Clause 71 - Police members of NCIS
Police Reform Bill [Lords]
10:00 am
Mr Nick Hawkins (Surrey Heath, Conservative)
Once again, I want to put on record the very strong concerns expressed by the Police Federation. Clauses 71 and 72 propose to change the way in which people can go into NCIS or the NCS. They make provision for the appointment of a person attested or sworn as a constable of any rank to be appointed as a permanent police member of either NCIS or the NCS.
The Police Federation makes the point—I have seen this at NCIS and the NCS, where I had a briefing some time ago—that serving officers are currently seconded to NCIS and the NCS for a period and then, having done their secondment, go back. The Police Federation says, which seems to me to make eminent common sense, that that is an efficient and effective way of ensuring a free flow of skills between the forces and the service authorities. It makes the point that when officers have spent some time at the NCS or NCIS and then go back, they return to their forces with enhanced skills and specialist experience, which helps build up and strengthen the detective skills base in the forces.
One point that was made to my hon. Friend, myself and others in our Front Bench team as recently as last night by a retired, senior Customs man who had worked closely in this field was that in some forces there is a shortage of people with the required experience to carry out the operations. If some of the best people are taken away from some of the forces—particularly from smaller forces—and go permanently to NCIS or the NCS, that will compound the problem. The man who spoke to us last night made the point that that will exacerbate the problem that already exists. He said that he had something like 28 years' experience of dealing with drugs seizures and he expressed serious concern about the shortage, especially in smaller forces, of officers who were sufficiently senior to carry out big operations against those who NCIS call level 3 criminals—the most serious criminals.
If that is the case, making the changes and having lots of people move permanently into NCIS and the NCS could make the situation worse. The Government recognised in their White Paper that there is a shortage of experienced detectives in some forces as a result of the over-rigid application of tenure policies. That is the Government's view, as set out in their White Paper and it was reinforced in spades by the gentleman who briefed my hon. Friend and other hon. Members last night.
The Police Federation says that that shortage, which the Government have already acknowledged, could become a famine if the supply of detectives returning from what are currently secondments to NCIS and the NCS is significantly reduced. The Police Federation has made the point that that would be a qualitative as well as a quantitative reduction. The service authorities, NCIS and the NCS, would clearly have a motivation to retain as permanent police members those officers who had performed particularly well. That is human nature, and what we would expect. However, they would be prepared for those of perfectly competent but less star-like—what the Police Federation call ''standard''—performance to return to their forces, so that the effect of sections 71 and 72 could be to allow centralised organisations such as NCIS and the NCS to cream off the best talent from around the country to the impoverishment of the supplying 43 forces.
The Police Federation made the point that there could be a danger of exclusivity and reduced co-operation between service authorities and forces. Indeed, we know from experience in other countries—particularly and most worthy of note, the United States—that police or security agencies operating exclusively can lead to a danger of communications failures between them. All members of the Committee have been very much aware that in the USA, during the past three or four weeks, there have been huge debates and great investigations in Congress and the Senate about whether intelligence failures in the run-up to the terrorist atrocities on 11 September were caused by the danger of exclusivity.
The Police Federation says, and I agree entirely, that communication and co-operation between the service authorities—NCIS and the NCS—and forces are presently facilitated by the current secondment arrangement, which ensures a regular movement of personnel in both directions. If that movement is all, or mostly, one way, NCIS and the NCS could increasingly be seen, and could come to see themselves, as an exclusive set of organisations, and that could be to the detriment of communication and co-operation with police forces. That would be hugely detrimental.
I have been very impressed with what I have seen of the work of the NCS and NCIS. We want them to get even better. There is no doubt that what they have achieved in operations against the most serious criminals—many of them operating internationally and in this country—has been wonderful. I cannot praise them too highly. We do not want to do anything that could risk damaging that. The Police Federation has a very good point, quite separately from the
briefings that I have had at NCIS and the NCS. As recently as last night, my hon. Friends and I had a briefing from someone who was at the sharp end for many years—in his case, in Customs. Without being aware that the matter was about to come up in Committee, he made very much the same points that the Police Federation made about what needs improving and the danger that the situation could get worse. I believe that it can get worse, if the measure is implemented. I put that point seriously to the Minister and know that he will take it seriously. I shall listen with interest to what he has to say.