Crime and Courts Bill [HL]

Lord Wasserman Excerpts

Monday 28th May 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wasserman]

My Lords, I very much welcome this Bill, particularly Part 1 establishing a national crime agency, and I shall confine my remarks to this part. I take very seriously the threats that this new agency is being established to tackle: serious and organised crime, economic crime, child exploitation and cybercrime. I also believe that the policing of our borders could do with some strengthening. These threats cannot be tackled effectively by local forces on their own, by ad hoc arrangements between forces set up by groups of chief constables acting collectively, or by ACPO in response to particular events or pieces of intelligence. For this reason, I regard this new agency not as a desirable feature of our policing landscape but as a necessary one. I believe that there is degree of urgency to get the NCA established. So, while I recognise the need for careful scrutiny of this Bill, I hope that it will not be long delayed in this House or in another place and that the NCA can open for business relatively quickly.

When I returned to this country in 2008, having spent the best part of 12 years working on policing matters in the United States, I was amazed to discover that, during this period, our policing arrangements had taken a very odd turn. I found that local policing—that is, policing aimed at tackling local crime and anti-social behaviour—was being directed mainly by officials and Ministers in Whitehall, and occasionally by the Prime Minister himself.

National policing, on the other hand—that is, policing aimed at serious and organised crime and other threats that transcend force boundaries—was being directed not by the Home Office but on an arm's-length basis by an independent agency. This agency was responsible to a board chaired by a former civil servant, who had no crime-fighting experience, and included a number of distinguished and, no doubt, very able members, none of whom had ever walked a beat or felt a collar. To me, this made no sense at all either in terms of effectiveness or democratic accountability. That is why I welcomed the changes to our local policing arrangements introduced by the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 and why I welcome the Bill that we are debating today. The Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act transferred responsibility for local policing from the Home Office in Whitehall to local communities, where it belongs. It did this by making local chief constables and their forces directly accountable to individuals who live locally—local chief constables who have been chosen democratically by their fellow residents through the ballot box.

This Bill tackles the other aspect of the mismatch in our policing arrangements that I mentioned a moment ago. It puts responsibility for national policing where it belongs, with a Secretary of State accountable to Parliament. It is he or she, not an independent board, who will appoint the director-general as the operational head of the NCA and who will decide on the agency's functions and strategic priorities. This Bill provides for these priorities to be set in consultation with “strategic partners”, but they will ultimately be the responsibility of the Home Secretary. For me, this is the heart of Part I of this Bill and is why I welcome it. While I recognise that there are details to be considered, and the noble Baroness, Lady Smith of Basildon, has already put us on notice that we will debate them in detail, I still think that there is a fundamental principle there, and I welcome that principle.

Fighting serious and organised crime, economic crime and other national threats that face us is not a job for enthusiastic amateurs. It requires a specialist organisation established, equipped, staffed and managed for this purpose. It also calls for leadership of a high order, leadership that can command the respect of the whole policing community because it is based on a record of successful crime fighting. Keith Bristow has demonstrated such leadership, having served as a chief constable and as chair of the APCO crime business area. Like the noble Lord, Lord Condon, I welcome his appointment as the first head of the agency, and I particularly welcome the fact that he is already at work in the Home Office playing a major role in setting it up.

I would, however, like to put on record one concern I have about the role of the head of the NCA. While I strongly endorse the view of my right honourable friend the Home Secretary that the head of the agency should be a successful crime fighter and that he or she should be given operational independence to get on with the job, I believe it is essential that this operational independence should not—I repeat, not—be interpreted by the head of the agency as the freedom to spend taxpayers’ money as he or she thinks fit, regardless of any consideration for value for money. That is why I very much welcome the provision in the Bill for the agency to be subject to inspection by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary with a view to reporting on its effectiveness and efficiency.

Finally, I return to what I said earlier about our local, as opposed to our national, policing arrangements. In less than six months, on 15 November, the electorate across England and Wales—except, of course, in London—will have the opportunity to choose their police and crime commissioners. These elections represent the very first time that the electorate will be able to express their views, through the ballot box, about the kind of policing they want for their communities. These elections represent an enormously important extension of democratic accountability, and I very much hope that members of your Lordships’ House will play an active role in encouraging the electorate to take advantage of this historic opportunity.