Oral Answers to Questions

David Ruffley Excerpts

Monday 9th July 2012 Commons Chamber

[Lynne Featherstone]

I do find it shocking, given that so many of the Labour ilk are standing for the position of PCCs. The job of PCCs is to listen to what people want in their local communities and to give communities the powers to require agencies to act. That is happening under this Government, but it never happened under the Labour Government.

[Mr David Ruffley (Bury St Edmunds) (Con)]

9. What steps she has taken to empower police officers to reduce crime.

[Chris Skidmore (Kingswood) (Con)]

19. What steps she has taken to empower police officers to reduce crime.

[Mr Ruffley]

My right hon. Friend will know that in 2010 less than 15% of a patrol officer’s time, on average, was spent on patrol. What specific measures has he taken, and will he take, to cut the red tape at the police station that is keeping too many officers off the beat?

[Nick Herbert]

I mentioned the amount of officer time —the equivalent of more than 2,000 officers—that we have effectively released for front-line duties. For instance, we are returning charging decisions to the police, scrapping the national requirement for the stop-and-account form, reducing the burden of the stop-and-search procedures, employing new technology to ensure that police officers can give evidence from their police stations rather than having to go to court, and championing a simplified crime-recording process. I could go on, but the list is an impressive one and reflects our determination to free up officer time so that they can do the job we want them to do, which is to fight crime.

European Convention on Human Rights

David Ruffley Excerpts

Tuesday 19th June 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

My hon. Friend has put his finger on the point exactly. When the courts are looking at that, they should know what Parliament’s view is, and that is exactly what we are trying to ensure today.

[Mr David Ruffley (Bury St Edmunds) (Con)]

Will my right hon. Friend deal with something that is in the minds of all Government Members? A robust measure such as this, put in front of the House, could have been debated at any time in the 13 years before the 2010 election.

Oral Answers to Questions

David Ruffley Excerpts

Monday 21st May 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

I say to the right hon. Lady that it is this Government who are putting in place controls on our immigration system; it was the previous Labour Government who allowed people to come in without any controls on the immigration system. We are putting in place a policy that will see the number of people coming into this country reduced and in both the UK Border Agency and the UK Border Force, we are putting right the problems that grew up under the previous Labour Government. She talks about the relaxation of controls, but the inspector said that that had been happening since 2007. It is about time that the Labour party accepted responsibility for what it did in government.

[Mr David Ruffley (Bury St Edmunds) (Con)]

T4. I commend my right hon. Friend’s steely determination in dealing with Abu Qatada and his slippery legal team, but the fact remains that such a situation might happen again. That man has cost the British taxpayer £3.2 million over the past 10 years. In light of that, will she report what progress she has made in investigating how the Italian Government made early deportations of suspected ne’er-do-wells like Abu Qatada?

[Mrs May]

I have indeed undertaken, as I think my hon. Friend knows, to look at how deportations are managed in other countries, and not just in Italy but in France which, as has recently been mentioned, was able to deport two individuals rather more quickly than we have been able to deport Abu Qatada. I will report to the Commons when that work is complete. We want to be able to deport as quickly as possible people who should not be in the United Kingdom, and I am pleased that we are now closer to deporting Abu Qatada than we ever have been.

Abu Qatada

David Ruffley Excerpts

Tuesday 17th April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

No, and I remind the right hon. Gentleman that the bail conditions that Abu Qatada has been on were more restrictive than a control order.

[Mr David Ruffley (Bury St Edmunds) (Con)]

I congratulate the Home Secretary on the tenacity that she has shown; it makes her a formidable Home Secretary. On the question of assurances, will she respond to the recent comment about Abu Qatada from Thomas Hammarberg, the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights? He stated:

“There must be watertight guarantees that he should not be tried with evidence obtained under torture”.

Is that the nature of the assurance that she has received from the Jordanians?

[Mrs May]

I thank my hon. Friend for his words. I have set out a very brief description of the assurances that we have received; more details will obviously be put forward to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission at the deportation hearing. One of the key changes that has taken place in Jordan involves explicit changes to the constitution that outlaw the use of evidence that has been gained by torture.

Abu Qatada

David Ruffley Excerpts

Tuesday 7th February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr David Ruffley (Bury St Edmunds) (Con)]

Signatories to the European convention on human rights, such as Italy, have simply ignored in exceptional circumstances rulings from the Court. Have Her Majesty’s Government considered that course of action in the Qatada case?

[Mrs May]

As I made clear in my earlier responses, we are looking at every option available to us under the current legal regime in order to deal with this issue. We wish to be able to deport Abu Qatada; we do not believe he should be in the United Kingdom, but we are looking at all options under the existing legal regime.

UK Border Force

David Ruffley Excerpts

Monday 7th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

Because a proper process is being undertaken. Further investigation by Dave Wood is taking place to ascertain the full extent of what happened.

[Mr David Ruffley (Bury St Edmunds) (Con)]

I trust my right hon. Friend to sort out the sloppy and lax management culture that has prevailed at this agency for too long. May I ask about her excellent idea for a border police command? When will it be introduced and how many police will be detailed to it? What the public want now is even more reassurance that our borders are going to be safe.

[Mrs May]

The intention is that the National Crime Agency will be established in 2013. It will be necessary for legislation to go through the House to establish the NCA, and the border police command will be part of the national crime agency. I am not able, at this point, to say how many police will go to the border police command. I am sure that my hon. Friend will appreciate that, given what has taken place, it is now necessary for us to have another look at exactly what we intend to do with that border police command.

Oral Answers to Questions

David Ruffley Excerpts

Monday 12th September 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

In relation to policing, we are ensuring not only that police have the tools and powers that they need to deal with issues out on the street, but that they are freed up from a lot of the bureaucracy that was introduced by the previous Government, which kept too many police officers behind desks and not out on the streets.

[Mr David Ruffley (Bury St Edmunds) (Con)]

Will my right hon. Friend assure me that she will not be seduced by the argument that, inevitably, more police officers means more visibility? The fact remains that there are more police on patrol on Monday morning than on Friday night, and that only 12% of officers are available at any one time to be visible to the British public. Will she tell the House what she will do to ensure that we get visibility from existing police numbers?

[Mrs May]

I thank my hon. Friend for his comments, and he is absolutely right. He has put particular focus on this issue over the years and has looked into it in some detail. It is not just a question of numbers, as it is often portrayed by Opposition Members; it is about how police officers are deployed. It is about getting them out on the streets at the time that they are most needed. As my hon. Friend has seen in the past, a lot of that is about reducing the bureaucracy that police officers deal with, reducing the targets, and letting them get out there on the streets.

Metropolitan Police Service

David Ruffley Excerpts

Monday 18th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

The first I knew of the appointment of Neil Wallis was when I heard from the Commissioner of the Metropolitan police and from the Mayor last Thursday that this had been brought to the Mayor’s attention. It was at that time that I wrote to the commissioner and expressed my disquiet and concern that this issue had not been raised earlier, at a previous stage. I indicated last Thursday that that was a concern, and it remains a concern.

[Mr David Ruffley (Bury St Edmunds) (Con)]

The IPCC is renowned for the long, drawn-out nature of its inquiries. Those of us who are interested in restoring public confidence in the police would like to know from the Home Secretary when she expects the IPCC to report.

[Mrs May]

I have asked the IPCC to undertake a number of reports. It will report to me by the end of the summer on the report I asked it to undertake last week into allegations it has received about corruption in the police force previously and any lessons that need to be learned in relation to that. It will, of course, pursue investigations against any individual officers who have been named. I am sure that my hon. Friend will agree that it is right and important that that is done properly and fully. I understand the point he is making, but I am sure that none of us would want the results of those inquiries to be in any way jeopardised by a desire to do them speedily rather than fully and properly.

Home Department

David Ruffley Excerpts

Thursday 12th May 2011 Ministerial Corrections

Logos

[Mr Ruffley]

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much (a) her Department and (b) its agencies have spent on the (i) design and production of new logos and (ii) employment of external (A) public relations and (B) graphic design agencies for each project of logo design or redesign in each year since 2000.

[Official Report, 3 May 2011, Vol. 527, c. 652-54W.]

Letter of correction from Mr Damien Green:

An error has been identified in the written answer given to the hon. Member for Bury St Edmunds (Mr Ruffley) on 3 May 2011. The answer should not have included the 2005-06 spend attributed to the Information Commissioner, as it was not a Home Office agency.

The correct answer should have been:

[Damian Green]

The following table summarises the spend of the Home Office and its agencies (Identity and Passport Service (IPS), Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and UK Border Agency) on logo design and employment of public relations and graphic design agencies, broken down by project.

It is not possible to separate out design costs from design agency costs, and therefore costs provided above cover parts (a) and (b).

The Home Office has spent nothing on design or production of new logos or on the employment of external public relations agencies for any project of logo design or redesign since 2008-09.

The UK Border Agency and IPS have spent nothing on design or production of new logos or on the employment of external public relations agencies for any project of logo design or redesign since 2007-08.

CRB have spent nothing on design or production of new logos or on the employment of external public relations agencies for any project of logo design or redesign since 2002-03.

Oral Answers to Questions

David Ruffley Excerpts

Monday 9th May 2011 Commons Chamber

[Nick Herbert]

The Government decided to maintain the ring-fencing for the neighbourhood policing fund outside London so that funding would continue to be available for police community support officers, whom we support because they do an important job as part of the policing family, working alongside police officers.

[Mr David Ruffley (Bury St Edmunds) (Con)]

The Home Secretary’s plans to cut police red tape, which were announced this morning, will sadly save each police officer only 20 minutes each week. Why is she not being more radical?

[Mrs May]

This is not the end of the story. Indeed, we are working in a number of ways to ensure that we continue to cut police bureaucracy. My right hon. Friend the Minister for Policing and Criminal Justice is looking at savings in bureaucracy that can be made across the criminal justice system. Chris Sims, the chief constable of West Midlands police, is the ACPO lead on reducing bureaucracy and is looking at other ways of reducing bureaucracy. Sara Thornton, the chief constable of Thames Valley police, is looking to reduce the 600 different guidance documents that ACPO provides to police forces to fewer than 100. Those examples show that this is work in progress, but our commitment is absolutely clear.