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Police and Justice Bill

I would not necessarily mention Salford; I said that the hon. and learned Gentleman could come to Manchester, which is very different from saying that we would welcome him in Salford. The hon. Member for Arundel and South Downs (Nick Herbert), who opened the debate for the Opposition, emphasised, as did a number of his Opposition colleagues, that in his view, the Bill was very much about centralisation. I simply tell him that he is wrong about centralisation, and about all the provisions of the Bill. He is relatively new to his post speaking on police reform. If he cared to examine the White Paper, ““Building Communities, Beating Crime””, which we originally published in November 2004, he would see that it represented a significant departure from where policing had been until that point. That White Paper was about engaging local communities, building neighbourhood policing and introducing neighbourhood police teams that would work with local residents to set priorities. When we debated that White Paper, it was a bit of a revolution, because we were making a huge step change. What I have heard in tonight’s debate is that Conservative and Liberal Democrat Members have come on to our territory of localism, empowerment, neighbourhood policing and community engagement. I am absolutely delighted that the new Conservatives have now decided that the territory that is popular with the public involves talking about neighbourhood policing and how we engage communities. When I first started to talk in the House about community engagement, I used to get horrified looks from the Opposition, who were asking themselves, ““What is this woman going on about? Neighbourhood teams and engaging local people—so much claptrap!”” But what do we see now? They are desperate to be on the same territory.