Police and Justice Bill

It is a great honour and a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Stockton, North (Frank Cook). He made a second powerful speech, and spoke extremely well when he landed his debate in Westminster Hall. I endorse virtually everything that he has said today. He may have been out of the Chamber when I intervened on the matter of Scotland, but the situation is rather worse than the hon. Gentleman thinks. A report in Scotland on Sunday suggested that party insiders are saying that the enormous Strathclyde police force may be broken up because, according to certain members of the Labour party, it is not close enough to the community. We are subject to the extraordinary constitutional outrage of a Home Secretary from Scotland, who has no remit whatsoever for the Strathclyde police force, dictating to us—in the north-east in the hon. Gentleman’s case, or to the West Mercia force in mine—and forcing a massively unpopular amalgamation when his own party is doing exactly the opposite, back in his own home patch. On those grounds alone, this process is illegitimate and the Government should think again. The process is illegitimate also, as my hon. Friend the Member for Stratford-on-Avon (Mr. Maples) has said, because of the outrageous rush with which it has been conducted. On 16 September, Her Majesty’s inspectorate of constabulary published the report entitled ““Closing the Gap””, which referred to the utterly arbitrary figure of 4,000 police officers. My parliamentary neighbour, the hon. Member for Wrexham (Ian Lucas), was talking about resources. The issue is not all about resources, but some of us are caught financially. I am not making a call for more money, but it should be noted that West Mercia constabulary receives £94.38 per head from central Government while North Wales police receives £116. If West Mercia received the same as North Wales, our force would be well over 4,000 strong. If that were so, I would probably not be speaking in this debate, because there would not be an issue to discuss. As we have only 2,380 officers, we are, however, caught by the absurd black-and-white figure of 4,000, for which there is no basis. The West Mercia force has a splendid chief constable in Paul West. As the hon. Member for Stockton, North said, he was given a hard time last night on television, but really stood up for himself. There is also a strong police authority under Paul Deneen. The force polices a huge area—Shropshire, Worcestershire and Herefordshire. Despite the low rate of funding per head from central Government, when the HMIC base-line assessment and the police standards unit assessment of performance is taken into account, which includes level 2 performance—it must be the most comprehensive independent assessment of police forces, which took place in the autumn—West Mercia was rated as the No. 1 police force in the country. In terms of geographical area, that force is responsible for the fourth largest in the country. Yet we are to be rushed headlong, helter-skelter, into an amalgamation with Warwickshire, Staffordshire and the West Midlands force. A document was issued on 16 September, and the Home Secretary wrote to the police authority on 22 September saying, in effect, ““You have got to be amalgamated and 4,000 is the limit.”” I have been involved in this matter and meetings took place down here. For instance, I got the chief constable and the chairman to meet the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary, the hon. Member for Slough (Fiona Mactaggart). Our chief constable was pretty straight with the hon. Lady and told her that it was nothing short of scandalous to reconfigure British policing in a few weeks. He said to her, directly:"““In my professional judgment as a Chief of a high-performing force””—" he was being modest because it is the highest-performing force—"““in a regional structure it would be extremely difficult to give the same level of performance as at present in West Mercia.””" To touch on my political neighbour’s comments on local policing, the chief constable said:"““BCU commanders will have much less influence. The proposal is untested and the regional model is not supported by the people of West Mercia. The way it is being imposed is outrageous; there is scant regard for professional advice on the ground.””" Most importantly, the chief constable said:"““Level 2 could be delivered by collaboration and joint working.””" As an example with regard to level 2, West Mercia officers are not only helping the West Midlands force after the incident at Lozells last year but helping the Met following the bombings last year. West Mercia officers are also in the Balkans helping authorities there. There must be collaboration across forces and we support that, but that does not mean subordination and a complete loss of the relationship between the smaller local force and the people. In the Westminster Hall debate—