Police

Debate between Damian Green and David Ruffley

Wednesday 12th February 2014 Commons Chamber

[Damian Green]

Given that the right hon. Lady has presided over this budget in her time, she knows perfectly well that money is not taken from one budget and given to another. One of the big things that the City of London police do is to fight cybercrime and fraud. People in Salford, like those in my constituency and in every other constituency, want the police to be as effective as possible in fighting fraud and cybercrime. That is why that money needs to be spent.

[Mr David Ruffley (Bury St Edmunds) (Con)]

My right hon. Friend will have looked at the Opposition’s commitments on funding, so will he help me? Will they match our spending totals for policing and the police grant settlement or will they do something different? I am completely in the dark.

[Damian Green]

My hon. Friend, as ever, puts his finger on the right point. The shadow Chancellor is saying that an incoming Labour Government would cut departmental spending, but all the mood music from those on the Opposition Front Bench is that they would increase public spending. That is a central incoherence at the heart of Labour policy. I hope that in his response, the shadow policing Minister will clear that up and answer my hon. Friend’s very good question.

Despite having been in post for just over a year, police and crime commissioners have contributed to the transformation of policing. The recent National Audit Office report confirmed that PCCs are driving improvements and value for money in a way that unelected police authorities could not. Their engagement with the public is much greater than that of the old police authorities. For example, one PCC has seen an 800% increase in the volume of correspondence compared with what the police authority received. PCCs have also been at the heart of reform and have embraced new technology. For example, my local force in Kent is using predictive policing, which combines historical data with predictive algorithms to identify the areas that are most likely to be affected by crime, thereby helping it better to allocate resources and target the deployment of officers.

As the Chairman of the Home Affairs Committee pointed out, we have set up the College of Policing to increase the professionalism of the police. I am grateful for the support of the Home Affairs Committee for the College of Policing. I want policing to be regarded as one of the great professions, alongside the law and medicine. The college will produce an evidence base on what works and lead a transformation in how police officers and staff do their jobs. The college will soon publish the first ever code of ethics in the history of British policing. Given that we have just been discussing the ongoing Hillsborough process, I am sure that the House will recognise the importance of that code of ethics. It will be a clear declaration of the principles and values that are expected of all police officers. It will ensure that officers act with high ethical standards in all their conduct.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Damian Green and David Ruffley

Monday 19th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr David Ruffley (Bury St Edmunds) (Con)]

8. What steps she is taking to reduce bureaucracy in policing.

[The Minister for Policing and Criminal Justice (Damian Green)]

We have swept away central targets, removed red tape, and extended police powers to prosecute. These measures will cut inefficiency, save time and taxpayers’ money and bring swifter justice, freeing up more than 4.5 million police hours—the equivalent of putting over 2,100 officers back on the beat.

[Mr Ruffley]

I thank the Minister for that reply, and may I congratulate the Home Secretary on setting out a very robust plan for putting more officers back on the beat by reducing bureaucracy? Does the Minister agree that part of the responsibility for cutting red tape lies with chief constables, and some of them are not doing enough to reduce unnecessary form-filling in their forces? Will he also set out what he sees as the newly elected police and crime commissioners’ responsibilities in respect of reducing unnecessary form-filling?

[Damian Green]

My hon. Friend has been a member of the Treasury Committee for many years, and he is keen on cutting public spending where it is wasteful. He is right that police and crime commissioners will play a key role in encouraging chief constables who need to do better on this to do so. Indeed, the PCC in his county of Suffolk made practical commitments on reducing bureaucracy, including the idea that the time spent supervising criminals or offenders in detention centres, hospitals and behind desks could be carried out by other staff, not by trained police officers. It is that kind of practical approach that will cut bureaucracy and release police officers to serve on the front line, where we want them.

Home Department

Debate between Damian Green and David Ruffley

Thursday 12th May 2011 Ministerial Corrections

[Mr Ruffley]

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much (a) her Department and (b) its agencies have spent on the (i) design and production of new logos and (ii) employment of external (A) public relations and (B) graphic design agencies for each project of logo design or redesign in each year since 2000.

[Official Report, 3 May 2011, Vol. 527, c. 652-54W.]

Letter of correction from Mr Damien Green:

An error has been identified in the written answer given to the hon. Member for Bury St Edmunds (Mr Ruffley) on 3 May 2011. The answer should not have included the 2005-06 spend attributed to the Information Commissioner, as it was not a Home Office agency.

The correct answer should have been:

[Damian Green]

The following table summarises the spend of the Home Office and its agencies (Identity and Passport Service (IPS), Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and UK Border Agency) on logo design and employment of public relations and graphic design agencies, broken down by project.

It is not possible to separate out design costs from design agency costs, and therefore costs provided above cover parts (a) and (b).

The Home Office has spent nothing on design or production of new logos or on the employment of external public relations agencies for any project of logo design or redesign since 2008-09.

The UK Border Agency and IPS have spent nothing on design or production of new logos or on the employment of external public relations agencies for any project of logo design or redesign since 2007-08.

CRB have spent nothing on design or production of new logos or on the employment of external public relations agencies for any project of logo design or redesign since 2002-03.