§ Mr. Fabian HamiltonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he will make a statement on the monitoring systems he has put in place to evaluate the effectiveness of section 71 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001; [39807]
(2) what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of section 71 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001. [39808]
§ Mr. DenhamSection 71 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 came into force on 1 October 2001. Since 1 October, the police have been able to arrest suspected kerb crawlers and hit and run drivers and take them into custody for questioning rather than having to summons them to appear at a magistrates court.
I am informed by the Metropolitan Police Clubs and Vice Unit that the Metropolitan police have made 221 arrests for the offence of kerb crawling since the implementation of the new power on 1 October 2001.
As the new powers have only been in force for five months, we have not as yet set up any monitoring systems to assess their effectiveness. However, we intend to write to chief officers of police in the autumn to obtain a picture over a 12-month period of how many arrests there have been, how effective the new arrest powers are and whether any practical difficulties have been experienced.