Clause 1 - National Policing Plan
Police Reform Bill [Lords]
9:45 am
Mr John Denham (Minister of State (Police, Courts and Drugs), Home Office; Southampton, Itchen, Labour)
I do not want to stray too far into clause stand part territory, but it may be helpful if I explain one development in the Government's thinking since the publication of the police reform White Paper and earlier discussions in another place. The national policing plan will be informed by discussions in a non-statutory national policing forum, as we set out in the White Paper. It suggested that the membership of the forum consisted of police and Home Office interests with some representation from victims and witnesses organisations.
We have discussed the forum over the past few months, particularly with police service interests. They said that they would welcome a wider range of inputs, including those representing the local government and health agencies with which they work in partnership locally to reduce crime. I hope to be able to announce the forum's membership in the near future, but I thought that it would be useful for the Committee to know that we are moving in that broader direction in response to discussions with police service interests. That was a useful part of our consultations.
I shall deal with plans and advice and the question of broadening the content of the national policing plan. I do not want to anticipate later debates, but I shall give one example of an issue that might be covered in the national policing plan but would not be appropriate to cover as a best value performance indicator or a Secretary of State priority. As the Committee will know, having commissioned a report last autumn into a day in the life of a police officer, which deliberately raised the issue of bureaucracy higher up the agenda of policing debates, a taskforce led by Sir David O'Dowd, the recently retired Chief Inspector of Constabulary, has been working with the police service on how to tackle red tape and bureaucracy.
I cannot say what will be in the first national policing plan, but it is highly likely that we would want some reference to the implementation of recommendations arising from that report. We would want to see forces and police authorities throughout the country address that. It would not be appropriate to lay it down at this stage as a code of practice or a best value performance indicator, and it will be a rather different priority from those that the Home Secretary has set previously. None the less, it is sensible that such references should be in such a report. The hon. Member for Lewes said that the issue was not addressed in another place, but it is the sort of thing that could be included.
I shall deal first with the amendments concerning NCIS and the NCS. I shall ask the Committee to reject them, but I want to acknowledge that a point of
substance has been raised. The amendment is inappropriate because NCIS and the NCS have their own statutory framework. The lines of accountability are different as, for example, the Home Secretary appoints the chair of the service authority and, since 1 April 2002 under the existing legislation, has the power to appoint the director general of both NCIS and the NCS. It is a very different line of accountability, and because consultation procedures for setting the priorities of those national organisations are laid out in statute, it would be odd to have two different pieces of legislation to use to set the priorities. The amendment would give rise to confusion, which is why it is inappropriate.
However, I acknowledge that we cannot say that serious crime happens here while ordinary policing happens somewhere else. One subject of discussion in the national policing forum, as it is in all our discussions with the police service, will be the interface between the work on serious crime that is done at police force level and that which is done at national level. There is an interrelationship, and it affects workloads. In the run-up to the World cup, NCIS co-ordinates the anti-football hooliganism activity, but police forces co-ordinate the seeking of banning orders. We want to ensure that those issues are properly taken into account when we develop the national policing plan. The consultation requirements enable the Secretary of State to consult directly with the NCS and NCIS where that helps to shape the plan. I assure Liberal Democrats and other hon. Members that we acknowledge the issue at the kernel of the amendment, but we do not agree with the wording.
I turn to the amendment relating to the Central Police Training and Development Authority. The authority has been renamed Centrex to reflect its developed role as the new home for the national centre for policing excellence. Centrex supports the development of policing in various ways, and has its own statutory objectives. However, I acknowledge that it is right for people to expect its objectives to be compatible with the objectives and priorities of the national policing plan. Future Home Office Ministers will have to ensure that CPTDA—as it is in the legislation—is given appropriate objectives to support the plan.
I understand the point made by the hon. Member for South-East Cambridgeshire, but it is not workable. After some to-ing and fro-ing in another place, it was agreed on a Government amendment that there will be a deadline for producing the plan in normal circumstances, but not in the event of a general election, major event, or outrage such as 11 September. The idea is to ensure that the national policing plan can inform Government decisions on the allocation of resources, and those of police forces and police authorities when they set their own objectives and allocate resources locally. The plan therefore needs to precede the resource-setting process. We anticipate that questions about resources will be raised
when we draw up the plan and in discussions with the national forum. People will know the broad picture on available finance, as the spending review makes it a matter of public record. People will look back at the progress made in the previous year, and the extent to which resources were perceived to be sufficient to meet all the set objectives. I am sure that there will be a discussion on the relationship between finances and objectives.
I may regret saying this, but there has to be a chicken and an egg somewhere in the process. In the annual cycle, having the plan in place in November will inform decisions shortly after on the allocation of resources nationally and locally. That will enable Parliament to consider the settlement, and to debate the adequacy of the national policing plan in due course. That can then be brought into the consideration of next year's plans, and will enable us to take adequately into account the financial issues about which the hon. Gentleman is concerned. The amendment would make it difficult for the process to happen smoothly and efficiently.