Policing in Cleveland

Debate between Jim Dickson and Shabana Mahmood

Tuesday 1st September 2026 Commons Chamber

[Shabana Mahmood]

My hon. Friend makes an incredibly important point. I assure him that the usual arrangements on the engagement of the national police wellbeing service have been activated and support is being provided. We will obviously monitor that to ensure that it is adequate and can rise to the challenge of what we are seeing in Cleveland. His point is incredibly important because, at the end of the day, police officers are human beings; they are still running towards danger, working very long hours and helping people in their local community, but they do need support. When you have lost two of your own in such terrible, terrible circumstances, the case for that support is more than made out. That is being provided, but the Policing Minister will continue to talk to the chief constable and others to ensure that our officers are being supported and looked after.

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend on the need for fundamental change in the way that we do the funding formula for policing. That is also tied to the fundamental change that we need on police force structures as well. He will know that Cleveland is a force of about 1,500 officers. Even before the cuts under the Conservative Government, it was around 1,700. That is very different from a force such as mine in the west midlands, which has 6,000 officers, or Greater Manchester, which has around 8,000 officers. We have a system that is very lopsided when it comes to police force sizes and, more importantly, the number of officers in each force. That sometimes limits what smaller forces can do without needing mutual aid to support them.

There is a case for structural reform, but it needs to be done in a way that ensures that the public have absolute confidence that their local forces will be highly focused on local issues and that regional forces can handle these specialist investigations and public order issues—and then there is the National Police Service on top of that. I look forward to discussing these issues with my hon. Friend; I know we will do so, because he is a member of the Home Affairs Committee.

[Jim Dickson (Dartford) (Lab)]

I thank the Home Secretary for her statement. I echo her words about the two brave police officers who lost their lives in this collision incident on the A66. My constituency has experienced similar deeply antisocial and incredibly dangerous experiences of racing and speeding on our roads. Groups of predominantly young men gather along our main roads, watching cars speeding down those busy roads as content is filmed to be posted on social media. We had a particularly bad spike and hotspot over the weekend in a stretch of road called Bob Dunn Way, next to the Bridge estate. I thank local people who have raised this matter with me and BBC South East, which has highlighted the problem. This activity is clearly dangerous for other road users and is really disruptive for local residents. Does the Home Secretary agree that we must do absolutely everything we can to tackle this lawlessness on our roads and the social media trends that appear to be driving it?

[Shabana Mahmood]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising this matter in his constituency, which faces some of the same issues as we have seen in Cleveland; I see the same in parts of Birmingham as well. He is absolutely right that we have to do everything we can to clamp down on the emerging pattern of behaviour that glorifies this type of activity, which can lead to incredibly dangerous situations on our roads. As I said in response to an earlier question, social media platforms—admittedly, in a reactive way—are taking down the content flagged with them. I urge him to ensure that he shares any local examples he has with those platforms directly, but also with the Home Office, so that we can ensure that they are taken down. As the wider measures in the Online Safety Act are implemented, we can expect the platforms to take a much more proactive position, so that we can stop this trend in its tracks.

Bills Presented

Vehicle Emissions Trading Schemes Order 2023 (Revocation) Bill

Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57)

Mr Richard Holden, supported by Claire Coutinho, Andrew Bowie, Sir Gavin Williamson, Richard Fuller, Jerome Mayhew, Greg Smith, Mr Gagan Mohindra, Katie Lam, Rebecca Paul, Rebecca Smith and Joe Robertson, presented a Bill to revoke the Vehicle Emissions Trading Schemes Order 2023; and for connected purposes.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 15 January 2027, and to be printed (Bill 134).

Greyhound Racing Bill

Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57)

Lisa Smart, supported by Liz Jarvis, Anna Sabine, Tom Gordon, Will Stone, Neil Duncan-Jordan, Cat Eccles, Dr Simon Opher, Hannah Spencer, Alison Hume, Irene Campbell, presented a Bill to prohibit the racing of greyhounds on racetracks in England; to create offences in connection with the organising of, and the keeping, breeding or training of greyhounds for, such racing; to make provision about the welfare and rehoming of greyhounds retired from racing; and for connected purposes.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 19 March 2027, and to be printed (Bill 135).

Police Reform White Paper

Debate between Jim Dickson and Shabana Mahmood

Monday 26th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Shabana Mahmood]

Again, the Policing Minister met representatives from the Northern Ireland Government. The legal basis for how counter-terror policing works will not change under the new National Police Service, but I will look at what the hon. Gentleman says about funding specifically.

[Jim Dickson (Dartford) (Lab)]

Communities in Kent are pleased to see that funding for police next year will be 20% higher than in the final year of the previous Government, with a target for 43 new neighbourhood police officers across the county to police our streets and rebuild community policing after years of neglect. Does the Home Secretary agree it is crucial that the White Paper rebuilds trust between communities and police not just in Kent but across the country, so that the public can have confidence that a police person will be there when they need them?

[Shabana Mahmood]

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend, who makes a powerful point: in the end, policing is a public service. It is essential that we maintain public confidence in our policing and that we are also sure that the standard of service we get from our police is the same no matter where we are in the country.

Manchester Terrorism Attack

Debate between Jim Dickson and Shabana Mahmood

Monday 13th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Shabana Mahmood]

Yes, absolutely.

[Jim Dickson (Dartford) (Lab)]

On an inspiring visit this weekend to Bromley Reform synagogue, which serves my constituents in Dartford alongside those of my hon. Friend the Member for Beckenham and Penge (Liam Conlon) and the hon. Member for Bromley and Biggin Hill (Peter Fortune), I was moved by the strong views of the congregation rejecting hatred across all religions and communities in our country. Following the Home Secretary’s excellent statement, does she agree that it is vital that we send a message to the Jewish community and every other community in this country that they will be safe and that the Government stand with them?

[Shabana Mahmood]

I agree with my hon. Friend and I hope that that message has been heard today. There is obviously much work for us to do, but the Government will not shy away from doing it.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jim Dickson and Shabana Mahmood

Tuesday 8th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Shabana Mahmood]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Victims on many occasions feel retraumatised by the criminal justice system because of the long delays. Defendants know that cases are taking too long to be heard; too many of them think that they can game the system, and that if they wait long enough, victims will drop out. That is why we are determined to deliver swifter justice for victims. It is why we have delivered a record number of sitting days in the Crown court this year, and it is why we will do once-in-a-generation reform of our courts after Sir Brian publishes his review.

[Jim Dickson]

Thanks to the massive court delays inherited from the Conservatives, as the Secretary of State said, residents in Dartford continue to face huge delays in getting cases involving them to court. What assurance can she give that the delays will reduce, and that for my constituents, it will not continue to be a case of “justice delayed is justice denied”?

[Shabana Mahmood]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right that the old adage, “justice delayed is justice denied”, has come true. We know that we need bold reform. We have to get the backlog down, and we have to deal with the rising and record demand coming into the system as well. That is why we have made a record allocation of Crown court sitting days, but we also need bold, once-in-a-generation reforms. His constituents and the country deserve nothing less.

Criminal Justice System: Capacity

Debate between Jim Dickson and Shabana Mahmood

Thursday 17th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Shabana Mahmood]

One of the reasons why I am determined to get to the bottom of what has gone wrong, and to ensure that all errors and accuracy issues are dealt with, is so that we have comprehensive data that we can rely upon. We know that the Crown court backlog is at historic levels. Sadly, I do not think that any assurance work on the data will suddenly bring that down—I suspect it is more likely to go up—but it is important to establish the true scale of that backlog, because this House needs to know exactly what it looks like so that it can hold the Government to account on their efforts to bring it down. We cannot do that unless we know its exact size. Sadly, I suspect it will remain at the historic levels that we have inherited—I do not think it will come down by much.

[Jim Dickson (Dartford) (Lab)]

I thank the Lord Chancellor very much for her statement. It is very clear, from everything we have seen over the past 14 years and since 4 July, that the previous Government completely failed to manage our prison estate. Does she agree with me and my constituents that it is really important that we maintain space in our prison system to lock up the most dangerous offenders? At the same time, we need to have a look at community sentences. Will she be doing that?

[Shabana Mahmood]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. There must always be space in our prisons to lock up the most dangerous offenders. We must always place public protection above all other considerations when it comes to dangerous violent offenders. When we have a capacity crisis as acute as the one I inherited, we unfortunately have to also consider alternatives, simply because running out of space is no option at all. I reiterate the remarks I made earlier: punishment and rehabilitation have to go together. It is not a choice between one or the other. They are two sides of the same coin and the Government are determined to make progress on both.