Police and Justice Bill

I will do so in a moment. The amendment tabled by the right hon. Member for Haltemprice and Howden contains a number of interesting features, which also compel me to urge the House to reject it. First, it would require a referendum even when police authorities concerned have volunteered to merge. As you know, Mr. Speaker, I am a keen reader of the Yorkshire Post, and I therefore read with interest the article by Simon McGee on 26 April. I noticed that the North Yorkshire police authority, for example, had voted in favour of a merger. I understand that the right hon. Member for Witney (Mr. Cameron), who is not in his place, supported that decision, and said that,"““if individual police forces and individual councillors want to campaign for amalgamations they’re absolutely free to.””" He continued:"““That’s actually what devolution should be all about.””" The effect of the amendment, however, would be to deny that. Secondly, the amendment requires that the Home Secretary, affected police authorities and the Electoral Commission must agree the wording, which leaves open the question of what would happen if they could not agree. Finally, the amendment requires majority votes in each of the affected areas, which is an odd form of democracy, because if two out of three areas said yes, but a smaller one, perhaps with the minority of the population, said no, it would effectively be able to exercise a veto.