Police and Justice Bill

I shall not because we have debated the matter at length. It is right to add accountability to the mix and that is precisely why the measure does so much to strengthen the basic command units by making them coterminous with local authorities and giving police authorities the right to devolve functions and powers to members of local partnerships. The Bill enshrines the community call for action and gives new powers to local police forces. My hon. Friend the Member for Wrexham was right to say that genuine affinity and real relationships are built with local forces and local officers. That is why 18,000 more police community support officers will be recruited in the months and years to come. The second point is accountability for change. I am intrigued by the late conversion to referendums. I heard many of the arguments against and some of scepticism about them in the past. My political history is not especially strong, but I cannot remember Conservative calls for a referendum when the Greater London council was abolished. None the less, the conversion to referendums is a curious and interesting feature of modern political life. We elected the House for a purpose and it would be wrong to abrogate responsibility for decisions such as the one we are discussing. Any proposal that the Home Secretary makes is subject to affirmative resolution, not only in this House but in another place. The hon. Member for Arundel and South Downs made one or two more points that I want to tackle. I am sorry that he has not received answers to the questions that he put to the Home Office. I shall personally try to ensure that they are forthcoming. The hon. Gentleman alluded to the ability to appoint additional deputy chief constables. We do not believe that that should be a free-for-all, which is why we seek the Home Secretary’s sanction should that development occur. He also mentioned the national policing board. We are considering the case for such a non-statutory national board, which would need to reflect the tripartite nature of current arrangements. The hon. Member for Cheltenham (Martin Horwood), who is not in his place, mentioned the flexibility that we propose for the Home Secretary. I emphasise that it is devoted to one thing—securing the improvement of policing in this country. I hope that he would sign up to that agenda. The hon. Members for Stratford-on-Avon and for Peterborough mentioned restructuring costs. We said that we will meet 100 per cent. of the net costs of restructuring. That commitment covers capital and resources. I commend the new clause to the House. Question put and agreed to. Clause read a Second time, and added to the Bill."‘(1) The Registrar General for England and Wales or the Registrar General for Northern Ireland may supply information contained in any register of deaths kept by him—""for use in the prevention, detection, investigation or prosecution of offences.""(2) The power to make an order under subsection (1)(d) is exercisable—""(3) A Registrar General may charge a reasonable fee in respect of the cost of supplying information under this section.""(4) The supply of information in the exercise of the power conferred by subsection (1) may be made subject to conditions, including in particular conditions as to—""(5) This section does not limit the circumstances in which information may be supplied apart from this section.""(6) In this section ““special police force”” means—" Brought up, and read the First time.