Policing and Crime Bill
12:00 pm
David Ruffley (Shadow Minister, Home Affairs; Bury St Edmunds, Conservative)
Thank you, Sir Nicholas. My questions are addressed to the Minister of State in the spirit of honest inquiry that we have had on so many occasions—not always, but most of the time. On the issue of collaboration, I think there is one thing we can agree on. We all heard the evidence from Sir Norman Bettison on how mandation would be looked at by any Home Secretary or Minister from whichever political party. He suggested—I put the idea into his head—that Ministers in the Home Office should draw up a map dividing up England and Wales and say that those regions or sub-regions will collaborate on five issues that will be mandated across those forces. He suggested that that was at the hard end of the collaboration procedure that is provided for in the Bill. My question is a straight, practical one and it is not in any sense party political, as I am sure you will concede. Is it in the mind of the Home Office to do what I have suggested, to divide up England and Wales and have a structured programme of mandation, with specific forces for specific activities?