New clause 8 - Economy in functions of the Board
Police (Northern Ireland) Bill [Lords]
4:30 pm
Mr David Wilshire (Spelthorne, Conservative)
I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time.
This debate need not take us anything like as long as the debate on new clause 7. Section 3 of the 2000 Act deals with what appears to be an uncontentious issue. It states:
''The Board shall secure the maintenance of the police in Northern Ireland . . . The Board shall secure that—
(a) the police,
(b) the police support staff, and
(c) traffic wardens appointed by the Board under section 71, are efficient and effective.''
Any hon. Members, and certainly any members of the Committee, who have been round the local government course over the years will have had drummed into them the three Es: efficiency, effectiveness and economicness. [Laughter.] I accept that it is not economicness, but Hansard will put it right for me. It is late in the day. Economy is the word that I wanted. I am grateful to the lawyers who can keep me on the straight and narrow. Irrespective of what the words were, there were three of them, and they all began with E. I hope that the Minister will readily accept that we want an efficient and effective police service, not one that is free to waste money. Under the 2000 Act, there is no requirement on the NIPS to be efficient and effective in the cheapest way. It can do things in any way and still comply with the legislation. All I seek to do is to remember the taxpayers of Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom, and to suggest that there should be no tax increase in the forthcoming Budget to hammer on to the British public the cost for everything that the Government want to be done and for the uneconomic way of running the PSNI.