Crime and Policing Bill Debate

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Department: Home Office

Crime and Policing Bill

Chris Vince Excerpts
2nd reading
Monday 10th March 2025

(2 days, 13 hours ago)

Commons Chamber
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Yvette Cooper Portrait Yvette Cooper
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I will give way first to my hon. Friend and then to the hon. Member for Huntingdon (Ben Obese-Jecty).

Chris Vince Portrait Chris Vince
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A report by Harlow council in 2023 stated that fewer than half of residents in Harlow felt safe going outside after dark. Does my right hon. Friend see the neighbourhood policing guarantee as part of the way of solving that problem?

Yvette Cooper Portrait Yvette Cooper
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My hon. Friend is right: neighbourhood policing is crucial, but neighbourhood policing teams have been decimated, and even those that remained were often abstracted or merged with other teams. That has been deeply damaging. It is crucial to get those neighbourhood police back on the streets, back into our town centres, and back into our communities. I give way to the hon. Member for Huntingdon (Ben Obese-Jecty), who I hope will apologise for the scale of cuts that his party’s Government brought in.