Police and Justice Bill

Two questions have arisen as a result of the Minister’s response. First, with regard to the laudable objective of not having too many bodies doing the same job, does the Minister accept that if we trust police authorities to know their patch and its needs, we should trust them to decide what functions should be carried out by an area body that they nominate? Would it not be strange if they wanted to take over the functions of partnerships that are working well? Furthermore, is the Minister saying that the Government do not want the area organisations that are to be created in this way, to which functions are to be delegated, to cross over with other bodies’ functions or to cover the same geographical area as those bodies? Are the limits that the Secretary of State will be able to control functional or geographic? The Minister said that one does not want things to go wrong locally and that this power would be a matter of last resort. In the best of all possible worlds, organisations can set off on their own course, and it is difficult to rein them back, but how quick is quick? What do the Government see as a quick response to put things right if this is to be a power of last resort? Are police authorities to be given the Wayne Rooney red card immediately or will they be given time in which to redraw their plans before the Secretary of State imposes his will upon them? I appreciate that that will be part of guidance, but we need to have a flavour of what the Government intend because the Secretary of State is giving himself direct power over police authorities.