---

Police and Justice Bill

I must first apologise to you, Mr. Speaker, for the absence of my hon. Friend the Member for Hornsey and Wood Green (Lynne Featherstone), who is attending to vital constituency business but who will join the debate as soon as she can. I congratulate the Minister on his new responsibilities. It is very impressive to hear new Labour Ministers quoting Edmund Burke; indeed, it must be a first. I suggest that he leaven it with a little John Stuart Mill from ““On Liberty””, which might be useful in this debate. If I were optimistic, I would detect a slight softening of the Government’s position in new clause 4. The suggestion that huge super-forces may not be such a clever idea after all is a welcome development, as is the proposal to delegate some authority to deputy chief constables or area committees. If it is the beginning of backtracking on the super-forces, I am pleased to see it. I notice that the Minister credits Welsh MPs with some of the arguments that have persuaded him on the new clause, but there are plenty of other examples from my area in the south-west.