§ Mr. HoyleTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the powers of arrest given to community wardens under the Police Reform Bill. [53141]
§ Mr. DenhamCommunity support officers and members of community safety accreditation schemes, as contained in Chapter 1 of Part 4 of the Police Reform Bill, will not have powers of arrest. It is the Government's belief that, where appropriate, the chief officer of police should be able to give community support officers the power to detain someone for up to 30 minutes, pending the arrival of a constable, and, as a last resort, to use reasonable force to enforce this.
The Government would also like to allow the chief officer of police and the person's employer, to give members of community safety accreditation schemes, (which could include warden schemes) the power of detention, but without the use of reasonable force.
The provisions which would have made the power of detention available in this way were removed in another place. We have already stated our intention to re-introduce these provisions during consideration of the Bill in this House. The provisions in Chapter 1 of Part 4 are enabling, not prescriptive. It will be for each chief officer of police to decide whether and how to use community support 142W officers and community safety accreditation schemes to combat crime and disorder and increase public reassurance.