Police and Justice Bill

I am delighted that the hon. Gentleman makes the point about police numbers, because I was going to say later that police numbers in north Wales have increased from 512 in 1996, under the last Conservative Government, to 836 under this Labour Government, in addition to the community support officers and neighbourhood wardens who have been introduced to the community policing team by the Government. Not only is there resistance to community support officers from political opponents, but the chief constable of north Wales was resistant to them, and initially did not apply for the Home Office funding available to enable those community support officers to be introduced. I am pleased to say that the chief constable has now accepted that he was wrong, and we are seeing the widespread introduction of community support officers across north Wales. The development of community policing in north Wales has been very successful indeed. It has led to higher detection rates and less crime. For that reason, I have been working extremely hard to ensure the survival, maintenance and improvement of neighbourhood and community policing in north Wales.