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Neighbourhood Policing

I entirely agree with my hon. Friend. Those in public service need to know that they will be treated fairly and that, if independent arbitration systems are put in place, they will be honoured except in the most exceptional circumstances, which would have to be demonstrated using the affirmative procedure in Parliament. I hope that we never reach that situation. The second issue is a problem, and as the Minister is present, I should like to have another crack at it. I am sure that I shall be supported by Members with constituencies not only in the Thames valley but throughout south-east England. The issue is the haemorrhage of police officers from Thames Valley police to the Metropolitan police. Over the past five years, we have lost 388 police officers to the Met, but the problem is worse than that, because they tend to be firearms officers, detectives and road policing officers. The chief constable of Thames Valley police, Sara Thornton, says:"““This is a disproportionately high number of specialist officers, who are more experienced and highly trained. It seems likely that this proportion will rise in future years because of the high demand for specialist trained officers for the 2012 Olympics, the increased risk of terrorism, and other factors such as the opening of Terminal 5 at Heathrow.""The loss of specialist officers impact in two ways: it leaves a capability gap, and increases the recruitment and training costs to replace the lost officers.””" In Thames Valley police, it costs £55,000 to train a patrol constable, £63,000 for a detective constable and £77,500 for a firearms constable—not insignificant figures. The chief constable observes:"““One of the factors cited by police officers who left or are thinking of leaving is the increased pay in the MPS””—" the Metropolitan Police Service—"““due to the London Allowance, compared to the South East England Allowance, and the difficulties of buying a house because of high property prices in the South East. Police officers are £4,393 p.a. better off by transferring to the MPS, in addition to free travel on public transport up to a radius of 70 miles.""A key point is that the South East England Allowance is frozen, while the London Allowance increases with inflation. When it was set in 2003 the differential was £4,000, it is now £4,393.””" The situation is worsening. Several hon. Members went to see the Home Secretary, and I am sure that we were all grateful to her, because she very courteously listened to what we had to say. We do not criticise police officers who move, as anyone who has skills must be allowed to transfer them, but the difficulty in the Thames valley is that we are spending money on training police officers and then losing our most experienced officers. It would be fairer if police officers in the Thames valley got the same kind of pay and settlement as those in the Met. It is difficult to see why police officers in Slough should get one rate of pay while those just across the border in Uxbridge should get so much more. It is also daft that a police officer who lives in Banbury can travel to work in London for free, as police officers have free travel, thus taking the benefit of their skills and knowledge away from the Thames valley and my constituents. That issue cannot rumble on; it must be addressed. Let me turn from the matters that are of concern to neighbourhood policing. The other day, I spent a day with neighbourhood police officers in Bicester, and I was extremely impressed by what I saw. There are three groups—established police officers, police community support officers and street wardens—and I was impressed by the mutual respect that they have for one another. I was particularly impressed by the respect that regular police officers have for PCSOs, and vice versa, and by the way in which all three teams work together. PCSOs focus on areas in which they can make a difference, such as neighbourhood environmental quality. They respond positively to the concerns and needs of young people, and they deal with litter, antisocial behaviour and graffiti. One young PCSO has shown great initiative. She took it upon herself to write to Network Rail to ask what it was doing about the homophobic graffiti under a bridge in an underpass through which many people walk between housing estates and Bicester town centre. She did not receive a satisfactory answer, so I took the matter up with the chief executive of Network Rail. We eventually got it sorted, and the underpass has been painted. Similarly, the district council has now put litter bins in an area where the PCSOs had picked up a lot of litter. I was impressed to hear that the same PCSO, when she realised that a derelict factory was being used as a refuse dump, tracked down the owner and told them to get it sorted. Regular police officers probably would not have time to do that, and the matter would not necessarily be picked up by street wardens. My impression is that everyone works together positively in Bicester—I am sure that that happens in other towns—and that it is making a real difference. However, there are also concerns about PCSOs, such as their pay, which is not fantastic. It is fine for young, single people, but I suspect that it is not a great salary for married PCSOs whose pay is the only family income. Also, it is difficult to see what the promotional prospects will be for PCSOs, although I am glad that quite a lot of them in my patch eventually transfer into the regular police force. That creates a good opportunity for each side to evaluate the other and works well. However, there might be issues about the long-term career and pay structure for PCSOs. I do not see neighbourhood policing as a problem. In fact, it is very positive and everyone understands where it fits in. In my patch, it is a good news story. The final issue that I want to discuss is neighbourhood watch. One advantage of being my own Member of Parliament is that, when I write to myself, I always agree with what I have to say, and I should like to share with the Chamber my views about neighbourhood watch. The traditional, old-fashioned neighbourhood watch scheme has something of Miss Marple about it and may have passed its sell-by date. Villagers think of themselves as living in villages, but people in towns do not think of themselves as living in neighbourhoods, except perhaps those in the Grimsbury area of Banbury. However, people recognise that the relationship between neighbours is important. We could introduce variations on neighbourhood watch, such as neighbour schemes that invite people to act as neighbours. Given that most future policing will have to be intelligence-led, the police will frequently need information, so people should be encouraged to give relevant information. In addition to the telephone numbers that people can use to give information, we should make better use of websites. We could increase people's ability to send information, perhaps anonymously, by text or electronically to local websites, such as a Banbury neighbours site. Keeping young people on side is also important to intelligence-led policing. A difficulty with neighbourhood policing is that, if we are not careful, we can give the impression that all young people are a problem. When I go out with my two children, my son says to me, ““Look, dad, you've got to be very careful; if we meet another youngster and they join us, we will be a group of feral youth, and you will be associated with a group of feral youth.”” There is a danger that younger people will feel that way. They will often have intelligence and other information that they could send by text, so we need to have mechanisms by which they can do so. Another variation of the neighbourhood watch scheme could be to use e-mail, which most people use. If we wrote to people locally to ask for their e-mail addresses for a positive purpose, most of them would respond. If the local police had the e-mail addresses of people in Banbury, they could send them updates about neighbourhood policing once a quarter. They could also send out instant alerts, for example, if the M40 is closed, which it is from time to time, or if they were looking for particular people. There is two-way traffic with information and intelligence, but how do we bring in the community? The community wants to be brought into neighbourhood policing, but the difficulty with neighbourhood watch is that it has depended very much on everything going through neighbourhood watch co-ordinators. With interactive websites and e-mail, the community could be more involved, especially if local authorities contributed, and the whole issue could be more positive. I find it difficult to get Ministers to visit my constituency. I wanted the Secretary of State for Health to come, and I offered to lose two stone before Easter, but even that did not persuade him to visit Horton hospital. I should like the Minister for Security, Counter-Terrorism, Crime and Policing to come at some time. [Interruption.] The hon. Member for Stafford laughs, but it is almost impossible to get Labour Ministers to visit our constituencies. That is bad policy, because they do not see what is happening in middle England. What is happening in middle England on policing is good news, but I would welcome a visit to north Oxfordshire from the Minister for Security, Counter-Terrorism, Crime and Policing to see the good work that is being done by neighbourhood policing, and so that we can bend his ear about the outflow of officers from the Thames valley to the Met. I should also like the opportunity to suggest to him in person that we can make neighbourhood policing even more interactive and involve the community much more, not at the expense of police authorities' budgets, but in other ways. That would get everyone in the community involved in helping the police to tackle and reduce crime by providing them with intelligence.