Police and Justice Bill

The Minister will not be at all surprised to hear that I support the amendment tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Henig. We support the amendment because we want to take out a subsection which once again allows the Secretary of State wide discretion to specify police authorities’ powers. Such provision is completely unnecessary, inappropriate and undemocratic. It does not give police authorities parity with other local authorities which already have powers of delegation without central powers being reserved in this way. This is about delegating powers—probably to BCU level in order that decisions can be taken at the appropriate level; for example, projects involving community participation or CDRP projects. These are local issues and need to be dealt with locally, so that delegation is actually beneficial.