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Policing in London

I do not always agree with my Prime Minister. The truth is, however, that he and this Government have put all the investment into the expansion of these services, so let us look at records rather than take words out of context. In Westminster, we have taken an integrated approach involving the police, the sports unit, the youth service, Positive Futures and the use of Government money to establish a significantly improved level of youth and sporting activity. Last summer, the summer action programme—with support from Positive Futures—recorded a 50 per cent. drop in youth crime during the time in which it was operating. At Easter, we ran a Unity in the Community football tournament that took 500 young people, most of whom were not involved in any formal activities, off the street and into a football programme. The police teams said that they spent the entire weekend patrolling the streets but could not find any young people. Why? Because they were all engaged in activities that are not always on offer. So, when people say that this is a soft way of approaching crime, let us look at the statistics. When we provide these services, we get young people off the streets and the estates and youth crime falls. That is something that every local authority needs seriously to consider, because the level of provision is not only patchy at the moment but highly vulnerable to the financial pressures that we are now facing.