Huw Irranca-Davies
Main Page: Huw Irranca-Davies (Labour - Ogmore)Department Debates - View all Huw Irranca-Davies's debates with the Home Office
(12 years, 7 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)
9. What assessment she has made of the effect of change in police numbers on the level of crime since May 2010.
Huw Irranca-Davies (Ogmore) (Lab)
16. What assessment she has made of the effect of change in police numbers on the level of crime since May 2010.
The Minister for Policing and Criminal Justice (Nick Herbert)
The Home Affairs Committee said last year:
“We accept that there is no simple relationship between numbers of police officers and levels of crime.”
The Government agree.
Nick Herbert
I have already quoted the Select Committee’s view that there is no simple link. However, I can tell the hon. Gentleman that according to the latest official figures relating to crime in Merseyside, published earlier this year, in December last year overall crime had fallen by 2% and the number of instances of violence against the person had fallen by 7%. There are areas of specific concern, but it is not true to say that overall crime has been rising in the hon. Gentleman’s police force area.
Huw Irranca-Davies
The Minister said that there was “no simple link”. The Police Federation has suggested that by 2015 the number of serving police officers in Wales will have fallen by about 1,600, and according to Her Majesty’s inspectorate of constabulary the figure is closer to 800. Even if the more cautious figure were correct, does the Minister really believe that a drop of 800 would have no effect whatsoever on crime in Wales?
Nick Herbert
The hon. Gentleman ought to ask what police officers are doing. If they are tied up in red tape, as they were by the last Government, or if they are in back-room positions in which they do not need to be, that is not necessarily the best possible deployment of resources. The latest official figures show that in south Wales overall crime has fallen by 7%, and at the end of last year the chief constable of south Wales said:
“We are not just treading water, we are improving the service and improving the way that we deal with members of the communities we serve.”