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Neighbourhood Policing

I will not, because we are very short of time and I want the Minister to have a proper crack at answering these questions. I hope that my hon. Friend will forgive me. Hon. Members on both sides of the House spoke about reducing red tape. One proposal has been de-emphasised by Sir Ronnie. In his interim report on 11 September, he strongly recommended that the Association of Chief Police Officers and the National Policing Improvement Agency draft a national suite of streamlined forms containing minimum reporting requirements by summer 2008. Conservatives support that, but we do not seem to be having much success. If anyone speaks to ACPO and the NPIA, as I did yesterday, there is not much evidence of a national suite of forms with minimum reporting requirements being produced by the summer of this year, as Sir Ronnie originally wished to see. Perhaps the Minister can comment on that. We are not going to have better and more effective neighbourhood policing unless the Government get serious at a national level on cutting red tape and reducing bureaucracy. I want to give the Minister enough time to answer those questions, so I shall just make the following points. He will agree that it is not acceptable that the proportion of time spent by patrol officers on patrol fell from 18 to 17.1 per cent between 2003-04 and 2006-07, based on the Government's own figures up to 2007. Unless those figures are reversed, they cast doubt on the effectiveness of the neighbourhood policing programme in the next year and beyond. There are also some rather depressing figures about police station closures in the past 10 years. Freedom of information requests reveal that, to date, 550 have shut their doors. We also need clarity on the single non-emergency number. In his final review in February, Sir Ronnie Flanagan highlighted the importance of the 101 non-emergency number in acting as a catalyst for improved partnership working between the police and other agencies. Will the Minister tell us about funding for the 101 number, because there are question marks over that? Finally, proper implementation of the neighbourhood policing programme requires proper and stable funding. That is the view of all who have looked at the matter. Will the Minister accept recommendation No. 30 of Sir Ronnie Flanagan's report, which states:"““The NPIA should, by April 2008 have agreed a funded programme for the next three years to continue to support forces to embed Neighbourhood Policing””?" Is that something that we will see in April 2008? If not, why not?