Police: Reduction in Numbers

Debate between Lord Henley and Lord Hamilton of Epsom

Wednesday 23rd May 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Henley]

The noble Lord is absolutely correct, but it is still a matter of making sure that the right people are doing the right thing at the right time. That is why I am making it clear that it is not simply a question of the number of police officers we have at any time but of their deployment by the chief constable of any given constabulary.

[Lord Hamilton of Epsom]

My Lords, as it is in everybody’s interest that we should get value for money from our police service, is it not regrettable that the Surrey police have dropped their idea to privatise a large amount of their services?

[Lord Henley]

My Lords, at this stage I do not want to discuss any individual constabulary, but certainly I agree with my noble friend that we want to make sure that we get value for money. I hope that all police forces look at cheaper options for carrying out certain of their tasks which do not involve constables. As my noble friend says, that might imply that they privatise some of those activities.

Phone Hacking

Debate between Lord Henley and Lord Hamilton of Epsom

Wednesday 18th January 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Henley]

Operation Weeting, which is one of the police investigations into the matter, is ongoing. As I made clear, there have been 17 arrests so far. There might be more in due course.

[Lord Hamilton of Epsom]

Is my noble friend not concerned that the source of these telephone numbers in the beginning may have been the police themselves, who sold the numbers to the press?

[Lord Henley]

My Lords, that obviously is a concern and is one of the matters that was considered in the report from Dame Elizabeth Filkin, which was published on 4 January this year. We expect the police service as a whole to study the recommendations of that report, and various other reports including that from HMIC, and draw the appropriate conclusions.

Police: Officer Numbers

Debate between Lord Henley and Lord Hamilton of Epsom

Tuesday 13th December 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Henley]

I have just quoted the figures relating to the period that I cited in the original Answer, which showed that recorded crime is going down.

[Lord Hamilton of Epsom]

What progress is my noble friend making with cutting down on the amount of bureaucracy that the police have to get involved in—form filling and so forth—rather than getting out on the streets and deterring crime?