Police Amalgamations

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 1:07 pm on 1 February 2006.

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Photo of Charles Clarke Charles Clarke Home Secretary 1:07, 1 February 2006

I agree. That gives me the opportunity to make some progress in addressing precisely that point.

Sir Ronnie Flanagan describes existing collaborative arrangements as "woefully inadequate" and adds that they

"fail to deliver sustained resourcing for preventive or developmental work".

At a different level, Rick Naylor, who leads the Superintendents Association, says:

"The present structure gets in the way of co-operation and working across boundaries. We have tried collaboration and it has not worked."

There are instances of useful collaboration—for example, in providing training for officers, often in reactive response to civil contingencies. Mr. Francois, who is no longer in his place, rightly mentioned Essex's support for the Met after 7/7. Mutual aid can be very strong and effective. It was required, for example, during the recent fire at the Buncefield oil storage facility, where the Metropolitan police service and Bedfordshire constabulary provided support for Hertfordshire in an effective operation.

I do not in any sense decry the view that collaboration can offer solutions and benefits—it can. However, the "Closing the Gap" report demonstrated that that was not a good enough basis for the continuous intelligence and preventive work that is essential for good protective services. The common element of the types of crime that the right hon. Member for Haltemprice and Howden described is that in the modern 21st-century police service we must not only predict and prevent but recognise and react. Intelligence gathering and preparation are absolutely critical, and we need resources dedicated to proactively gathering intelligence and making links that deal with that in a variety of ways.

Many of the business cases submitted by forces and authorities state that, under the current structure, if their forces were to experience sustained demand on protective services, local policing would suffer. We need solutions for each area. I agree that it is not a one-size-fits-all model, which is why the regional picture that the right hon. Member for Haltemprice and Howden described is not correct. We look at each case and consider what to do in the light of the professional advice that we receive. We are going through options case by case. The first crucial hurdle that every option, whatever it is, has to clear is to demonstrate operational viability in terms of delivering protective services. I hope shortly to be in a position to make an announcement on those options identified as operationally viable, and we will then discuss with forces the best way to proceed.