Police and Justice Bill

moved Amendment No. 82: "Page 3, line 31, at end insert-""““( ) In making an order under subsection (1), the Secretary of State shall have regard to the desirability of maintaining the discretion of chief officers of police to designate the powers of community support officers to the extent they deem.””" The noble Viscount said: Clause 5, as the Explanatory Notes tell us, inserts a new power into the list of powers in the 2002 Act that may be conferred on persons designated as community support officers. The Explanatory Notes go on to state: "““If designated with the power set out at new paragraph 4C, CSOs will have the power that constables already have under section 16 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 to deal with truants. This power would allow CSOs to remove young people of school age that they believe are absent from school without lawful authority from specified areas and to take them either to their school, or to a place which has been specified by the local authority"." The amendment in my name and that of my noble friend would insert a new subsection into Clause 5 to make certain that, "““the Secretary of State shall have regard to the desirability of maintaining the discretion of chief officers of police to designate the powers of community support officers to the extent they deem””." The amendment in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Dholakia, refers specifically to, "““the power to use reasonable force to detain or control a person””." The amendments to some degree overlap, the aim being to probe the nature and extent of the powers which the Secretary of Sate might want to introduce in standardising the powers and duties of CSOs under this clause. The Home Office’s consultation demonstrated that there was general agreement that some standardisation of powers is desirable. However, a range of organisations have expressed concern about whether too much standardisation is proposed. Indeed, the APA argues that the consultation that it undertook last year demonstrates that police authorities support only a minimum set of standard powers and maximum local flexibility. I commend CSOs for the work that they do. It is clear that they bring some reassurance to the public by their presence on the street and help provide local flexibility. Indeed, they can adopt a targeted approach to each area in which they work. I will discuss their important role with children in the next amendment. Organisations such as the APA, however, are worried not only that, by increasing the CSOs’ automatic powers, particularly the power of detention, the Bill will erode the cost differential of training for full officers and CSOs, but also that the latter will spend less time on the streets and more time behind desks completing paperwork. ACPO has made similar noises, stating that, "““the standardisation of powers for CSOs will bring some clarity to the public as to what CSOs are for. However, we need to guard against them being given powers that lead to abstraction from ""their major role in providing high-visibility contact with the public. More powers mean more training, equipment, and office time dealing with those powers and Chief Constables must retain discretion in how best to deploy them””." I remind your Lordships that the Home Affairs Select Committee commented that a reduction in the street presence of CSOs would be counterproductive. I hope that the Minister will explain to the Committee in full the powers that the Government wish to standardise and those that they do not, and to what degree standardisation is removing more discretion from chief constables. Perhaps I may use this opportunity briefly to discuss truancy. I know that some organisations such as the Police Federation welcome the extension of the power to deal with truants to CSOs—indeed, they highlight the enormity of the problem and the time it consumes. But do these powers really answer the question? The Children's Society has questioned the efficacy of truancy sweeps as a way to tackle non-attendance at school, highlighting that the National Foundation for Educational Research concluded that, while sweeps had raised awareness of the issue, it was, "““less certain of the long-term impact on individual pupil attendance””." Despite a plethora of initiatives, national rates of unauthorised absence have not changed in 10 years and they increased in 2004-05 to more than 0.8 per cent of available school days. I hope that the Minister will inform us what the Government are doing to re-examine their strategy for tackling truancy and to shift the balance away from enforcement measures in favour of more strategic initiatives that respond to children’s and young people’s reasons for not attending school. They should focus more on some of the good early-intervention initiatives which address family difficulties such as those seen in Kent and recognise that this is one of the more likely roots of the problem. If we can address the causes of truancy, we can help cut the amount of time our officers and CSOs need to spend addressing it. They can then focus on other areas that require more skills. I beg to move.