Neighbourhood Policing: West Midlands

Preet Kaur Gill Excerpts

Tuesday 14th December 2021 Westminster Hall

[Preet Kaur Gill (Birmingham, Edgbaston) (Lab/Co-op)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered funding for neighbourhood policing in the West Midlands.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Edward. I am delighted to have the opportunity to lead today’s debate. I start by thanking my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Erdington (Jack Dromey) for securing this debate, and for allowing me to open in his stead. I congratulate him on his appointment to the shadow Home Office team; I know he will be a great champion for the safety and security of our communities in that brief. He has been doing an outstanding job in raising the issue of the lack of policing in the west midlands. I also thank colleagues who have joined us this afternoon to discuss this timely and important topic. We are holding this debate to discuss police funding for the west midlands and to argue for our region to get the fair funding that it needs and deserves.

The west midlands has the fourth highest rate of crime in the country. This Government have been in power for a long time—11 years, to be exact. When they were re-elected in 2019, it was on a promise to level up every region in the United Kingdom. Nowhere needs that more than the west midlands, which has lost out terribly from policing cuts over the past decade, and where many of our communities have been blighted by crime.

We all know the Government’s record here, particularly on the delivery of justice for victims; we have plummeted to record lows in the last decade. Between 2010, when the last Labour Administration were in government, and 2020, the percentage of crimes that ended in a charge or court summons was halved. The delivery of justice for victims of violent offences is even worse. Someone who has been robbed is half as likely to see the culprits charged or taken to court—down from 19% to 8.2%. For violence against the person, charge rates are four times lower than they were a decade ago. Some 98% of reported rape cases do not result in a charge. What does that say to women?

That is where we are after a decade in which the Conservatives have cut 20,000 police officers from our forces. We have seen central Government grants to the police fall by 30% in real terms, and forces are increasingly relying on income raised through council tax, known as the police precept. Police have also been forced to make more use of reserve funding—money set aside for unforeseen spending—and have had to sell off capital assets, including police stations, to help to raise funds. Between 400 and 600 police stations were closed between 2010 and 2018 by the Conservatives, in addition to the loss of 20,000 officers.

We on this side of the House know that cuts have consequences. That kind of capacity, experience and expertise cannot be replaced overnight. The Prime Minister pledged to recruit an extra 20,000 officers by 2022 and, since then, only 11,000 extra officers have been recruited. Truly, only the Tories could cut 20,000 police officers, watch crime rates soar, recruit 11,000 officers, pat themselves on the back and say, “Job well done.”

In the west midlands, we have had 2,221 officers cut and £175 million slashed from our budgets since 2010. At the same time, there have been huge cuts to the services that are vital to preventing crime in the first place, such as youth clubs, mental health services, local council funding and probation services. The police are also having to respond to complex and serious crimes, ranging from human trafficking to sexual crimes against children, which are becoming increasingly common. Despite that, the Government’s much-trumpeted uplift programme promises to restore only 1,200 officers to our region, leaving us 1,000 short of where we were. Is that levelling up? No, it is not—the people of the west midlands would say so too.

The situation has been absolutely frightening for some of our constituents. In one case that I had recently, two masked men broke into the home of an elderly lady in my area and tried to rob her. A neighbour’s light came on, they were disturbed, and they ran off, but I cannot imagine just how petrified she was. The police officer who responded did his absolute best; he gave her advice on changing her locks, and so on, but when asked how she could possibly feel safe and secure—how she could be sure that they would not come back—he could only say to her that she could move in with her relatives. That is deeply unacceptable.

I remember working on the case of another lady who was pulling into her driveway when a man ran over and stole her bag out of her passenger seat. She called the police and gave them a description of the man and his getaway car, but without CCTV, they said there was not much more that they could do. They did not have the resources to prioritise it and the case was NFA’d—no further action was taken. We hear this all the time.

I cited some of the most appalling national statistics on charge rates earlier. Is it not incredible that in the UK, the CCTV capital of Europe, our charge rates are so appallingly low? Many of our constituents see the rise in violent crime in their areas, and they are scared. Violent crime is rising, with conviction rates at record lows. Gangs with machetes on the streets are not uncommon, as is knife crime. Is this the new norm? The Conservatives have become the party of crime and disorder. To keep our communities safe and restore confidence, we need to bring back neighbourhood policing. Constituents say to me all the time that they barely see officers on their streets and that they do not know their officers’ names. They do not know whom to call and are instead directed to online reporting.

So stretched have services been that the police are constantly reacting, making trade-offs on what to prioritise, and doing less and less proactive work. They are not able to build relationships or undertake vital preventive work and early interventions with young people, which we know are so effective. Neighbourhood policing is what many police officers proudly tell me they want to be doing more of—being a trusted presence within the community, working closely with people and using a range of problem-solving skills to address community issues, which we know have worked in the last decades. It is about providing a visible deterrent to people who think they can commit crime and get away with it.

Under the Conservatives, criminals have never had it so good, which is why I back the plan for the new West Midlands police and crime commissioner, Simon Foster, to put boots back on the ground with 450 extra neighbourhood police officers, guaranteeing that officers are based in all our local areas and ensuring that victims of crime are always a top priority and can access timely advice, care and support. Clearly, the funding situation is not easy for West Midlands police, but it is right to direct investment into more officers on the ground, rather than maintaining empty stations. Bricks and mortar, without people, do not stop crimes, but this is a situation of the Government’s own making.

Let us be clear that officers are much needed. There are rising levels of theft and robbery, and devastating cuts to preventive and mental health services have left the police to pick up more and more of the pieces, with less time to spend fighting crime. The College of Policing estimates that 2% to 20% of incidents reported to the police are linked to mental health issues. Under this Government, neighbourhood policing numbers in our region have been decimated, dropping from 1,821 to 760 between 2010 and 2018. Police community support officer numbers also fell, from 811 in 2010 to 464 in 2021.

Given the expectation that a new policing funding settlement will come out on Thursday, we have called today’s debate to make a last-ditch plea to Ministers to give our region the funding it needs. I work closely with my local police and have nothing but admiration for their selfless service, bravery and professionalism, but they are being let down. The west midlands is not getting a fair share. It is patently unfair that forces with lower crime rates, such as nearby Warwickshire, have increased their police numbers over the past decade, whereas our region could still be left 1,000 officers short under the Government’s uplift plans. With the new funding settlement on Thursday, my question to the Minister is very simple: will he give West Midlands police the fair funding that they need? Will he hear the pleas of our constituents who feel let down by the Government and give our forces a fighting chance?

--- Later in debate ---

[Preet Kaur Gill]

I am sorry that the Minister decided to go off track in his response. In any event, I am grateful to him. I thank all the hon. Members who took part in the debate, which made it clear that at the centre of the issue are families and others across the west midlands who have felt left behind, and who deserve a fair police funding settlement. I hope the funding settlement will reflect that.

[Mr Khalid Mahmood]

The Minister did not clarify the point about the management of West Midlands police. Her Majesty’s inspectorate of constabulary and fire and rescue services said:

“The force is good at strategic planning, organisational management and providing value for money.”

That includes the input of both the police and crime commissioner and the chief constable in the west midlands. I will not see West Midlands police run down in that manner.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

That this House has considered funding for neighbourhood policing in the West Midlands.