Police and Justice Bill

I beg to move, That the Bill be now read the Third time. In concluding our debates on the measures before us, I want to put on the record my gratitude, and that of my Front-Bench colleagues, for the extraordinary contributions made by my right hon. Friends the Member for Norwich, South (Mr. Clarke) and the Minister without Portfolio, and my hon. Friend the Member for Wythenshawe and Sale, East (Paul Goggins), now Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. They advanced not only this Bill but an entire agenda of security, peace and safety that is already making a substantive difference to the communities we serve. The Bill strengthens the spine of policing in this country in a new century. It contains measures that deal with international justice, national support, force effectiveness and command unit power, and which provide a new step up for neighbourhood policing. Yesterday, in the space of one afternoon, I had the privilege of seeing how policing is changing across that entire domain. At the commendation ceremony led by the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, the Home Secretary and I heard at first hand of the courage and devotion of officers in tackling an international threat that mobilised an entire country in response; that response was delivered through the force of the Metropolitan police. As I left that ceremony in the afternoon, I was lucky enough to meet Chief Superintendent Mark Ricketts, the borough commander of Barnet, and his neighbourhood officers, who, using the new investment in neighbourhood policing and new neighbourhood policing methods, in which we have put such trust and such investment, have cut crime in one ward by 17 per cent. in a year. What unites these stories is the professionalism, innovation, dedication to duty and passion to change our community that lives and breathes in every serving officer in today’s police. This Bill gives strength to those men and women and the teams they serve in, at every level and in every area of their operations. The provisions in the Bill will, at one end of the spectrum, help combat the antisocial behaviour that is the scourge of many neighbourhoods and, at the other end, enhance international co-operation in the battle against 21st century crimes such as computer hacking. Internationally, crime is changing. A new alliance between failed states and criminality will foster new threats to us. We must prepare and respond. The provisions of the Bill do not touch on arrangements between the US and the UK, but they do make important improvements to our extradition regime, which should, I believe, be welcomed by both sides of the House. Much of the debate so far has been characterised, as we saw again this afternoon, by myths and misunderstandings about the arrangements, compounded by some currently high-profile, but individual cases. As ever, we are ready to have a rational debate on these issues, but it needs to be on the basis of the facts, not on spurious assertions. Nationally, there is much more we must and will do to support police effectiveness. Key to the future will be the establishment of the National Policing Improvement Agency, which will drive improvements in policing. The agency will be police ““owned”” and led. The creation of the NPIA will deliver a rationalised and more dynamic national landscape. It will give the police service the capability to deliver the mission-critical priorities set out in the annual national community safety plan, including the rollout of neighbourhood policing and full implementation of the recommendations of the Bichard inquiry. Regionally, there are measures that we must take if we are to respond to the findings of Her Majesty’s inspector of constabulary that too few forces have the resilience to tackle terrorism and organised crime. We cannot and will not fail to act in the light of those conclusions. At times, the debate about police reform has overshadowed many of the proposals in the Bill. Of course, this Bill does not provide for the amalgamation of forces—for that we are following procedures set down by a previous Administration in the Police Act 1996. The amendments to schedule 2 adopted today, however, will help to ensure that strategic authorities can conduct their business effectively and that strategic forces have sufficient command resilience. Locally, too, this Bill takes our agenda forward. The Bill will underpin much stronger partnerships in networks that make a difference, including networks with local communities. The accountability framework for police forces and their community safety partners will be rendered more robust and more responsive to the voice of the citizen. We recognise that accountability is essential to the future effectiveness of the police. The Bill therefore seeks to strengthen the role of police authorities, first by ensuring that their members have the skills and experience necessary to undertake the challenging role that they perform and, second, by conferring on authorities an express duty to hold the chief officer to account. The Bill will also strengthen the effectiveness of crime and disorder reduction partnerships, and their equivalent partnerships in Wales, in addressing local community safety priorities, and it will ensure that the citizen can raise areas of concern through the community call for action. Finally, these changes frame the important stage for so many of us, which is the return of neighbourhood policing. These reforms are being implemented against the backdrop of our commitment to roll out neighbourhood policing in every community by April 2007. The embedding of neighbourhood policing teams will ensure that policing continues to be delivered locally, by officers and police staff working in local communities and responding to their community safety priorities. The Bill will ensure that the police and the wider policing family have the powers they need to tackle crime and antisocial behaviour effectively. At neighbourhood level, community support officers will have a standard set of powers so that they can play their full part in neighbourhood policing. Safer communities cannot be achieved by the Government, or the police service, alone. Ultimately, people will feel safe and secure only when everyone behaves in a respectful way. That is why the drive behind the respect campaign is so important, and I am therefore very pleased that the Bill takes forward some of the key measures in the respect action plan. I am very glad that many of the Bill’s provisions, such as the new truancy power for CSOs, the community call for action and the extension of parenting contracts and orders, have been broadly welcomed. Finally, let me underline that, by making these changes, we wish to strengthen the tripartite relationship that so distinguishes the British service. It has always been the responsibility of Government to set the overall framework and the strategic priorities for policing. That is the Home Secretary’s traditional role in the tripartite relationship. We seek to make the Government as effective a partner as possible in that relationship in future, but we want all partners in the tripartite relationship to be equipped to fulfil their role in meeting the challenge of delivering the high-quality policing that the public rightly expect and deserve. I very much welcome the good-natured contributions made by the hon. Members for Arundel and South Downs (Nick Herbert) and for Hornsey and Wood Green (Lynne Featherstone). I know that the Minister without Portfolio would want to associate herself with those sentiments. We have improved the Bill during our deliberations, and I have no hesitation in commending it to the House and wishing it a speedy passage in another place.