Oral Answers to Questions

Nick Smith Excerpts

Monday 12th September 2011 Commons Chamber

The Secretary of State was asked—

[Nick Smith (Blaenau Gwent) (Lab)]

1. What estimate she has made of the change in the number of police officers during the comprehensive spending review period.

[Rachel Reeves (Leeds West) (Lab)]

13. What her policy is on the future size of the police officer work force.

[The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mrs Theresa May)]

With permission, may I briefly update the House in relation to the appointment of the new Metropolitan Police Commissioner? The Mayor of London and I conducted interviews with the candidates this morning, and I expect to make a recommendation to the palace later today.

We have set a challenging but manageable funding settlement for the police service. It is a matter for the chief constable and the police authority in each force to determine the number of police officers that are deployed within the available resource.

[Nick Smith]

May I thank the Secretary of State for her response? Will she congratulate Gwent police authority, which was recently assessed by inspectors as performing well? Can she explain why more than £100 million will be spent on elected police commissioners, given that there is no guarantee that such performance will be sustained, let alone improved, with them? Would not the money be better spent on keeping more police on our streets?

[Mrs May]

If the hon. Gentleman is going to ask questions like that, he really should get his figures right, because of course, the figure to be spent on police and crime commissioners is not £100 million. I am happy to join him in congratulating Gwent police. I had a very good meeting the other day with the chief constable of Gwent police, who is the Association of Chief Police Officers lead on matters relating to domestic violence. He talked about some of the excellent work that Gwent police had done on that.