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Policing in London

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for the cross-party cover with which he has provided me. Of course, I agree with him. Before I leave the issue of work force reform, there are other significant ways in which the Met must play a leading role in ensuring value for money and the efficient use of taxpayers’ resources. There are concerns, which the commissioner raised, about the number of officers—nearly 2,000—on restricted duties in the Met. The commissioner correctly argues that that is potentially divisive. There is concern about the number of officers who take time off, which amounted to an average of almost three weeks last year, costing £36 million. More than 2,000 officers were off for more than 28 days. Some tough management decisions will be necessary to ensure that the additional resources that local and national taxpayers have provided to all police forces, including the Met, are deployed effectively. Let me deal with the last key point about the way in which the Met’s performance will be important in future. It comes under the heading of accountability, which we have discussed. The Minister also raised it. The introduction of the post of Mayor and the role that he has played in helping secure additional officers and enhance the accountability of the Met locally have been beneficial. That system replaced arrangements whereby the Met effectively answered to the Home Secretary and it constitutes a significant advance. The model attracts Conservative Members to extending such arrangements to the rest of the country, where possible, or to finding some way of replicating it where there are no mayors. However, I question the Metropolitan Police Authority’s claim that the Metropolitan police have become democratically accountable to Londoners for the first time. A body that is partly appointed cannot claim to be democratically accountable and the boroughs are losing out on the accountability to which they are entitled. In a debate in Committee on the matter and in his intervention, my hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Robert Neill) made effective points. He said that the MPA collects a large share of the precept but some of its members are not elected. The arrangements for the Met’s accountability are slightly over-complicated. They need to be tackled in future and that will probably mean transferring accountability to the elected Assembly, which can be more representative of Londoners. I am sure that methods can be found of including the expertise of unelected individuals, but those who argue that appointed individuals should fulfil functions on the MPA miss the point of what will happen in politics and structures in future. I believe that more authority will be vested in people who are elected and have legitimacy. The public no longer find it acceptable that people over whose position they have no influence should make many decisions about their lives. Plainly, Londoners would like more borough accountability. That is clear from all the surveys that have been conducted. However, there will ultimately be a problem of determining who runs a police force, and formal mechanisms of accountability at borough level would therefore probably be a step too far. I agree that increased answerability of borough commanders and more effective partnership arrangements are the way forward. At the most local level, more could be done to increase the police’s accountability. That could happen through, for example, more regular beat meetings that are open to the public and not held only with selected people. Such meetings should be more widely publicised. Conservative Members have discussed creating a right to policing so that people would know that they could meet their local police officers. Providing information about crime levels in real time could also increase accountability. The Met now makes much more information about crime available on its website to local residents, but it is not in the same league as a city such as Los Angeles, where the police department publishes impressive maps that are available to the public and show crimes that have been committed in their neighbourhood in the past 24 hours. It is a powerful tool for the public, whereby they can express their concern about crime, know where it is happening and hold the police to account. Much more must be done in future. The trend in developing safer neighbourhoods is the right one. I am happy to credit all concerned: the commissioner, the Mayor for partly enabling it to happen and, above all, the public, who wanted it for some time and funded it. However, it has not gone nearly far enough and there is something to learn from cities such as Chicago where such strategies have been in place for longer and trust has built up between the public and local police officers, who are known in their communities. That knowledge is especially important. I have left myself little time to talk about a subject that I suspect other hon. Members will cover: the specific challenge of gangland crime. The report presented to the MPA today reveals that at least 171 gangs operate in the city. Some involve younger children and even young women. It is plainly a serious problem, which is not unique to London, but will require a specific combination of legislation, enforcement and social action. We make a mistake if we believe that only one of those components will tackle the problem. I cannot conclude without mentioning the importance of counter-terrorism to policing in London. As the previous director general of the Security Service reminded us, the threat is at an unprecedented level and increasing. I pay tribute to the work of the Metropolitan police, as well as the security agencies, for helping to thwart various plots and bring the perpetrators to justice. The Metropolitan police are devoting a great deal of attention, energy and resources to confronting the threat. We and all Londoners support them in that. However, when mistakes are made—they have been made—it is important that lessons are learned in a transparent and timely manner. There has been a delay in inquiries into the tragic shooting of de Menezes and the Government continue to stand in the way of an inquiry into the allegations about whether the Security Service knew what was happening before 7/7. It is important to discuss those issues. That does not undermine the Security Service or the police in any way. When possible, an open, transparent and informed debate about such matters would help build confidence and do much to arrest the sort of media attention that currently focuses on them. Two years ago in his Dimbleby lecture, Sir Ian Blair called for a national debate on the future of policing. He asked what sort of police service we want in future. I welcome the way in which the Minister introduced the debate and engaged in that discussion. I welcome the fact that Sir Ronnie Flanagan will conduct a review about increasing local accountability and reducing bureaucracy, which is deeply problematic for delivering more effective policing in future. Conservative Members have contributed substantially to the debate with the publication of our 250-page policy report, which proposes constructive and sometimes bold solutions. When we are perfectly properly and constructively critical of the performance of police forces and ask them to do more, it is important to acknowledge not only the challenges that they face but the contribution that officers make and the way in which they try to do their job. As my hon. Friend the Member for Welwyn Hatfield (Grant Shapps) revealed last week, having obtained information through the Freedom of Information Act 2000, well over 3,000 officers in the Met were assaulted last year in the performance of their duty. Nearly 14,000 were assaulted in the past five years and a significant number of officers in the City of London police were also assaulted. In all our debates about policing and crime levels in London, and when we express concerns on behalf of Londoners and the public that there should be value for money and that the fight against crime should be stepped up, we should not forget the work of police officers on our behalf. They remain the thin blue line between us and the breakdown of law and order.