Asked by: Lord Condon (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of any change in the number of arrests made by police officers in England and Wales in recent years.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
There are a number of possible factors which may have contributed to the fall in the number of arrests since the year ending March 2008. Inspections carried out by HMICFRS in 2016, as part of their police effectiveness assessments, did not identify one single cause (PEEL report on police effectiveness).
One possible reason linked to the fall in the number of arrests is the increased use of voluntary attendance, where an individual attends voluntarily at a police station or at any other place where a constable is present without having been arrested for the purpose of assisting with an investigation. It is thought that the use of this practice has increased due to a more stringent application of the necessity test (which was introduced in 2012), where, for an arrest to be lawful, there must be reasonable grounds for believing that the arrest is necessary (PACE Code G).
There is also evidence of greater use of other outcomes, such as community resolutions, as part of efforts to reduce the number of young people entering custody. Other factors that may have had an impact on the fall in the number of arrests are discussed in the HMICFRS PEEL report 2016. See http://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmicfrs/wp-content/uploads/peel-police-effectiveness-2016.pdf
Asked by: Lord Condon (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the most recent rises in reported crime and the underlying trends relating to reported crime.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Police recorded crime figures for England and Wales are published quarterly by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Annual figures for the years ending June 2014 to June 2017 are included in Table 1 below.
Table 1: Police recorded crime, ONS, year ending June 2014 – year ending June 2017. Taken from ‘Crime in England and Wales: Bulletin Tables’, https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/crimeinenglandandwalesbulletintables
| Year Ending | June 2014 | June 2015 | June 2016 | June 2017 |
| Total police recorded crime in England and Wales (inc fraud) | 3,717,089 | 4,260,239 | 4,577,375 | 5,156,928 |
Overall police recorded crime (including fraud) increased by 13% in the year ending June 2017 compared with the previous year. The ONS points to improvements to recording practices by forces, expanded offence coverage, an increased willingness of victims to come forward and report certain crimes like sexual offences and domestic abuse to the police and genuine increases in some crime categories, especially in those that are well recorded, as important factors in explaining trends in police recorded crime.
Crimes traditionally measured by the independent Crime Survey for England and Wales are down by almost 40% since 2010 and by 70% since their peak in 1995.
The most recent national crime figures are published by the Office for National Statistic in ‘Crime in England and Wales: year ending June 2017’ (https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/crimeinenglandandwales/june2017).
Asked by: Lord Condon (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the proposal by Norfolk Police to dispense with all of their Police Community Support Officers.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
It is for the Chief Constable and the directly accountable Police and Crime Commissioner of each force area to take decisions on the size and composition of the workforce including community support officers in order to meet local needs and priorities.
Asked by: Lord Condon (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to encourage the provision and wearing of body cameras by operational police officers to improve police and public confidence in cases of disputed incidents.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Home Office fully supports the police exploiting technology to help cut crime wherever possible. Body worn video can be a powerful tool to help the police be more effective, efficient and accountable. The decision to procure and deploy it is an operational one for chief officers.
Asked by: Lord Condon (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government which police forces in areas with North Sea coastlines or English Channel coastlines from Norfolk south and west to Devon and Cornwall have marine or boat units capable of patrolling estuaries or inshore sea waters; and what is the maximum range in which those police forces' units are licensed to operate.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Home Office does not collect this information. Decisions on the local deployment of assets and resources, including marine units, are for individual chief constables working with their police and crime commissioner.
Asked by: Lord Condon (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many of the 10 most recently appointed Chief Constables in the UK were not internal candidates from the appointing police force, and over what period of time those appointments have taken place.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Three of the ten most recently appointed chief constables in England and Wales were not internal candidates from the appointing police force, although eight of the chief constables have served as a chief officer outside of the force.
These appointments have taken place over the period from June 2015 to March 2016.
Asked by: Lord Condon (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many independent candidates were successfully elected to the role of Police and Crime Commissioner in 2016, and how that figure compares to the number of independent candidates elected in 2012.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
All information pertaining to the candidates who stood in the 2016 Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) elections, including details of those elected, is available on the Government website: www.choosemypcc.org.uk.
In the 2016 PCC elections, 3 independent candidates were elected to the role. In the 2012 PCC elections, 12 independent candidates were elected to the role.
Asked by: Lord Condon (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many of the current Police and Crime Commissioners are standing for re-election in May.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Twenty seven of forty current police and crime commissioners (PCCs) for police force areas where ordinary PCC elections are taking place this May are standing for re-election.
This excludes Greater London, where the elected mayor exercises PCC functions in respect of the Metropolitan Police, and Greater Manchester, where the ordinary PCC election has been cancelled to pave the way for the transfer of PCC functions to an elected mayor in May 2017, with the term of the current PCC extended to that point.
Asked by: Lord Condon (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to prevent children being detained in police cells overnight because no suitable local authority accommodation is available.
Answered by Lord Bates
The Government is committed to ensuring that young people are protected and treated appropriately while in police custody. This is why in January last year, the Home Secretary commissioned a multi-agency Working Group on Section 38(6) of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, which concerns the transfer of children from police custody to local authority care when charged and denied bail. The purpose of the group is to better understand the problems with the operation of the law and to develop solutions to enable forces and local authorities to meet their respective statutory responsibilities. The group is currently finalising a package of measures and will present these to the Home Secretary once the work is complete.
Asked by: Lord Condon (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress has been made regarding Chief Constable David Shaw’s Use of Force Data Review.
Answered by Lord Bates
Further to the Noble Lord's previous question HL2559, the Home Secretary has received the conclusions of Chief Constable David Shaw's Use of Force Review and will report on its recommendations shortly.