Oral Answers to Questions

John Bercow Excerpts

Monday 6th December 2010 Commons Chamber

[Damian Green]

The hon. Lady has heard me say in response to a previous question that there will be a reduction of more than 5,000 in the UKBA work force. We are ensuring that we use new technology and new working practices to make our border more secure than it was under the Government whom she used to support. I commend to her the very good Institute for Public Policy Research publication, “Immigration under Labour”, in which an adviser to one of Labour’s more successful Home Secretaries—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. The Minister of State will resume his seat. His purpose here is to answer questions about the policy of the Government, not that of the Opposition. I hope that that is now clear to him.

[Steve McCabe (Birmingham, Selly Oak) (Lab)]

I know that some members of the coalition have trouble understanding what a pledge means, but after a bit of probing, the Home Secretary gave the House a commitment the other week to reduce immigration to tens of thousands by the end of this Parliament. Does that commitment still hold this week?

--- Later in debate ---

[The Minister for Policing and Criminal Justice (Nick Herbert)]

The number of police officers is not set by central Government, but we believe that forces can make savings to ensure that visible and available policing is secured for the public.

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I realise that the right hon. Gentleman was slightly out of breath or a bit uncertain in coming to the Dispatch Box, but I believe that he is seeking to group the question with Question 8.

[Nick Herbert]

With permission, Mr Speaker, I will take Questions 7 and 8 together.

[Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab)]

8. What recent discussions she has had with police forces on the likely number of (a) police officers and (b) police community support officers at the end of the 2014-15 financial year.

[Mr Speaker]

I assume that the Minister had finished his reply, so I call Paul Blomfield.

[Paul Blomfield]

Will the Minister note that there are 337 police community support officers in South Yorkshire whose jobs are at risk because of cuts in both police and local government budgets? Those officers have made an enormous contribution to the reduction in crime and the fear of crime. Does he accept that people across the country would believe that money was better spent on those posts than on the £100 million that the Government propose to waste on police commissioners?

--- Later in debate ---

[Hon. Members]

What was that?

[Mr Speaker]

Order. Opposition Members’ hearing is playing tricks with them. They did not hear what they thought they heard.

[Nick Herbert]

Mr Speaker, I am in very good company today.

The hon. Member for Washington and Sunderland West (Mrs Hodgson) said that these were cuts to police staff. In all, there are more than 6,000 members of staff in Northumbria police force, including police officers, and I repeat that our determination is to do everything we can to support forces in making savings to the back office, in order to protect the front line and the visible and available policing that the public value.

--- Later in debate ---

[Ed Balls]

The deputy to the Home Secretary will have to do a lot better than that. These cuts are front-end loaded and go well beyond the 12% over four years that Her Majesty’s inspectorate of constabulary said was do-able. I am pleased that he has not repeated the 11% smear against our police, which he knows is a completely corrupt and erroneous statistic. Hon. Members should look at the numbers. In north Wales, 230 officers are to go; in the west midlands, 1,100; and in Greater Manchester, 1,387. The chief constable of Greater Manchester police said that

“there will be a reduction in frontline police officer numbers”.

The Home Secretary was not willing to stand up for the police in the spending review, and she is not willing either to stand up in the House and answer my questions on the police. She can refuse to answer my questions, but she cannot refuse to answer the questions from police officers and the public all around the country. Today—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. We must have a one-sentence question.

[Ed Balls]

I call on the Home Secretary to listen to police chiefs and the public, and I demand that her spending settlement be reopened, that there is an end to front-end loading and that there is a better deal for the police.

--- Later in debate ---

[Damian Green]

I am afraid the hon. Lady is completely misinformed about the facts of this case. She need not take that from me; she can take it from her own colleague, the Chairman of the Select Committee on Scottish Affairs, the hon. Member for Glasgow South West (Mr Davidson). He has been approached on this subject, as I have by many people. In response to an e-mail about it that he received, he wrote:

“It would…appear that the circular which prompted”

the e-mail he received

“was, at the least, not entirely accurate and thus mischievous.

Mrs Namir Rad’s move has nothing whatsoever to do with the”

Glasgow city council and

“UKBA contract termination, she was not given only 24 hours’ notice and her move is within her existing community area.”

He goes on to say:

“Scaremongering is not only unhelpful and misleading. It also undermines the credibility of any genuine appeals for help that are made.”

I completely agree with the hon. Gentleman on this matter.

[Mr Speaker]

Chris Skidmore. Not here.