned. It is sufficient to say that these temptations exist, and that the conditions under which these young men are compelled to live are such as to induce them to seek relief from them in more than one undesirable way.
§ My first contention, therefore, is that the State should provide for them morally helpful, rather than demoralising, living conditions. The section houses in which they live are the constable's homes until they are married. A young constable may not, as the Police Commissioner states, even have friends in London to whom he can go when off duty. In my opinion, therefore, it is essential for the well-being, comfort and efficiency of these important public servants that they should be made not less comfortable than they were at home, but 113 rather more comfortable. The constable's lack of human companionship and of the houses of neighbours to which he can go when off duty should, be compensated for by the provision of good surroundings and adequate recreation rooms where he can feel he can read quietly, rest, and have reasonable recreation. There seems to be no doubt that the general surroundings of the men have a very considerable influence upon their character, and it behoves us in no way to lower the general status of the men who enter the Metropolitan force. It is on the contrary the duty of the general public who look to the Police for protection, and do not look in vain, to see that they are given a degree of comfort which is only their due, remembering that the hours of duty are long and varied and that their work is performed in all weathers, by day and by night. We like to think in London, and we do believe, that we have the best Police force in the world, and their conditions of living should he on an equal scale.
§ On reading the Report of the Commissioner of Police I confess I was filled with alarm when he pointed out that practically all the section houses were pre-War built, and that half of them come from the Victorian era, from 1850 and onwards. They are equipped, as regards comfort and amenities, in a manner far below what is considered reasonable and tolerable to-day. It is alleged that they are bleak and institution-like and frequently situated in dreary surroundings; that these young officers lack privacy, have no place in which to read, write, or rest in comfort, no separate bedrooms, but are compelled to live in narrow, cramped cubicles in cheerless dormitories separated only by a partition which does not extend to the ceiling. These alleged bedrooms are lit only by a dim light, and they are very cold in winter. The men have altogether inadequate recreation facilities, and the catering arrangements for these young men are also deplorably out of date.
§
Let me call your Lordships' attention to what the Commissioner of Police actually says on this point:
The larger section houses have canteens, bat these do not correspond at all to the ordinary conception of a canteen. They are, speaking generally, small dark rooms in basements, where the men can get a glass of beer or buy groceries, etc., but they are
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not, and were never designed as, places where they could sit or take refreshment in comfort. Canteens, it should be explained, have been introduced since the section houses were built, and have, therefore, had to be squeezed into whatever space could be made available.
As regards meals, the men make their own messing arrangements under which, as a general rule, one hot meal a day is provided; either meals being cooked by each man for himself. The catering arrangements are in need of entire overhaul, with a view to securing that the men (who come off duty at all hours) can obtain well-cooked and properly served meals, as and when they require them, in a room furnished after the manner of a comfortable restaurant. This is essential not only as a matter of comfort but for the health of the men, which undoubtedly suffers at present from unsuitable and insufficiently varied diet, a trouble which cannot be remedied under existing conditions.
§ In reading the Report of the Commissioner I was further alarmed when I saw that the Commissioner had only recommended to the Secretary of State that two new section houses should be built. I was a little appeased, however, when I noticed that on July 5 in another place the Home Secretary said that he was going to build four, and that a general programme of development was being drawn up which was being proceeded with with all possible speed. The statement of the Home Secretary was made in the summer. We are now in the late autumn and the whole subject should come up for a review at once. I therefore ask whether the Government are now prepared to make a full statement as to their proposals, as it is very important that these conditions should be put right. In beginning my remarks I reminded your Lordships that I was not proposing to make any kind of attack on the present Government, but I have indicated to your Lordships conditions which every Home Secretary for the last twenty-five years ought to regard as thoroughly bad and of which he should be ashamed. It would not be a bad thing if the Government to-day could make these young men a Christmas box of a promise that the conditions under which they live will be speedily remedied.
§ There is also complaint as regards the married quarters. I noticed in the Commissioner's Report that he pointed out that they were still some 300 short of the number which it was recommended by Lord Onslow's Committee in 1920 should be provided for the inner divi- 115 sions, and the Commissioner, having gone into the matter carefully, considers that some 200 more are necessary, which leaves 500 still to be provided. I am informed that some of the married quarters are very bad. There are no bathrooms and no places in which to wash clothes, and they have outside lavatories. In a number of cases where there are baths they are located in the kitchen-scullery. I believe that about 200 of the existing married quarters are not really suitable for occupation by police officers and should be condemned. I hope that the Government will be able to make some announcement about that also.
§ The police stations in London, which should be the finest in the world, are almost certainly about the worst in the world, and they are terribly cramped. They are lacking in privacy, there are no waiting rooms where callers can be privately interviewed, and we ought really to know what the Government propose to do about them. The old idea of a police court has been superseded. It was then a place to which a "drunk and disorderly" was either persuaded or compelled to go, and where he and his like were detained in one or two detention rooms. But the public go to the police stations now for all kinds of things, and those stations ought to be brought up to date. The law should in this country be represented with a certain amount of dignity. I do not like to call these places official slums, but that is in great part what they are; and whilst we are now looking forward to the abolition of slums it would not be a bad thing if the Government were to begin with those for which they are immediately responsible. The Police who look after us should have the earliest attention, and the conditions under which they live will, I hope, receive speedy attention. I do not need to delay your Lordships longer in asking you to join me in pressing His Majesty's Government to give to this matter its early and earnest consideration and to assure the Government that any Bill which they bring in to remedy this state of things will receive your very earnest attention and cordial support. I beg to move.
THE EARL OF FEVERSHAMMy Lords, I feel confident that you have listened with keen interest to the accurate, just and well-balanced statement made by the noble Lord opposite. I am sure that the 116 noble Lord will be pleased to know that the Government have approved of a general scheme for re-housing the Metropolitan Police, and this scheme is regarded by the Government as an essential and very important part of the reorganisation of the force which has been in progress during the last few years, that is to say, during the time that the noble Lord, Lord Byng, and the noble Lord, Lord Trenchard, have held the post of Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis.
The re-housing proposals are in effect the third stage in this reorganisation. The first stage in the reorganisation was a general redistribution of the force and readjustment of its local boundaries, in order to meet, firstly, the many changes of recent years in social and other conditions affecting police work; secondly, the rapid development of the outer parts of the Metropolitan Police District; and thirdly, the greatly increased facilities now available in the matter of transport and communication. This redistribution of the force has resulted, as Lord Trenchard pointed out in his Report for 1932, in a better disposition and apportionment of Police resources generally, and it has had the further advantage of effecting substantial economies in the cost of administration. Redistribution was accompanied by very far-reaching changes in the general system by which Police protection is afforded, that system being a system of beats and patrols. The whole lay-out of the force has been re-planned in conjunction with the increased use of motor cars, wireless and Police telephone boxes, and the methods of policing may be said to have been revolutionised. I am sure that it is unnecessary for me in your Lordships' House to pay tribute to the activities upon which the Commissioner of Police has been engaged during the last few years. Your Lordships will be familiar with the improvements that have been effected in the administration of the Police Service, and will be aware of the value of those changes.
The second stage in the reorganisation was that to which the Government White Paper of May 19, 1933, mainly related and which was fully discussed in both Houses of Parliament during the debates on the Bill for the Metropolitan Police Act of 1933. I refer in particular to the new system of recruitment in relation to 117 the higher posts and the establishment of the Police College at Hendon. The third stage is this re-housing scheme. It may be said to be largely a question of improving the amenities of life for members of the Metropolitan Police, but the matter also has other aspects. It has an important bearing on the efficiency of the Police and the convenience of the public. As regards efficiency, I think your Lordships will agree brat you cannot expect to have an Al force in C3 buildings. Metropolitan Police buildings, and I think I may say police buildings in general, are out of date in two senses. In the first place, in the passage of time the accommodation they provide has become cramped and inadequate. Secondly, both in their external aspect and their interior arrangements they reflect a totally different set of ideas to those now prevailing with regard to the status the Police.
In his Report for 1932, in that section which dealt with the housing of the Police, the noble Lord, Lord Trenchard, drew attention to the urgency of improving section house accommodation and providing more married quarters, and in his Report for published in April last, he dealt at length with the deplorable conditions prevailing in section houses. As your Lordships are probably aware, the term "section house" is the name given to the building in which single men are lodged during the early years of their service, and, as the single men in the Police force number between one-quarter and one-fifth of the force, it is obviously very important to secure satisfactory conditions for them. The standard of amenity aimed at in the section houses in the past seems to have been a deplorably low one. There are over one hundred section houses situated in various parts of the Metropolitan Police District; most of them are very small because they were built mainly in the Victorian era, as the noble Lord opposite pointed out, when the principle of "living over the shop" prevailed. That is, the single men were housed as well as might be over the police station to which they were attached, or in another part of the same building. Before the War when the Police force was expanded a number of larger section houses were built, but they are all "bleak and institution-like," and, judging by the standards of to-day singularly little attention appears to have been paid 118 to the question of comfort. Above all, there is a great lack of privacy and quiet and an absence of proper catering and common room arrangements. Men who lead such a public life when at work need privacy when off duty more than anyone else, and in the case of the single policemen who live in the section houses they require it not only for rest but for study, in view of the examinations which they have to pass.
In the new section houses which are now to be built and of which, as announced in another place, four are already in hand, all these defects will be remedied. Some of the existing section houses can be modernised, but with others such a course is impossible, and it will be necessary to build between twenty and thirty new section houses. All the smaller section houses will be closed and in the larger new ones it will be possible to give the men reasonable amenities in the way of restaurant meals, canteens and common rooms, and to arrange the general management of the section houses on a far more satisfactory and economical plan than hitherto. The number of section houses will be reduced by about half, a change which will produce very considerable economies as regards the maintenance of the buildings as well as their management. At the same time, the new section houses will be better placed. Owing to the recent redistribution of the force and owing to other post-War changes, many of the existing houses are so situated that it is no longer possible to utilise them to their full extent or to secure an even distribution of the single men among the various local divisions of the force. This, my Lords, is a very important matter because it is essential that each division should have its quota of recruits. So much for section houses.
As regards police stations, of which there are over 180 in the Metropolitan Police District, the majority of these date, like the section houses, from the Victorian days and they are equally out of date. The number has been substantially reduced in the last few years as the result of reorganisation, and the question whether, in the interests of economy, their number can be reduced still further will be kept under constant review. Under the scheme which has been approved, about two-thirds of the total 119 number of police stations will be reconstructed or otherwise adapted to modern conditions, and rather more than a third will have to be replaced by entirely new stations because they are too antiquated and inadequate to make reconstruction possible. The new stations will be more in accord with the new relation in which the Police stand to the public and there will be proper provision both for the transaction of business with the public and for the carrying on of the necessary administrative work of a station. Some provincial police authorities have already built or are building new police stations which surpass any stations that exist in the Metropolitan area. Clearly London ought not to lag behind in this matter but should lead the way.
As regards the married men of the force, the majority of these are given rent allowances and provide their own accommodation, but in the inner and more congested areas of the district it is practically impossible for constables to obtain suitable quarters within reasonable distance of their station, with the result that they have to travel long distances with consequent waste of time, expense and inconvenience. In other parts of the district men can find accommodation only in very undesirable surroundings. In such areas, therefore, it is essential that the married men should be officially provided with suitable quarters. Several blocks of such quarters have in fact been built since the War, but, owing to financial difficulties, progress has been slow and only about half the number required have so far been built. The provision of more married quarters is now to be pressed on with.
It may be asked by your Lordships why these very necessary improvements have not been put in hand at an earlier date. The main reason is the financial one. I may explain to your Lordships that except as regards New Scotland Yard itself and the purchase of sites, it has always been the practice to meet expenditure on Metropolitan Police buildings out of income. Since the War this annual expenditure has been very much restricted owing, firstly, to the economies with respect to Police expenditure imposed after the Geddes Committee and again after the financial crisis of 1931. The position has there- 120 fore been that during the sixteen years which have elapsed since the War, years in which the need for new and better accommodation for the Police has been inure urgent than ever before, the building programme has been on the basis of an expenditure less than half of that which obtained before the War, when a policy of rather cheeseparing economy in this matter was pursued.
The annual expenditure on new buildings has been only about one per cent. of the total expenditure from the Police Fund. The result is that, as was said in a recent article in The Times, there is an accumulation of obsolescence which it is now intended to deal with as rapidly as possible. But to endeavour to make the necessary provision entirely out of income would greatly increase the Police Rate and the burden which would thus fall on the present generation of ratepayers would be much beyond what could be justified. There is the further consideration that owing to the state of the money market, the present is an exceptionally favourable time for borrowing. It is for these reasons that the Government have decided to introduce a Bill to enlarge the borowing powers of the Receiver for the Metropolitan Police District, who is charged with the financial administration of the Metropolitan Police Force. This Bill will be introduced as soon as the state of business in another place allows and as a non-controversial measure should be assured of a speedy passage. I hope that this rather lengthy and detailed statement will satisfy your Lordships that the Government are well aware of the present inadequacies of Police accommodation and are taking action. In particular I trust that the matters to which I have referred will satisfy the noble Lord who placed this Question on the Order Paper.
§ LORD SNELLMy Lords, I beg to thank the noble Earl for the fullness with which he has answered the Question which I placed upon the Order Paper. I notice that a Bill is to be introduced in the other House dealing with borrowing powers as soon as business allows. There is again that indefiniteness there is no pledge that we shall have this Bill actually produced. I hope that the noble Earl will press this matter upon the Government and that in the case of a short non-controversial 121 measure of this kind, which would occupy very little time, the question of time will be disregarded. I beg, my Lords, to withdraw my Motion.
§ Motion for Papers, by leave, withdrawn.