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Category: Criminal Justice

  • Will White – 2021 Statement on Violent Protest in Bristol

    Will White – 2021 Statement on Violent Protest in Bristol

    The statement made by Will White from Avon and Somerset Police on 21 March 2021.

    What started out as a peaceful protest has been turned by a small minority into a violent disorder.

    These scenes are absolutely disgraceful and they will be widely condemned by people across the city. There can never be any excuse for wanton disorder.

    Officers have been subjected to considerable levels of abuse and violence. One suffered a broken arm and another suffered broken ribs. Both have been taken to hospital. These are men and women out there with the intention of serving and protecting the public – they should never be subjected to assaults or abuse in this way.

    At least two police vehicles have been set on fire and damage has been caused to the outside of the station. Protestors are not inside the building.

    We have requested mutual aid from neighbouring forces to bring this incident to a safe conclusion.

    All those involved in this criminal behaviour will be identified and brought to justice. There will be significant consequences for behaviour such as this.

  • Sean Ivey – 2021 Comments on Anti-Social Behaviour in Wingate

    Sean Ivey – 2021 Comments on Anti-Social Behaviour in Wingate

    The comments made by Sean Ivey, a former marine whose house was attacked following this intervention, on anti-social behaviour, on 17 March 2021. A JustGiving page was set up after the destruction caused to Ivey’s property.

    TIME FOR CHANGE!!!

    Last night, four males walked into my Mam and Dad’s house and robbed them. They were carrying weapons and threatened them both. They stole money, alcohol and very personal belongings with great sentimental value. And another thing, this was at 7.30! Half 7 at night and they just walked in!

    What the hell is going on!!!!!

    At the weekend, I had a run in with a young male riding like a lunatic on an off-road bike in Shotton and causing damage to people’s property. The following day I saw another riding down Wingate front street, pulling wheelies and mounting the paths.

    Groups of young lads have been see riding around on quads through Wingate, Station Town, Shotton, Wheatley Hill, Thornley etc, with absolutely no consideration for the public. They also caused 1000’s of pounds worth of damage to a local airfield.

    A local councillor recently had his car set on fire right in front of his bedroom and so the flames burst through the window, causing damage to his house. Another elderly man was broken into, assaulted and burgled in his bungalow a couple of years ago.

    Young people are congregating outside of Wingate Tandoori, hurling abuse at passers by and throwing objects at cars. Due to the abuse and damage to his car, one delivery driver for the Tandoori had to leave… this has affected his livelihood!

    I was speaking to one lady who works in Wingate and lives near the point where these youngsters are congregating. She gets a lift home because she is afraid of walking past them!!! And this is not a single case!

    Once upon a time, these were isolated incidents but unfortunately, they are not anymore.

    Something really has to change!!! I don’t know how and I do not know what we can do but I think it’s time that the people, the good people of our communities, got together and come up with some ideas to hopefully get rid of these thugs and clean up our streets.

    People are afraid of reporting incidents to the police because of the potential repercussions. Kids are being kept on much shorter leashes because parents are afraid of what may happen to them.

    To that end, I am calling on the local Parish Councils to call public meetings and get a real idea of how we really feel living amongst these criminals, and then WORK TOGETHER (NOT INDIVIDUALLY!), to get them off our streets. They move and cause damage from one place to another so there has got to be something done which targets the area as a whole, not just Wingate or Horden or Wheatley Hill etc!!!

    EVERYONE! It’s also time for our local council representatives to earn your wage and help us come up with some solutions. The police cannot do it alone because they don not have the man power and they need the evidence to arrest and convict.

    If you’re as pissed off as I am then please write to your local councils and bombard them with orders that something must be done.

  • Rupa Huq – 2021 Speech on the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill

    Rupa Huq – 2021 Speech on the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill

    The speech made by Rupa Huq, the Labour MP for Ealing Central and Acton, in the House of Commons on 16 March 2021.

    This monster of a Bill includes the word “women” zero times in 295 pages, yet statutes, war memorials and monuments are mentioned multiple times.

    The Bill is likely to go into Committee, so it is then that I will seek to improve it by tabling an amendment to prohibit the long-standing and continual, daily harassment and intimidation of women at abortion facilities. Every year, 100,000 women across England and Wales who try to exercise their right to a termination are told that they are going to hell, filmed, followed and given propaganda that is inevitably medically wrong and unwanted. That is not healthy, noisy protest but the shaming of individual vulnerable women for decisions taken perhaps as a result of rape or similar. It is gendered harassment, which is not included in the Bill but overlaps with part 3—the explanatory notes talk about

    “disruption to the life of the community”

    when

    “the purpose of the organiser is to intimidate others into doing or not doing something that they have a right to do”.

    Many women will have recognised what the Home Secretary said yesterday about how we all too often quicken our pace or grab our keys or phone in uncomfortable street encounters. Factor in being booked for a time-sensitive medical operation and there is no easy escape. This intimidatory activity is calculated to make women cancel their appointment or, at the very best, rebook it for when those people are not there. There is unpredictability and inconsistency: only three local authorities have gone down the byelaw route of local public space protection orders. This cannot continue; it is unequal access to justice, if nothing else.

    When I asked the Health Secretary in this Chamber for his opinion on anti-vaxxers, he told me that no one’s access to legal medicine should be barred or prevented. By lumping such a measure in with prosecuting sports coaches who groom teams, criminalising already-persecuted Traveller lifestyles and introducing excessive sentences for toppling statues, the Government are inevitably going to accuse those who oppose the Bill of being soft on sex offenders, which is really disappointing.

    Harassment of women is objectively wrong; it is surely not party political. Indeed, the cross-party will of the House is behind such a measure. The last time my private Member’s Bill was put to a vote in June, the House voted for it by 213 to 47. I even had Government Members on the payroll coming up to me all day saying, “Good on you, I wish we could have voted for this too.” So it is high time we updated what is being done in common law and put into statute, followed Canada—

    Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)

    Order. I am terribly sorry; we have to move on.

  • Caroline Johnson – 2021 Speech on the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill

    Caroline Johnson – 2021 Speech on the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill

    The speech made by Caroline Johnson, the Conservative MP for Sleaford and North Hykeham, in the House of Commons on 16 March 2021.

    The first duty of any Government is to protect members of the public from harm, and I welcome the swift progress that the Government have made on that. Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, the Government have beaten the target of recruiting 6,000 extra officers by March 2021 and are ahead of schedule to recruit, as promised, 20,000 more police officers by 2023. With a new cohort of police officers protecting our communities, we should give them the protection that they need to do the job to the best of their ability.

    At a time when we are battling an invisible enemy—the coronavirus—our exceptional frontline workers should not be at risk of violence from the very people they are trying to protect. I am glad that the Government have shown that they will not tolerate such attacks and are legislating to double the maximum penalty for assaults on emergency workers from 12 months to two years in prison—the penalty that fits such an abhorrent and selfish crime.

    At a time when we have been tragically reminded of the senseless violence perpetrated against women and girls, it is important that our communities are protected from the most serious offenders. A previous Labour Government introduced automatic early release at the halfway point; we are legislating to ensure that that stops and that those convicted of the most serious violent and sexual offences must serve at least two thirds of their sentence before parole is considered.

    I welcome the fact that more robust sentences for the worst offenders will be combined with greater efforts to rehabilitate. For offenders stuck in the revolving door of crime there will be things such as electronic monitoring tags to ensure that long and restrictive curfews are adhered to. Sobriety tags, which were first piloted here in Lincolnshire, will ensure that individuals comply with alcohol abstinence orders. Such measures will ensure that once criminals have left custody, robust monitoring is still in place both to stop further harm and to break the cycle of reoffending.

    I am pleased to see that those who use their car as a weapon will receive longer sentences, but as we increase sentences for careless driving I look to the Minister for reassurance that we will not criminalise those who have a momentary lapse in concentration—something most of us experience at some point.

    Burglary is a particularly invasive crime that many of my constituents fear, and it leaves people feeling unsafe in their home. Will the Minister consider increasing sentences for those who commit this particularly invasive crime?

    The Bill represents a significant strengthening of our judicial system, with the flexibility to tackle both serious crime and the causes of crime. I am proud to see this Government delivering on their manifesto commitment to empower our judicial system and make our country safer, and I will support the Bill today.

  • Jon Trickett – 2021 Speech on the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill

    Jon Trickett – 2021 Speech on the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill

    The speech made by Jon Trickett, the Labour MP for Hemsworth, in the House of Commons on 16 March 2021.

    I join others in expressing my condolences. This Bill continues the authoritarian drift of this Government. First, we had the Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill, which basically gives immunity to people abroad serving our country who committed torture. Then we had immunity given to state agents breaking the law in our country, including the crime of rape. Now we have clause 59 of the Bill, which proposes a 10-year jail sentence for causing the risk of “serious annoyance”—those are the words in the Bill. Note that is not even for causing “annoyance”, but for causing the risk that there may be annoyance. There are many things with which we might risk causing annoyance every day, but it is only in dictatorships or repressive regimes that such actions are subject to drastic sentencing.

    This Government claim to have their roots in libertarianism and, of course, they are champions of liberty, but it is liberty only for the powerful and the wealthy, the “get rich quick” merchants and the spivs, those whose freedoms allow them to cause all kinds of annoyance—firing decent, hard-working employees and then rehiring them on worse conditions and paying poverty wages. Now we have a new freedom—the freedom to bung multimillion-pound taxpayer contracts to mates in the private sector. They have set their sights on our tradition of dissent, because their legislation is designed to crack down on our rights to take action against injustice. Black Lives Matter activists, workers who take industrial action, environmentalists and the women’s movement are all in their sights.

    Alex Sobel (Leeds North West) (Lab/Co-op)

    My hon. Friend and I have organised and been on many peaceful protests together. The measures in this Bill are so regressive that, under them, surely some of those protests that we have been on would have ended up in scenes like those we saw on Clapham common, with us and others being arrested. This shows that peaceful protest is not safe under the remit of the Bill.

    Jon Trickett

    I have indeed worked many times with my hon. Friend on all kinds of activities. What the Government have in their sights are the ancient rights of assembly and freedom of association, which are now threatened by clause 59. The fundamental right to free speech means nothing if these other freedoms come under attack. We may end up with a situation in which we are free to shout at the telly in the privacy of our own homes but not free to organise ourselves collectively in public.

    It is not as if our country has done away with all forms of injustice and inequality, is it? Yet instead of standing against injustice alongside, for example, the women on Clapham common the other night, the Government appear to be more interested in empowering the police force to arrest people who the state judges to have risked causing annoyance. It is interesting that many police officers have said that they do not wish that power to be bestowed upon them.

    This House of Commons should be a beacon of liberty—a protector of our rights to speak, associate freely and assemble in public to express our reservations about how the country is going. Repressive legislation will never eliminate the thirst and hunger for justice that remains so powerful in our country today. It is the duty of the Commons to stand up this evening and reject this Bill.

  • Tracey Crouch – 2021 Speech on the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill

    Tracey Crouch – 2021 Speech on the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill

    The speech made by Tracey Crouch, the Conservative MP for Chatham and Aylesford, in the House of Commons on 16 March 2021.

    Thank you for your kind words, Mr Deputy Speaker. Time is exceptionally limited, so I shall keep my remarks short, but like others, I wish to extend my condolences to the family and friends of Sarah Everard.

    I welcome this Bill, which draws on our manifesto commitment to make the country safer by equipping the police with the powers needed to protect themselves and the public, while strengthening sentencing laws to keep serious sexual and violent offenders in prison for longer. It is unfortunate that recent events have overshadowed the good intentions of the copious measures in this Bill, and I share the views of those in the House and outside it that we need to do more to protect women and girls. Why should we be afraid to walk somewhere or even exercise after dark? But, rather than trying to kill off the Bill, we should be working cross-party to strengthen it to that end.

    I am a supporter of the police and I am afraid that I do not think we stand up for them often enough in this place. We read about the occasions when they misjudge or mishandle things, but we do not read about the 99% of the time where they silently get on with keeping us safe. Like all other key workers, our police officers have continued to work throughout the pandemic on the frontline, often being spat at and assaulted. I have many police officers living in my constituency and I am a proud aunt of a policeman. The measures in the Bill will better protect them and other emergency workers, not least by doubling the maximum sentence for assault on emergency workers, which is much overdue.

    I am delighted that the Bill includes measures to extend the positions of trust provisions to include those who coach, teach, train or supervise in sport or religion. This has been a long process, but I am exceptionally grateful that this Home Secretary and Justice Secretary have listened to me, the hon. Member for Rotherham (Sarah Champion), Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and, most importantly, the brave victims who spoke out about the abuse that they suffered at the hands of their coach or religious leader. The need for change has finally been accepted.

    There is so much that I could speak about in this 296-page Bill, but I just want to mention two things. First, my local council very much welcomes the Bill’s provisions that deal with illegal encampments, but Medway Council has requested that an amendment is added that gives local authorities the powers to seek recovery costs for the damage caused. As challenging as this may be in practice, concerting the power that enables them to do so is something that I am willing to table, and I hope that the Government will seek to support it. The second point, which was raised eloquently yesterday by my right hon. Friend the Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith), is the need for a specific offence and stronger punishment for pet theft. There has been an extraordinary and worrying rise in the theft of dogs, and many of my constituents are fearful for their beloved pets, so using this Bill as an opportunity to strengthen protections is essential.

    Given the time, let me conclude by saying that there is so much more that I could add, but this is a good Bill, albeit with plenty of scope for improvement and for new things to be added to it. First and foremost, I look forward to supporting it in the Lobby tonight.

  • Sajid Javid – 2021 Speech on the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill

    Sajid Javid – 2021 Speech on the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill

    The speech made by Sajid Javid, the Conservative MP for Bromsgrove, in the House of Commons on 16 March 2021.

    May I start by joining colleagues in expressing my condolences to the friends and family of Sarah Everard?

    I rise to support the Second Reading of this Bill. I am particularly pleased that it delivers on three promises that I made in two Departments: stronger police powers and a new criminal offence around unauthorised Traveller camps; putting the police covenant on the statute book and completing the public health approach to serious violence.

    Given the short time I have, I will focus my remarks on child sexual abuse and exploitation. I want to leave Members in no doubt that we are facing an epidemic in child sexual abuse, the severity of which has left me crushed at times. Although the Government are doing outstanding work, it is clear that there are still inadequacies and blind spots enabling predators to operate undetected for decades. That is why for the best part of a year, I have been leading an inquiry into child sexual abuse and exploitation with the Centre for Social Justice. Although the findings will not be published until later this month, I am grateful that the Home Secretary and the Justice Secretary have taken an interest in this work and have included some of the initial recommendations in the Bill.

    I am particularly pleased that the Bill will close a loophole in the law that allows sports coaches and other people in positions of trust to have sex with 16 and 17-year-olds who are in their care. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Chatham and Aylesford (Tracey Crouch) for the excellent work she did to bring that about.

    I also welcome the fact that those serving an SOPC—sentence for offenders of particular concern—for a child sex offence will be made to serve two thirds of their sentence before they are eligible for parole.

    These changes will make a difference, but we need to go further. It is difficult to believe that only 4% of child sexual abuse offences result in a charge or summons—to put that another way, when the police record a child sexual abuse offence, more than nine times out of 10, the perpetrator is not brought to justice—or that sentencing guidelines recommend the same punishment for stealing a bicycle worth £500 and viewing the rape of a child.

    Lenient sentences make poor deterrents, and they say to victims that society does not take the damage that is done to them seriously enough. That is why I urge the Government to consider three further measures: first, including online offences in the SOPC scheme; secondly, moving to a presumption of cumulative sentencing; and thirdly, asking the Sentencing Council to undertake a full review. It is only when we take the scourge of child sexual abuse seriously that we will start to make sure that the punishment truly fits the crime.

  • Clive Lewis – 2021 Speech on the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill

    Clive Lewis – 2021 Speech on the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill

    The speech made by Clive Lewis, the Labour MP for Norwich South, in the House of Commons on 16 March 2021.

    How often have we heard the notion that somehow liberty is an integral part of the English character, and that we fortunate few in this country are somehow different from the rest of humanity? Not for us authoritarianism, autocracy or, God forbid, the dark slide into fascism. No, no, no—that is for other people and other countries, not us. Yet here we stand, yet again with yet another Bill from this Government stripping the people of this country of yet more liberty and more of their democratic rights.

    English exceptionalism is a dangerous fallacy, none more so than when it comes to the constant vigilance required of any democracy. It is hubris of the first order—one I fear has infected those on the Government Benches. The potential for the slide into authoritarianism and worse is, as history has clearly demonstrated, part of the human condition. That is the painful and bloody lesson from the 20th century. Yet here we are, with this Bill before us. It is the tip of an authoritarian iceberg—one that is on a collision course with public defiance.

    Democracy is being swept away in a calculated programme to leave the public muted and powerless. We have the demonisation of the Gypsy, Traveller and Roma community, a planned voter suppression Bill to strip the right to vote from black and other disadvantaged communities, and the limiting of judicial review to stop the public challenging the Government’s decisions in court and shifting yet more power to the Executive. We have the Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill, which creates a two-tier, “them and us” system of human rights. Now, having passed that, the Government are coming for our rights with a review of UK human rights legislation.

    Those on the Government Benches are fast moving from becoming a Government to becoming a regime. They want to stifle dissent, so that they are not accountable to the public. Our country—our economy, our politics and our media—is controlled by a small clique of individuals. Over the past 40 years, they have taken more power for themselves at the expense of our democracy. Now they are not even happy with us clinging on to the scraps we currently have.

    I have directed this speech at Government Members, but to those on my own Front Bench who have finally been brought to the right position of opposition, I say this: it should not have taken the police assault on people gathered peacefully in memory of Sarah Everard to see the assault on democracy that this Bill is. It is writ large, so let this be a wake-up call. We have never seen anything like this Government before.

    If the Bill goes through, anyone who values their democratic rights must get organised and fight back. I will stand with protesters, irrelevant of the laws passed by this place. I say to anyone in this place and outside who values democracy that we must create a democracy that is fit for purpose for the challenges we face—climate and ecological breakdown, the epidemic of inequality—

    Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)

    Order. We are moving on.

  • Priti Patel – 2021 Statement on the Police and Crime Commissioner Review

    Priti Patel – 2021 Statement on the Police and Crime Commissioner Review

    The statement made by Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, in the House of Commons on 16 March 2021.

    I am pleased to set out to the House findings from the first part of our two-part review into the role of police and crime commissioners (PCCs).

    The Government’s manifesto committed to strengthening the accountability of PCCs and expanding their role. The public want to see a reduction in crime and PCCs are elected to deliver on the people’s priorities. Eight years on from their introduction, it is the right time to step back and consider how we can better ensure that the public can hold PCCs to account for the performance of their force.

    In delivering the recommendations from part one of the review, we will make it easier for the public to make an informed decision about the record of their PCC at the ballot box by strengthening accountability and improving transparency. The recommendations set out below apply to PCCs and Mayors with PCC functions.

    Part one of our internal review began in late July and collated views and evidence from stakeholders across policing, fire and local government as well as voluntary and community organisations. Through polling and focus groups the review also took account of public views and opinions. We focused on changes required to sharpen the model which, where possible, can be delivered ahead of the 2021 PCC elections.

    On policing, the Home Office will bring forward a range of measures which will: strengthen PCC accountability; improve their transparency to the public; clarify the relationship between PCCs and chief constables; bring more consistency to the PCC role; raise professional standards; and improve the checks and balances currently in place.

    The review concluded there was more to be done to explain the role of PCCs and make their record on crime more transparent to the voting public, thus enhancing their accountability. To help achieve this:

    The Home Office will amend the specified information order to require PCCs to provide a narrative on their force’s performance against the Government’s crime measures, and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) force performance reports. The specified information order currently places a duty on PCCs to publish certain information within specified timeframes, to ensure the public have the information they need to hold their commissioner to account at the ballot box.

    In line with the Government’s manifesto position in favour of first past the post, which provides for strong and clear local accountability, and reflects that transferable voting systems were rejected by the British people in the 2011 nationwide referendum, the Home Office will work with the Cabinet Office and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to change the voting system for all combined authority Mayors, the Mayor of London and PCCs to first past the post. This change will require primary legislation, which we will bring forward when parliamentary time allows.

    We concluded there are clear steps we can take to sharpen local accountability and ensure the framework guiding the relationship with chief constables is clarified:

    The Home Office will work with the College of Policing, Association of Police and Crime Commissioners and National Police Chiefs’ Council to build on the accountability guidance already in place, including in relation to the performance management of chief constables, to help to promote and embed a positive relationship between chief constables and PCCs.

    The Home Office will consult on potential changes to the Policing Protocol Order 2011 to provide a “brighter-line” on the boundaries of operational independence and reflect changes in the relationship between the parties to the protocol which have taken place over time. The protocol sets out how the policing governance relationships should work, including that of the Home Secretary, and clarifies the roles and responsibilities of PCCs, chief constables and police and crime panels.

    The Home Office will also legislate to amend section 38 of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011, to make the chief constable dismissal process more rigorous and transparent, by requiring a PCC to give the chief constable written notice (including grounds), as the first stage of the dismissal process; allowing for the chief to provide HMCIC with a response to those grounds; and introducing some form of time limit or review interval on a chief constable’s suspension from office. The Home Office will also work with the College of Policing, NPCC and APCC to develop a framework for the use of independent mediation in appropriate circumstances.

    We will also seek to address the HMICFRS recommendations included in its “Leading Lights” (September 2019) report, looking into the role of the College of Policing in the senior recruitment process. We will work with stakeholders to address the issues raised through this review in relation to fixed-term appointments.

    To improve scrutiny, the Home Office will work with the Local Government Association (LGA) to develop a good governance training package for police and crime panels.

    Part two of the review will also allow us to consider the role of the Independent Office of Police Complaints (IOPC) with respect to their handling of complaints made about the conduct of PCCs and their deputies.

    The review concluded more should be done to ensure that all PCCs adopt best practice and, given our later recommendations on fire, there is now a need to improve the resilience of the Office of the PCC:

    We recommend that the APCC works with the College of Policing to build on the policing knowledge hub to develop a “what works” compendium for PCCs.

    The Home Office and APCC will jointly develop a comprehensive set of non-statutory guidance on the core elements of the PCC role. In conjunction, the APCC should deliver a formal programme of induction for new and returning PCCs post-elections in May 2021.

    To enhance resilience and capacity of PCCs, given our intention to expand the role into fire, the Home Office will bring forward legislation to mandate that each PCC must appoint a deputy (of the same political party where the PCC represents a political party). In the interim, we will issue guidance to PCCs’ offices requesting that a formal succession plan is put into place to deal with vacancy and incapacitation, involving the police and crime panel in those discussions as necessary. This will not apply to Mayors with PCC functions, where legislation already mandates that a deputy Mayor must be in place.

    To ensure PCCs have the levers they need to tackle crime, in part two of the review, the Home Office will consult on giving a general power of competence (as afforded to local authorities) to all PCCs, to potentially help PCCs with the role they play in the wider crime and criminal justice landscape, and will consider partnership arrangements more fully.

    On fire, the Government are clear that further reform of fire and rescue is required in order to respond to the recommendations from phase 1 of the Grenfell Tower inquiry and the Kerslake review, and to build on the findings from Sir Thomas Winsor’s state of fire and rescue report. Our reform agenda will focus on three key areas: people; professionalism; and governance. Taken together, improvements in these areas will help deliver higher standards and greater consistency across fire and rescue services.

    The review kick-started our work on fire service governance and the findings signalled strong support for a directly elected individual taking on fire functions to help simplify and strengthen the governance of fire and rescue services across England. The Home Office will be launching a consultative White Paper on fire reform later this year. The White Paper will be used to set out our reform agenda in further detail and explore the review proposals on fire governance which include:

    Consulting on whether to mandate the transfer of fire and rescue functions to the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner model across England where boundaries are coterminous, unless there is an option to transfer fire governance directly to an elected Mayor.

    Consulting on how to address coterminosity challenges, including in the south-west.

    Legislating to create operational independence for chief fire officers and to clearly separate and delineate strategic and operational planning for fire and rescue.

    Considering options to clarify the legal entities within the PFCC model.

    With regard to mayoral devolution, this review has cemented our view that the join up of public safety functions under a combined authority Mayor has the potential to offer wider levers to prevent crime. We will take steps to remove barriers to more Mayors taking on these functions and will work with MHCLG to develop the forthcoming devolution and local recovery White Paper with that longer-term trajectory in mind.

    Part two of the review will begin after the 2021 elections and will allow us to consider further ways to strengthen and expand efforts to help cut crime. It will focus on longer-term reforms and the potential for wider efficiencies to be made, with a view to implementation ahead of the 2024 elections. Terms of reference for part two of the review will be published in this House at the appropriate time.

    I would like to put on record my thanks to our advisory group which supported the first part of this review, comprising senior external stakeholders with expertise in the policing and fire sectors.

  • Kit Malthouse – 2021 Comments on GPS Tags for Prolific Offenders

    Kit Malthouse – 2021 Comments on GPS Tags for Prolific Offenders

    The comments made by Kit Malthouse, the Minister for Crime and Policing, on 16 March 2021.

    Being burgled or robbed is devastating and I understand how frustrating it is when the perpetrators can’t be caught, both for the public and the police.

    Tagging these prolific offenders so we know where they are 24 hours a day should be powerful persuasion to change their ways and will help police find and charge them if they don’t. It’s another tool helping probation staff to cut crime and keep the public safe.