Police and Justice Bill

May I try to make progress in dealing with hon. Members’ contributions? Otherwise we will all be here until 10 pm. The hon. Member for Hornsey and Wood Green (Lynne Featherstone) supported some parts of the Bill, but was concerned about the community call for action. I hope that she is reassured that it aims to make councils, particularly Liberal Democrat ones, take action on certain issues. I was disappointed that she did not offer any positive proposals to try to address those issues, but in Committee she may provide more details. She also expressed concern about parenting orders, but I have dealt with the question of registered social landlords. I am delighted that my hon. Friend the Member for Bridgend welcomed the coterminosity between basic command units and local authorities, which is important in tackling antisocial behaviour. I urge all hon. Members not to forget that more half of all antisocial behaviour orders are served on adults, so it is not simply young people who are involved in antisocial behaviour. Time and time again, I say that 95 per cent. of our young people are good and decent individuals who contribute to their communities and do a fantastic job. We are talking about a small minority, many of whom are adults, who simply do not abide by the rules. My hon. Friend raised the important issue of facilities for young people, as did several Opposition Members. The first chapter of the respect action plan talks about unlocking the positive potential of our young people. The plan highlights a significant investment by the Department for Education and Skills in youth facilities. About £0.5 million for the average local authority was announced in the Chancellor’s pre-Budget report, particularly so that young people themselves can be involved in shaping and designing facilities, whether an internet café or a skateboard park. Even more significantly, £100 million of public funding will be used to back the Russell commission’s proposals to enable 1 million extra young people to become involved in a range of exciting volunteering opportunities. There will be short-term and long-term opportunities. Some will be full-time and others part-time, and they will give young people a chance to do the things that, in some cases, only better-off young people have had the opportunity to do. Youngsters from disadvantaged communities will have the chance to undertake if not a gap year, a gap three months or a gap six months, which will help to widen their horizons. There will therefore be a huge amount of extra help in the respect plan to give young people more places to go and better things to do. We want to make sure that we involve people in more constructive activities to reduce crime and antisocial behaviour on our streets. I hope that my hon. Friend is encouraged by those proposals, but we need to make sure that Conservative local authorities take them seriously and involve young people in drawing up those proposals. The hon. Member for North Essex (Mr. Jenkin) was off the mark when he said that the Bill was about centralisation and talked about the powers of intervention. A few years ago in the police service there was not even a framework for performance. Police forces will admit that over the past few years there has been a huge transformation, with the introduction of the policing performance assessment framework, which I am sure the hon. Gentleman’s local force will tell him about. If he thinks that localism means hands off and a free-for-all, and allowing high crime areas not to improve as fast as low crime areas, he is not doing his constituents a service. Localism or devolution is possible, but it must be balanced by proper standards. Among the police forces that the police standards unit have engaged with, in underperforming forces crime has fallen at twice the rate that it has in forces with which the unit has not engaged. That shows that intervention can work to drive up performance and reduce crime. Without such intervention we would not have seen the massive falls in burglary, vehicle crime and robbery over the past few years, for which all our constituents are grateful. The hon. Gentleman must get the balance right between giving people autonomy and allowing a free-for-all which leads to a postcode lottery in crime. I am so disappointed that the hon. Member for Henley (Mr. Johnson) is not in his place now. He has come and he has gone. Perhaps that will be his epitaph. He made an amusing reference to his constituent having been hoovered across the Atlantic—I am not sure whether he was referring to J. Edgar in those terms. He raised concerns about the Extradition Act 2003, and serious concerns have been expressed by several hon. Members about extradition. Clearly, the Bill does not deal with the different evidential tests in the UK and in the United States of America, but I acknowledge the concern about the failure of the US to endorse the treaty. I can assure hon. Members that we are constantly pressing for the matter to be properly considered. I am sure it will be raised in Committee and that Members will want to make their points. The difference between the tests—that is, in terms of probable cause or information—is a product of the US Bill of Rights, which clearly cannot be amended. We have probably got the best balance that we can get in the treaty, but I understand hon. Members’ genuine concerns about making sure that it is endorsed, and we will continue to press for that. I am delighted that the hon. Member for Bexleyheath and Crayford (Mr. Evennett) wants to help to build a culture of respect in the community. I am sure that he will support his police and local authority in doing that. He also supports community support officers. I can tell him that there will be 18,000 more CSOs over the next couple of years, in addition to the present 6,000 officers, and the community call for action will be a practical power to make sure that a light is shone on problems that may have persisted for months if not years, so that we can get things done. If neighbourhood policing works as we want it to, there will be less and less need to use the community call for action, because local people will genuinely be involved in getting things done. In an excellent contribution, my hon. Friend the Member for Gateshead, East and Washington, West (Mrs. Hodgson) welcomed the powers for CSOs, especially in connection with truancy. She knows that children who are not in school are far more likely to be involved in crime and antisocial behaviour. She also raised issues concerning the ability of police officers to monitor football banning orders and to have access to people travelling to football matches. I undertake to consider my hon. Friend’s proposals extremely carefully. I have no doubt that they will be raised in Committee. She made some telling points, which I know were well informed by her local Police Federation representative, with whom she is in close touch. She also supported the proposals for the extra search powers at airports, and I am grateful for that. As usual, she is practical and in touch with her community, and makes an excellent contribution. The hon. Member for The Wrekin (Mark Pritchard)—