Police: Neighbourhood Policing

Baroness Stowell of Beeston Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd July 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Basildon]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the finding by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary that neighbourhood policing is at risk of being eroded by budget cuts.

[Baroness Stowell of Beeston]

My Lords, the Government welcome HMIC’s report, which finds that police forces are rising to the challenge of reduced budgets. Crime is down by more than 10%, victim satisfaction is up and the proportion of police officers on the front line has increased. This Government have introduced a range of new measures to tackle community crimes and have empowered forces to respond to the needs and priorities of local communities. Decisions on how neighbourhood policing teams are resourced and deployed are now for each chief constable and their PCC.

[Baroness Smith of Basildon]

My Lords, that slightly complacent Answer does not really address the Question I asked. The HMIC said that neighbourhood policing is the cornerstone of British policing, not something that it is simply nice to have. As police forces struggle with a further £2.4 billion of cuts, the remaining police are spending more time on paperwork and investigations and less in the community. The Police Federation fears that this leads to crimes not being prevented or reported. Do the Government value neighbourhood policing? If they do, how will they deal with this problem?

[Baroness Stowell of Beeston]

My Lords, as I said, neighbourhood policing is indeed very important but it is right that police chiefs, in consultation with their elected PCCs, decide on the priorities for their area. Crime is down and satisfaction is up. Another thing that this Government have done to ensure that the public are able to hold their police forces to account is to give them greater information about the performance of their local police forces so that they can properly assess that performance and hold those police chiefs to account.

[Baroness Hamwee]

My Lords, does the Minister welcome, as I do, another item in the report—namely, that forces are making greater efforts, as they have been doing over the years, but with variable success, to reduce the amount of patrolling in pairs? Patrols by single officers are more successful, not least because the public are not deterred from approaching an officer, rather than thinking that if there are two officers, they are interrupting a private conversation.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Stowell of Beeston]

My noble friend highlights an important example of how police chiefs are now in a position to prioritise and make decisions in the way that they see best in order to meet the Home Secretary’s strategic goal of cutting crime. The survey shows that the public support some PCSOs patrolling on their own because it leads them to think that they are more approachable than when they are in pairs.

[Lord Campbell-Savours]

The Minister said that satisfaction is up. Who is saying that?

[Baroness Stowell of Beeston]

The HMIC report includes a survey of the public, and victim satisfaction is up from 82% in 2010 to 85% in March of this year.

[Lord Avebury]

My Lords, what increase in the volume of neighbourhood crime does my noble friend think would be attributable to the failure of the Government to implement minimum unit pricing of alcohol?

[Baroness Stowell of Beeston]

One measure that this Government have introduced is the late-night levy, which comes into force when pubs and clubs decide to stay open beyond midnight. We have taken real steps to address this kind of activity by ensuring that people take responsibility for the decisions they make in their local area that might lead to an increase in consumption and local crime.

[Baroness Scotland of Asthal]

My Lords, the Minister said that the performance to date has been satisfactory. Indeed, the police and others should be complimented. But will the noble Baroness address the Question she was asked in relation to the future cuts that are anticipated and the fears that have been expressed in the report that the police will not be able to maintain that level of performance in the future?

[Baroness Stowell of Beeston]

The report identifies neighbourhood policing as an area which needs to be monitored in order to ensure that its importance is maintained. It is important to police forces; there is no suggestion that it is not. The police college is already looking at new and innovative ways to modernise local policing. It is there to ensure that best practice is spread around from force to force. We want to see them using new technology in order to maintain standards in a modern world.

[Lord Naseby]

Are the Government not to be congratulated on their success so far? For the past 10 to 15 years, all we have heard about is more and more crime requiring more and more policemen. Furthermore, now that we have elected police commissioners working alongside chief constables, is this not an opportunity to make further progress in this challenging area?

[Baroness Stowell of Beeston]

My noble friend is right. It is worth quoting Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary, who said:

“In these times of austerity and considerable financial challenges, it is to the credit of the police service that so many forces have shown themselves able to protect the front line and make the necessary savings.”

As I said, crime is down.

[Lord West of Spithead]

My Lords, does the noble Baroness not agree that crime has actually been falling fairly consistently for about the past 14 years? It is a slight conundrum, because one feels that if we had no policemen there would be no crime. Is it not true that there has been this fall?

[Baroness Stowell of Beeston]

The noble Lord is right. Crime has been falling for several years, but I believe that it was his party which suggested that crime would increase, because of the cuts that were necessary. We have clearly proven the Opposition wrong on that count.

[Lord Alderdice]

My Lords, there has been some suggestion that one of the reasons for these figures is that increased crime on the internet has not necessarily been detected. Are there any indications from my noble friend that internet crime is being monitored and included in these figures?

[Baroness Stowell of Beeston]

There is a range of crimes that are coming down, but one of the crimes that is increasing is fraud; my noble friend is right about that. That must be a priority and we must ensure that it is addressed.