Baroness Harris of Richmond: My Lords, it is with timidity and some trepidation that I rise to address your Lordships' House for the first time in a debate which has, predictably, been marked by outstanding contributions. The difficult task that I have is made bearable only by the knowledge that every noble Lord present has faced the same ordeal, and all have clearly survived that! I too have been overwhelmed by the...
Baroness Harris of Richmond: My Lords, perhaps at this stage I may--
Baroness Harris of Richmond: My Lords, first, I apologise to the House for not observing the conventions. I hope that my intervention will be overlooked due to my "newness". I offer my apologies. The announcement will be perplexing for police authorities. We have already indicated that we need £100 million more to run the Police Service than we received last year. That is just to stand still. We have inescapable...
Baroness Harris of Richmond: My Lords, I shall take a slightly different tack and, I hope, offer some helpful solutions to your Lordships other than just sending people to prison. The Question before us this evening is whether this Government's penal policy differs from that of the previous government. I feel I am pretty safe from these Benches in assuring noble Lords that neither this Government nor the previous one...
Baroness Harris of Richmond: I wish to refer to Amendment No. 282, which concerns relevant authorities. I ask the Minister a simple question: what consideration have the Government given to the impact of those proposals on police authorities? I chair a police authority and I am a deputy chair of the Association of Police Authorities, so I have something of a vested interest in her answer. I assure the Committee that all...
Baroness Harris of Richmond: My Lords, I chair a police authority. Can the Minister confirm that one of the main reasons why we do not have sufficient money with which to finance more police officers is the great cost of police pensions? Can he tell us when the Government will make the long-awaited announcement on what we shall do about police pay and pensions?
Baroness Harris of Richmond: My Lords, before I begin, I should make your Lordships aware of my interest in policing matters. I chair a police authority and am a member of the Association of Police Authorities, as well as being a member of the National Crime Squad Service Authority, the Police Advisory Board and the Police Negotiating Board. When we look at the question of whether special constables should be paid, we...
Baroness Harris of Richmond: My Lords, the noble Lord has already undertaken to provide information regarding the cost of yesterday's demonstrations, but can he confirm that all police leave in London was cancelled to enable the force to police the crowds? Will he further undertake to publish for the people of London the cost to them of just the policing element because the people of London will lose out in that respect...
Baroness Harris of Richmond: My Lords, I chair a police authority in a huge rural area--North Yorkshire--and I am also a deputy chair of the Association of Police Authorities, so I hope that your Lordships will accept my credentials for speaking on rural policing issues today. I should first like to address the problems of sparsity. The noble Lord, Lord Kimball, has already referred to this matter, but I want to tell...
Baroness Harris of Richmond: My Lords, this is the first time I have been deeply involved in a Bill in your Lordships' House. I cannot help thinking I should have picked a less technically challenging one, as noble Lords will no doubt soon find out. However, I shall do my best, and explain that my interest which stems from my being a member of the National Crime Squad Service Authority--whose officers, of course, will be...
Baroness Harris of Richmond: So was I.
Baroness Harris of Richmond: At last I feel the urge to join in. I am delighted that my noble friends Lord McNally and Lord Phillips of Sudbury have been leading on this extremely complex Bill. I regret that I have not been able to join in the debates that have been held since Second Reading. That has not been entirely helped by the Government's change of dates for the Committee stage. However, I can assure noble Lords...
Baroness Harris of Richmond: asked Her Majesty's Government: Whether any Minister of the Crown has been in contact with the Press Complaints Commission following the publication in the News of the World of a list of child sex offenders.
Baroness Harris of Richmond: My Lords, I thank the Minister for that reply. However, is he aware of the statement by the Association of Chief Police Officers, whose spokesman on these matters is the Chief Constable of Gloucestershire, Tony Butler, who said: "The News of the World's action in publishing a list of alleged sex offenders amounts to irresponsible journalism ... Past evidence suggests that the publication of...
Baroness Harris of Richmond: My Lords, I am delighted to be able to address your Lordships' House tonight on a subject in which I have a keen and very practical interest. As many noble Lords know, I am chairman of the North Yorkshire Police Authority and deputy chairman of the Association of Police Authorities, the body that represents all police authorities in England and Wales as well as the current Police Authority...
Baroness Harris of Richmond: My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for giving way. The noble Lord is possibly not aware that the City of York, which has a population of about 100,000 people, is divided into four commands, as it were. That system works effectively. The noble Lord may like to consider that point before he comments further.
Baroness Harris of Richmond: I welcome and support the amendment. I again remind the Committee of my credentials. I am chairman of a police authority, albeit an English one. I am also deputy chairman of the National Association of Police Authorities which includes the present Police Authority for Northern Ireland. It is our great hope that the future Northern Ireland police board will also be among its members. I...
Baroness Harris of Richmond: If the noble Lord will forgive me, I do not want to enter into the argument about the 50:50 figure at this point. I simply support the noble and learned Lord's amendment.
Baroness Harris of Richmond: moved Amendment No. 40: Page 4, line 18, after ("may") insert (", for the purpose of its functions,").
Baroness Harris of Richmond: In moving Amendment No. 40, I shall speak also to Amendments Nos. 41 to 45 in this group. It is vital to protect the operational independence of the chief constable in the decisions he makes. But it is clear in any society that the needs of the chief constable must be balanced with those of the community he serves. That is nowhere more apparent than in Northern Ireland for the type of...