Orders of the Day — Police Acts (Amendment) Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 23 February 1973.

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Photo of Mr Robert Hughes Mr Robert Hughes , Aberdeen North 12:00, 23 February 1973

I offer the usual congratulations to my hon. Friend the Member for Derby, North (Mr. Whitehead) on his good fortune in the ballot and on his choice of topic, but I am doubly grateful to him for allowing me to be a sponsor of the Bill and for accepting the suggestion that an independent review tribunal system for complaints against the police in Scotland should be part of it.

I recognise, as the hon. Member for Inverness (Mr. Russell Johnston) did, that there are difficulties in dealing with a United Kingdom Bill when there are two systems of police, two systems of complaint, and two systems of law. However, failing luck in the ballot for a Scottish Member who would have a good enough place to put forward a separate Bill for Scotland, we had to decide either to let the thing go by default for lack of opportunity or to take the opportunity here to air the question.

By and large, we have in our Scottish police forces first-class men doing a first-class job. It is important that there shall be no erosion of public confidence in the integrity of the police, and, perhaps even more important, that there shall be no erosion of the belief of Members of Parliament in the integrity of the police. Speaking from my experience, I assure the House that I have had many discussions over the past 2½ years with the chief constable and deputy chief constable of Aberdeen and I am satisfied that they are doing all they can to ensure that the reputation of the police force is extremely high.