Oral Answers to Questions

Lindsay Hoyle Excerpts

Monday 21st October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Deirdre Costigan]

In Ealing Southall, religious organisations are spending their own money protecting worshippers from antisocial behaviour and crime in the early morning. Sri Guru Singh Sabha gurdwara, for example, is spending £3,000 to £4,000 a week on patrols and security measures. I recently called a crime summit and, although the police are trying their best, the community needs more police on the streets and a return to neighbourhood policing. What progress has been made on recruiting the much-needed 13,000 new police and community support officers we need to restore trust in the safety of our communities and town centres?

[Mr Speaker]

Order. Can Members please speak through the Chair?

[Yvette Cooper]

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Ealing Southall (Deirdre Costigan) for the leadership she is showing in her community. The point she raises is partly about increasing neighbourhood police numbers, which is part of this Labour Government’s plan. It is also about ensuring that we have partnerships between the police and local communities, rather than communities feeling that they have to do this alone. Such partnerships between the police and communities are at the heart of the British model of policing by consent, which is what we need to restore and rebuild after the damage that has been done.

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[Yvette Cooper]

I welcome the points the hon. Member makes. To tackle shoplifting, we need to ensure that strong enough laws and policing partnerships are in place, and that we do prevention and follow-up work with young people. As she may know, we are setting up a new Young Futures programme, which is all about the greater work we need to do to prevent young people being drawn into crime in the first place. I encourage her to tell us more details about her local work to tackle this issue.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Matt Vickers (Stockton West) (Con)]

The last Conservative Government stood with our brave police officers and emergency service workers. We introduced tougher sentences for those who assaulted them and the Elizabeth medal to recognise those who lost their lives in the line of duty, and we were looking to recognise those who were discharged from service as a result of injuries on the frontline. Will the Secretary of State continue that work? Will she meet with me and former policeman Tom Curry, who has been leading an excellent campaign on this important issue?

[Yvette Cooper]

I have long been a strong supporter of the Elizabeth medal. I pay tribute to Bryn Hughes and others for their work campaigning for recognition for police officers and other emergency workers who have been lost in the line of duty, and who have given so much to support other people and keep others safe. I have attended the police bravery awards every year for the last 14 years, exactly because it is so important to support brave officers. I am absolutely determined to ensure that we not only continue with that work, but go further to support brave officers who put their lives at risk. I am very happy to continue cross-party working on this issue.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

[Lisa Smart (Hazel Grove) (LD)]

In Greater Manchester, the “right care, right person” approach was recently introduced, since a police response to a mental health-related call is not always the right fit. There are growing concerns, though, about unclear lines of responsibility between mental health services and the police, which may cause cases to be mishandled. What steps are the Government taking to ensure that co-ordination between the police and mental health services is as clear and effective as it can be, so that those who most need support do not fall through the cracks?

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[Damien Egan (Bristol North East) (Lab)]

16. What steps her Department is taking to tackle criminal gangs facilitating small boat crossings.

[Mr Speaker]

Can I ask the Home Secretary please to look at me occasionally? It would help.

[The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Yvette Cooper)]

Apologies, Mr Speaker; I always like the chance to be able to look towards you.

The criminal smuggling and trafficking gangs that organise small boat crossings are undermining our border security and putting lives at risk. It is truly tragic that a little baby died in the channel this weekend. Those gangs have been getting away with this for far too long. That is why the Government have set up a new border security command, led by former police chief Martin Hewitt, to work with other countries to go after the gangs.

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[Jess Phillips]

As the Home Secretary outlined on neighbourhood policing, we will bring in respect orders to ensure that antisocial behaviour in particular areas is targeted in a way that it simply has not been in recent years.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Home Secretary.

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[Mr Cleverly]

That does not answer the question at all.

[Mr Speaker]

Order. We do not want squabbles afterwards. I call James Cleverly to ask his second question.

[Mr Cleverly]

When I was Home Secretary, on numerous occasions I had to deal with foreign VIPs demanding, or requesting, a level of protection that we did not feel was appropriate. Does the Home Secretary recognise the difficult position that she has put her own Foreign Secretary in when such future requests come in and they have to be denied, as those individuals will pray in aid the protection package put in place for a rockstar?

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[Andrew Rosindell]

Given the increasing pressures on the police service, does the Minister accept that officer morale, retention, recruitment and ability to solve crimes are severely compromised, with police officers overworked, underpaid and subjected to unprecedented rises in bureaucratic processes—often dealing with things that police do not traditionally deal with, such as mental health care and social work? [ Interruption. ] Will the Minister explain how the Government plan to address those critical issues, especially in terms of improving officer retention, recruitment, crime-solving capacity and the overwhelming levels of bureaucracy, so that constituents in Romford can feel safe in their own town again? [ Interruption. ]

[Mr Speaker]

Order. Mr Rosindell, you should know better. I did not cough twice for my own benefit—it was meant to be for yours.

[Dame Diana Johnson]

The hon. Gentleman is a very experienced Member of this House. He has supported 14 years of Conservative government that have left us coming into government with a criminal justice system, including policing, that is in grave difficulty. I take the point that he raises, but he needs to recognise the role that he and his party have played in getting us to this point. Our aim now is to recruit more police officers, as the Home Secretary has said, and to increase neighbourhood policing as the bedrock of policing in this country.

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[Yvette Cooper]

My hon. Friend makes an extremely important point. The mission for safer streets that the Government have set includes a really ambitious mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade. We know that that is immensely difficult, and I hope that all the devolved Administrations, as well as local communities and organisations, will want to be part of it. My hon. Friend is right to prioritise women’s online safety, and that is why my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology is prioritising action on online deepfake abuse.

[Mr Speaker]

We now come to the shadow Home Secretary.

[Mr James Cleverly (Braintree) (Con)]

In her statement to the House on 29 July, the Chancellor said that asylum accommodation costs being drawn down from Treasury reserves were “unfunded and undisclosed”—a description that I reject. Can the Home Secretary now confirm to the House that asylum accommodation costs will be disclosed and, more importantly, funded from her departmental budget, and that she will not be drawing down from Treasury reserves to pay for asylum accommodation costs? Will she reject the Chancellor’s description and say that she will fund those costs in the same way that I did?

[Yvette Cooper]

The former Home Secretary—the current shadow Home Secretary—now seems to be admitting to the totally chaotic state of asylum accommodation finances. He had to continually seek last-minute reserve claims, because his Government had underfunded the asylum accommodation problems that they had caused by letting the asylum backlog soar. As a result, the taxpayer ended up footing the bill. This Government will be making savings from asylum accommodation by getting the system back in order. I know that the right hon. Member has been kicked out of the Tory party leadership contest because he cannot count.

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I say to the Home Secretary that I expect short answers. These are topicals. If there are questions where she wants to go long, she should do so early. Otherwise, it is not fair to the Back Benchers I represent on both sides of the House. We will now be staying here longer than she probably expected. James Cleverly, let us have a good example of a short topical.

[Mr Cleverly]

Will she be drawing down from Treasury reserves—yes or no?

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[Yvette Cooper]

My hon. Friend is right that we have an extensive challenge with the backlog, which means that very expensive hotels are too often used as asylum accommodation. We need to clear the backlog and ensure that we end hotel use, but that also means addressing the serious challenges around violence against women and girls.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

[Lisa Smart (Hazel Grove) (LD)]

This is Black History Month, and we honour the Windrush generation, who were let down shamefully by the previous Conservative Government—first by the appalling Windrush scandal itself, but then by their failure to fully implement the Williams review and the compensation scheme. The parliamentary ombudsman has now found that the Home Office is wrongly denying compensation payments, so will the Home Secretary commit to urgently appointing a Windrush commissioner, as she promised back in June, to lead on righting these wrongs?

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[Yvette Cooper]

I think it is a matter for us all to take the security of people immensely seriously, and to ensure that terrorist, extremist and criminal threats do not win in their attempt to pose threats not just to life, but to our way of life.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Chair of the Home Affairs Committee.

[Dame Karen Bradley (Staffordshire Moorlands) (Con)]

Thank you, Mr Speaker, and I thank the House for putting its confidence in me to chair the Home Affairs Committee. I look forward to working constructively with the Department on home affairs matters. In that vein, may I welcome the news that the Government will recruit 200 new personnel to process modern slavery claims? Can the Secretary of State confirm whether those personnel are new head count, how long the training will take, and whether she is confident that the head count will survive the forthcoming Budget and spending review?

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[Jess Phillips]

Let me make it clear that the new Government intend very swiftly to set up new taskforces to ensure that across Departments—in this case, with our counterparts in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology—we do everything we can to end the scourge of online child abuse, and child abuse not online.

[Mr Speaker]

I call Jim Shannon—or are you not standing?

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I am always standing, Mr Speaker. What efforts have been taken in schools to show the opportunities available in the police force, to enhance career opportunities for young people?

[Mr Speaker]

I’ll be watching you!

[Dr Johnson]

It is always a pleasure to answer the hon. Gentleman. That work will be ongoing. We want to recruit from the widest possible groups in our communities, and to encourage young people to think about a career in policing.