Oral Answers to Questions

Sheryll Murray Excerpts

Monday 22nd March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Priti Patel]

The right hon. Lady will know that red-listing countries is a matter for my colleagues in the Department for Transport and the Department of Health and Social Care. She is absolutely right to point to the prevalence of the South African variant in France. That is why we have effective measures in place at the border, with compliance checks and upstream checks for people who are travelling to the United Kingdom, alongside measures to test road hauliers, which, as she will be aware, we have been doing in Kent.

[Mrs Sheryll Murray (South East Cornwall) (Con) [V]]

In my own police area, our excellent police and crime commissioner, Alison Hernandez, piloted an allowance for our hard-working special constables who did a set amount of hours over the winter months. Would the Department work with her to enable police forces to use the special constabulary as a paid reserve, in the same way as the Army reserves, to provide additional resource at times of need?

[Priti Patel]

My hon. Friend raises what is an excellent point and an important one. If I may, I would like to praise the work of her police and crime commissioner for the work that she is doing around special constables. Currently, we have no plans to set up a formal police reserve. However, my hon. Friend will know we are seeing more and more special constables joining to become full-time police officers. We are working with them. We are also looking at new protections for them. Of course, it is absolutely right that local forces should have the ability to reward volunteers for their valuable contributions. That is something that I fully back.