Policing

Robert Buckland Excerpts

Wednesday 24th October 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Robert Buckland (South Swindon) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to take part in this afternoon’s debate and to follow the hon. Member for Lewisham East (Heidi Alexander). I acknowledge that different parts of the country face different challenges. Some of the issues she outlined have been with us for some time, and some police authorities some time ago took a more long-term view of the likelihood that resources would start to decrease, rather than continue to increase. Wiltshire police, in which police authority area my constituency sits, took some difficult decisions a few years back, and although, like the rest of the country, the force is having to bear its share of a reduction in income, it is right of me to point out, with some pride, that its commitment to neighbourhood policing remains unabashed. In fact, the number of police community support officers, who form a key part of the delivery of neighbourhood policing, has increased in the past year by 14.2%, or 19 officers, which is testament to Wiltshire police’s commitment to neighbourhoods such as the one in Swindon that I represent.

The right hon. Member for Delyn (Mr Hanson), who is no longer in his place, mentioned his visit yesterday. I am sure that he heard those encouraging statistics and would join me in paying tribute to the work of the police authority, one of whose members, Angus Macpherson, is the Conservative candidate in the police and crime commissioner election next month. I have been working hard with that candidate to get the message across about the importance of the elections and to give as much information as possible to local residents about what the new commissioners will do—not just dealing with police strategy, but commissioning services that I believe will lead to greater use of crime prevention and diversion techniques. I hope they will also lead to the extension of the principles of restorative justice further into our communities, on which much work is already being done in the Swindon area, although time does not permit me to speak at length on that subject today.

I rise primarily to raise a case that has already been mentioned—one that resulted last Friday in the conviction and life imprisonment of the murderer Christopher Halliwell. He murdered Sian O’Callaghan in Swindon last year, after picking her up in his taxi outside a nightclub. He has been dealt with properly for that heinous crime, and I pay tribute to Sian’s family for their dignity throughout the proceedings and for the way in which they coped with the awful reality confronting them after Sian’s abduction and the subsequent discovery of her body.

The case does not end there, however. During the course of the police investigation, a second murder was disclosed by the defendant, Christopher Halliwell. He has not been brought to justice for that murder because of errors made in relation to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 guidelines to be followed by all police officers during criminal investigations. That means that the family of Becky Godden, whose body was discovered by police officers during the search for Sian O’Callaghan, have not received justice or any degree of closure and are facing that awful reality day by day.

I will not comment on the conduct of the individual police officer. He is a senior officer. There is an Independent Police Complaints Commission inquiry into his conduct. Putting myself in his shoes for a moment—putting aside my legal hat, having been a criminal barrister for 20 years—I can entirely understand that in the heat of the moment, when it was thought that Sian O’Callaghan may still be alive, that officer thought he was acting in the best interests of the safety of Sian and in the interests of finding out more from Halliwell.

In the light of the grim experience of this case, it would be timely for the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, code C in particular, which applies in this case, to be looked at again by the Home Office to make sure that it is fully up to date and has taken into account developments in technology that could well have assisted the police in the conduct of the investigation of the case. The codes of practice are not tablets of stone. They are regularly updated in the light of experience, and I believe that after this particularly serious case with serious consequences not only for the family of Becky Godden, but for the wider community who are so concerned and were so traumatised by what happened, it is time that we had another look.

I pay tribute to Becky Godden’s family for their dignity, and I pledge my support to them to do whatever it takes to make sure that they can find justice for the loss and the murder of their daughter.