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Police Restructuring

It is always a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Crewe and Nantwich (Mrs. Dunwoody), who chaired the Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs Committee when I was a member of it during an earlier Parliament. As usual, I agreed with a great deal of what she said, which may explain why Her Majesty has yet to receive advice that the hon. Lady should be invited to join her Privy Council. I hope that the oversight will be rectified in due course. As a Surrey Member, I am well aware that the two most recent chief constables in Surrey have been Sir Ian Blair and Denis O’Connor. They may not be entirely happy when I say what consummate politicians they both are. We should read Denis O’Connor’s words with great care, and take account of his reservations about the applicability of his report to police restructuring as a whole. My understanding is that he was invited to consider just one—albeit important—aspect of restructuring, but the Government have taken the report to apply to the police in general.