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Police Restructuring

My right hon. Friend the Minister will recall that I took part in the police parliamentary scheme with North Wales police. In the previous Parliament, the Welsh Affairs Committee took evidence from all four forces in Wales about how they deal with antisocial behaviour. I therefore have some knowledge of the issues and many concerns about the proposals, but in the light of the number of hon. Members who want to speak, I shall make only one or two points. I am afraid that the change will not work for Wales, and especially not for north Wales, because the parameters that the Home Office has laid down—a force size of between 4,000 and 6,000, no existing force being split and no crossing of boundaries—do not work for Wales. I do not disagree with those parameters per se, but from what I have learned about crime patterns in north Wales, which my hon. Friend the Member for Ynys Môn (Albert Owen) mentioned, an amalgamation with Cheshire police would make more sense than an all-Wales police force. However, the only realistic regional boundary in Wales is the Welsh border. An all-Wales police force would have nearly 8,000 police officers, more than 5,000 of whom would be in south Wales, which is more than 200 miles away from the cross-border level 2 crime in north Wales. I do not believe that an all-Wales police force would deliver on level 2 crime for the north. North Wales police force is not huge—it has 1,600 police officers—but it has a very good record. Most local authority wards already have a dedicated policeman—the community beat manager. Community policing is not so advanced in other parts of Wales, and in south Wales it is mainly performed by community support officers. In north Wales, council tax is high because of the high police precept, but the people accept it because they get good policing and because they are happy with that policing. Yes, council tax will decrease under the proposals, but my right hon. Friend the Minister will recall that when I met her recently she said that any reductions will be phased in. Any changes in council tax will benefit south Wales, which will not go down well in north Wales. I also wonder what effect such changes will have on the North Wales police budget. There will be provisions for local accountability in the more rural parts of Wales, but the other side of that coin is that there will be no economies of scale, which is a worry. However, an all-Wales police force is the only answer to the criteria, which is why police forces in Wales appear to support it. They have been given the parameters and the task of fulfilling the criteria, and the only answer is an all-Wales police force. Will the Minister consider allowing a change in the criteria to fit the geography of Wales? Better still, will she consider the other option, the status quo, but with extra resources for north Wales and south Wales to deal with the level 2 problem? We should also consider how the basic command units and community policing will work out in practice. We should try to make real improvements on level 2 crimes by other means before making what I believe will be a bad mistake for policing as a whole in Wales.