Clause 1 - National Policing Plan
Police Reform Bill [Lords]
9:45 am
Mr James Paice (South East Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
I wish to speak to amendment No. 76. Clause 1 introduces the concept of the national policing plan. In many ways, it is the precursor to the whole of part 1, and to some other parts of the Bill. It sets the framework for the powers that the Secretary of State seeks to take in later parts of the Bill. They add considerably to the powers in the 1996 Act, which was passed under the previous Conservative Government, and to which we will frequently refer. That aspect of the 1996 Act was contentious, because the Secretary of State took new powers, but this Bill, and this clause, go a lot further.
The Home Secretary already has powers to set objectives and performance targets, to issue codes of practice, and even to require the retirement of a chief constable—a point that we will address later. Those are immense powers, but the power to issue a national policing plan builds on them, and takes them quite a lot further.
We do not object to the overall principle of a national policing plan, but we have reservations with regard to the amount of detail that it might contain. Amendment No. 76 seeks to insert into the clause an obligation for the plan to include an explanation of the resources that the Home Secretary will make available in order for it to be executed. It is perfectly reasonable to expect that. Other amendments—some of which have not yet been dealt with—address some of our other concerns.
A plan that does not include any indication of the resources that are available will be relatively meaningless, because it will be impossible to judge whether there is a realistic chance that it will be fully and successfully carried out. The clause includes an obligation on the Home Secretary to lay the plan before Parliament: when hon. Members judge it, they will want to know what resources are attached to it.
I suspect that, when we debate the police settlement each year, the Minister is already armed with all the information that comes forward annually. However, that is usually debated in February—or in January—which is far too late to be able to assess the national policing plan for any year.
We shall, of course, need to have information about the overall total standard spending for the police force, but we will also need to know the individual standard spending assessments, and whether the Government are making assumptions about efficiency savings. We will also need information about any changes in the formula of allocation, and about capital budgets and top-sliced amounts. During the past few years, the Government have had a tendency substantially to increase the sums that are top-sliced for specific funds—most notably the crime fighting fund, with regard to which they said, ''This is taken off the top, and we will distribute it according to our own criteria, outside the total standard spending.''
Funding for centrally provided services, and any transitional arrangements, must also be taken into account. It will also be necessary to be able to assess the resources against what has already been allowed for in previous years—I have referred to the huge increase in top-slicing.
Individual police authorities have been worried over the years about the late indication that they receive on the amount of resources that will be available. That occurs late in proceedings, which makes it difficult for them to make necessary calculations and judgments on council tax decisions. Amendment No. 76, which is different from the other amendments, has been tabled to suggest that no national plan can be complete without an indication of the resources that are available to implement it. Indeed, as the amendment
says, the plan cannot be complete without the provision of information about constraints that may be put on those resources by the Secretary of State.
I referred to top-slicing funds for central allocation, and a later group of amendments addresses the ways in which the Secretary of State could constrain how the resources are used. It would be right to insert an obligation into the national plan that it should include information about the planned resources that the Government will make available and allow to be spent. I hope that the Government understand the need for cohesion between a plan and its resources and that they will look favourably on the amendment.