Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Herbert of South Downs and Anne Marie Morris

Monday 27th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for Policing and Criminal Justice (Nick Herbert)]

The police should be focusing on police work, not paperwork. That is why, last month, the Government announced a package of new measures to cut red tape, saving up to 2.5 million police hours a year.

[Anne Marie Morris]

I thank the Minister for that response and I am sure that my constituents will welcome measures that will cut the time that our police officers have to spend on paperwork and administration. I wonder whether the Minister would kindly update the House on what steps are being taken to improve the accountability of the police.

[Nick Herbert]

We want to improve the accountability of the police and the whole criminal justice system to the public and we are proceeding with our plan to introduce directly elected police and crime commissioners to do that—those measures are currently under discussion in the Lords—and measures such as the introduction of street level crime mapping. The police.uk website has received more than 420 million hits since its launch.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Herbert of South Downs and Anne Marie Morris

Monday 1st November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Nick Herbert]

I welcome the hon. Gentleman to his position.

Olympic security funding is being prioritised in Home Office budgets, and counter-terrorist policing was subject to a much lower cut than the 20% cut for policing. We intend to ensure that priority continues to be given to counter-terrorist policing. We believe that significant savings can be made. Her Majesty’s inspectorate of constabulary found that only 11% of force strength, on average, was visible and available at any one time, because officers are spending too much time tied up in the red tape that the hon. Gentleman created when he was a Minister.

[Anne Marie Morris (Newton Abbot) (Con)]

What steps has my right hon. Friend taken to ensure that when the cuts come, they will impact on the back office rather than the front office? I have a particular concern in a rural constituency where front office is fairly thinly spread.

[Nick Herbert]

Chief constables agree with us that the front line should be the last thing that is cut, and under the spending settlement that we have announced, there is no need for the front line to be cut. They can make savings through better collaboration and efficiencies. That is what the inspectorate says. They can also make savings in relation to procurement, amounting to hundreds of millions of pounds. As a consequence, we think that the visible and available policing that the public value can be retained.