Stop and Search Debate

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Department: Home Office

Stop and Search

Nigel Evans Excerpts
Monday 12th November 2018

(5 years, 11 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Nick Hurd Portrait Mr Hurd
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Yes. The number of stops and searches has fallen and the proportion of them that result in arrest has risen from around 9% to 17%.

Nigel Evans Portrait Mr Nigel Evans (Ribble Valley) (Con)
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Nobody wants to go back to the old stop and search, which was deemed racist, but there have been 259 knife deaths in the country so far this year, and there were recently five in London over a nine-day period. Whatever our policy is now, it is clearly not working.

Nick Hurd Portrait Mr Hurd
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My hon. Friend is entirely right that the losses are terrible and the statistics are awful and unacceptable to us. We have been here before, 10 years ago, in London. We beat it then and we will beat it again, through the combination of robust policing and really effective prevention and early intervention. The robust policing will change the numbers in the short term and the prevention and early-intervention work will change the numbers in the long term. Everything we have learned from London, Glasgow, Boston and Cincinnati tells us that it is that combination that works, so we will stick to that plan.