Clause 6 - Regulation of procedures and practices
Police Reform Bill [Lords]
4:15 pm
Mr John Denham (Minister of State (Police, Courts and Drugs), Home Office; Southampton, Itchen, Labour)
This is an occasion when the process of parliamentary scrutiny has done the job well. We have made no secret of the fact that the Bill, while delivering the powers that we wanted, also delivered powers that went far wider. I admit that there was a gap between what we said we wanted to do and what the clause would allow. Given the safeguards, the changes that we introduced in the light of that criticism have made it about right.
The examples that we have used are primarily of a cross-border nature, when the adoption of different practices by different police forces undermines the total effort. The national intelligence model is more than an IT system. It deals with how information is gathered and analysed, and how police officers are deployed in an effective and targeted manner. Criminals cross police authority boundaries, and if one force is using the national intelligence model and another is not, the effectiveness of both forces in dealing with serious crime can be weakened. I am enormously encouraged by the progress that is now being made by forces throughout the country in adopting the national intelligence model. Some of the debates—even of a year ago—about whether it was the best way forward seem to be falling behind us.
Towards the end of last year, members of the Police Federation of England and Wales cited a second example. There are cross-border agreements between police forces to help each other in times of civil disturbance. The nature and level of training for public order disturbances can vary from force to force. It is a worry if someone is drafted in suddenly from a neighbouring force to deal with a difficult situation on the ground who is used to different command structures or approaches. I am not sure that the situation is as serious as I may have suggested, but the principle of the clause is that we may wish to deal with the way in which practices are carried out. It is not an open-ended power for the Home Secretary to pick and choose what he wants to do. He must receive advice, and matters are subject to a tough test, but they must be in the national interest, not the interests of individual forces. Given those safeguards and the fact that we have noted the reservations of the police authorities, we have got the clause about right. That is probably the view of the police service as a whole.
Question put and agreed to.
Clause 6 ordered to stand part of the Bill.