Policing (England and Wales)

Imran Ahmad Khan Excerpts

Wednesday 10th February 2021 Commons Chamber

[Imran Ahmad Khan (Wakefield) (Con) [V]]

Since the Prime Minister’s first speech on the steps of Downing Street, it has been made clear that keeping our communities safe, increasing police numbers and providing them with the necessary funding has been a priority of this Conservative Government. The drive to recruit 20,000 new police officers has demonstrated a very real shift in policy to prioritise law and order.

West Yorkshire police, headquartered in my Wakefield constituency, has been bolstered by an additional 308 officers in the first year of this major recruitment drive, bringing the total number across West Yorkshire to 5,494 officers as of October 2020. The West Yorkshire police training and development centre, which lies in Wakefield district, is crucial in providing recruits with the skills needed to tackle crime and antisocial behaviour. As we continue recruiting more police officers, such training centres will be invaluable in training our frontline officers and therefore making a crucial contribution towards keeping our communities safe.

Important provisions are also being made by Her Majesty’s Government to ensure our officers are better protected in the conduct of their duties, including equipping more officers with Tasers, as well as toughening sentences for those who assault our emergency workers, all of whom deserve the respect of all of us they are dedicated to safeguarding. Today’s publication of the police funding settlement for 2021-22 marks a continuation of this Conservative Government’s commitment to ensuring that our communities are kept safe and our police forces have the numbers, training and equipment necessary to operate effectively.

During a year in which all arms of Government have been brought together to bear down on tackling the spread of covid-19, growing police officer numbers, along with growing budgets and providing better protective measures to frontline officers have remained key objectives of this Government, which they are successfully securing. The 2021-22 funding settlement will provide £15.8 billion of funding for the policing system, an increase of £636 million on the 2020-21 settlement. I am delighted that West Yorkshire police will receive £512.3 million this year, £27,300,000 more than last year’s funding.

Although I enthusiastically welcome the funding, it is of fundamental importance that it leads to positive, visible and measurable outcomes and results. The increase in police numbers must lead to more police officers actively patrolling our streets. We must not allow ourselves to be deceived by the lazy Labour thinking that more money is always the solution to problems in and of itself. It is not. However, increased budgets do, when correctly employed, make it easier for important improvements to be made, whether they be changing systems, culture or training.

Wakefield is proudly home to West Yorkshire police force, the fourth largest territorial police force in England and Wales, yet, despite this, crime and antisocial behaviour remain an issue in Wakefield, whether that be rough sleeping, drug use, or reported crimes.

Over the past year, I have enjoyed the privilege of accompanying Wakefield district’s neighbourhood policing team, headed by the inspirational Sergeant Matthew Jackson, in patrolling the streets of Wakefield, and I am in awe of their purposeful work and seek to see them fully resourced. They are a truly impressive and determined group of civic-minded officers who love and take pride in their communities, city, country and police force. Places that are proud homes of major police forces, such as Wakefield, must be examples of how we maintain law and order for the rest of the country.

I welcome today’s police grant report and the new annual funding settlement, which, during this unprecedented global pandemic, clearly demonstrates for all that the Conservative party is the only party that can be truly relied on to support our police force, both in Wakefield and across the entire kingdom. Conservatives remain vigilant to ensure that this massive boost in funding is reflected in the sight of more police on our streets, safer communities and lower crime rates.