Oral Answers to Questions

Kevin Brennan Excerpts

Monday 24th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

One way to release the police to do the job that the public want them to be doing, on the front line, is to get rid of the bureaucracy that was introduced by the last, Labour Government, which ties too many police officers up behind a desk, so that they are not out there on the streets.

[Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab)]

13. What recent estimate she has made of the effects of the outcomes of the comprehensive spending review on police numbers in south Wales.

[The Minister for Policing and Criminal Justice (Nick Herbert)]

It is for the police authority and chief constable to determine the number of officers in south Wales within the available resource. The Government are determined to help forces protect the front line by reducing costs and bureaucracy.

[Kevin Brennan]

It is quite clear that there are going to be huge reductions in the number of police officers in south Wales and elsewhere. Will the Minister tell the House exactly when the Conservative party decided that it was no longer interested in being known as the party of law and order?

[Nick Herbert]

I do not accept what the hon. Gentleman says. We have to deal with a budget deficit bequeathed to us by the previous Government. The police service spends some £13 billion a year, and it can contribute to the savings that have to be made. Those on the Labour Benches have conceded that police forces can save more than £1 billion a year without affecting the front line.