Knife Crime: Stop and Search

Debate between Lord Hanson of Flint and Lord Bailey of Paddington

Tuesday 1st April 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

My noble friend raises an important point. The Home Office is working with industry partners, as it has been for a while, to develop the technology to detect from a distance knives concealed on the person. There are trials in place, and phase 1 is expected to be delivered by the end of May this year, resulting in a prototype system that could be used to do exactly what my noble friend says. Chief constables will have to decide on the use of that downstream, but I hope that will be of help to my noble friend. As part of the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s Police Race Action Plan, it is looking again at the very point he mentioned—the disproportionate stopping of people from black and minority ethnic communities.

[Lord Bailey of Paddington (Con)]

My Lords, given that the most serious application of disproportionality is the number of young black men, in particular, who are murdered, what work are the Government doing to ensure that police officers have the confidence to carry out appropriate stop and search?

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

Stop and search remains a valuable tool. Last year, 14% of stop and searches resulted in an arrest and some 16,000 knives and firearms were found as a result of stop and search, so it is important. However, it is also important that it be done proportionally and that it has the confidence of the whole community. The Police Race Action Plan is looking at committing chief constables to identifying and addressing the disproportionality issues and why they are happening, and at giving proper training and support to police forces to ensure that they deal with stop and search in an effective and proportionate way.

Police Officers: Recruitment

Debate between Lord Hanson of Flint and Lord Bailey of Paddington

Tuesday 10th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

My noble friend makes some important points. The police landscape has changed dramatically since 1997, in that we now have police and crime commissioners, who have a responsibility for setting the precept and setting budget priorities in their areas. That is a matter for them, but the Government are clear that, on top of that—over and above what the police and crime commissioners have scope for—we will look at how we can encourage the greater use of those 13,000 officers. Again, those matters will be reflected on as part of the police and crime settlement that will be announced in due course, because the Government are committed to 13,000 officers and they will be judged on that. Therefore, they need to have some levers to make sure that those 13,000 officers are in place.

[Lord Bailey of Paddington (Con)]

My Lords, given that we have seen a steady rise in crime over the last eight years under a Labour mayor, we are the only part of the country—the Met, that is—that did not hit its recruitment target. What support will the noble Lord give the Mayor of London to make sure he hits that target when he issues him with extra police officers that he will have to find? He did not find any last time, so where are they hiding this time?

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

If I recall, the Mayor of London found the confidence of the people of London—not everybody did in that election. The Mayor of London had the confidence of the people of London, and he had the resources from previous Governments. It ill behoves the noble Lord to talk about underfunding in London over the past eight years when he stood as the candidate in that election and when his party was responsible for that underfunding. Let us look at where we are now: from 4 July, this Government are committed to increasing police numbers and increasing neighbourhood police officers by 13,000, and they have put £100 million into resources and £500 million into overall policing. Next week, we will make a police statement announcement for London and elsewhere. Let us be judged on that.

Police: Junior Cadet Schemes

Debate between Lord Hanson of Flint and Lord Bailey of Paddington

Monday 11th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bailey of Paddington]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to support junior police cadet schemes.

[The Minister of State, Home Office (Lord Hanson of Flint) (Lab)]

The Government recognise the value of volunteer police cadet programmes and the role they play in supporting young people and their communities. The annual Lord Ferrers Awards ceremony is organised by the Home Office to recognise the efforts of volunteer police cadets and other volunteers for their local communities. However, the management of police forces’ volunteer police cadet programme schemes is the responsibility of chief constables and police and crime commissioners.

[Lord Bailey of Paddington (Con)]

Given that the relationship between young people and the Met police is at such a low ebb and that police cadets have a positive impact on community relations and young people’s safety, what assurances can the Minister give the House that funding police cadets remains a priority for the Government?

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

As I just mentioned, police cadet funding is the responsibility of the police and crime commissioner and chief constable in each local area. There is no direct funding from this Government, nor was there from the previous Government over the last 14 years. However, we take very seriously the need to support police cadets; we have a safer streets mission proposing a Young Futures programme to help establish local prevention partnerships, with local interventions to help young people who might be brought into violence get involved in preventive activity. The noble Lord raises an extremely important point.