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Tackling Crime (Plymouth)

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr. McCrea, and to listen to the wise words of my hon. Friend the Member for Plymouth, Sutton (Linda Gilroy). I congratulate her on securing this important debate and on her long-standing commitment to the issue, which has been shown outside our short debate today. She has been a strong local champion for the people whom she represents. We share her concern and commitment to ensuring that we maintain reductions in crime and antisocial behaviour. We take the issue very seriously. I am pleased to note from my hon. Friend's comments that Plymouth reflects the continued national downward trend in crime and disorder. As she said, overall crime is down nationally by 36 per cent. and there have been bigger reductions in burglary and vehicle crime and violent crime. The south-west is a relatively low-crime area and overall crime is lower in Plymouth than in many similar areas nationally. However, given that Plymouth is an urban centre, the figures are, of course, slightly higher than those for the surrounding areas. Many types of crime are declining, such as theft of vehicles, burglary, criminal damage and violence, and they are continuing to fall even during a recession. The accepted wisdom was that there would be a big increase in crime during a recession, but that has not happened. Part of the reason for that is the proactive response from not just the Government, but all agencies on the ground, including those in Plymouth. We have put measures in place for the longer term—for example, more effective action is being taken to tackle domestic abuse and families are safer as a result. I join my hon. Friend in congratulating Plymouth on being awarded a green flag in 2009 through the comprehensive area assessment for protecting the public during large-scale emergencies. I agree with the central theme of her speech, which is the importance of good local working. In order to tackle crime and disorder successfully, it is vital that key local stakeholders work in partnership together. Crime is being tackled locally by Plymouth's community safety partnership, which combines the previous crime and reduction disorder partnership with the stronger communities group of the local strategic partnership. A range of public, third sector and business agencies are working well together to keep the city safe, and that provides an inclusive, integrated approach to tackling the city's safety issues. That is important because tackling crime and disorder is not just a matter for the police, the local authority or, indeed, the Government; it is a matter for the whole community. The key to tackling crime and antisocial behaviour is for good local partnerships to work together. My hon. Friend drew attention to Operation Talents, which is a highly innovative and successful way in which local groups can work together to consider how things can be done more effectively. The key is to trust local people and local partnerships. It is about not only sharing responsibilities but focusing on problem solving. We need to understand what is happening in an area and who is causing the problems so that we can target resources on those who blight our local communities, because that will reassure the majority of residents. I am sure that other areas will want to look at Operation Talents and its underlying principles, because it is very much the direction in which we want local partnerships to go. Opting for such a scheme is a matter for local areas, but we, at the Home Office, are very pleased to do everything that we can to support them. When we talk about crime and disorder, people want to know about the local police. Plymouth follows a well recognised neighbourhood policing model. Teams are present in all 43 neighbourhoods in the city's three policing areas. All neighbourhoods have three top priorities agreed through a community engagement and they benefit from a person first, problem solving approach. Nationally, police numbers are at an historic level, and they are supported by 16,000 police and community support officers. I want to reassure my hon. Friend that the Government have guaranteed the funding for warranted officers and PCSOs who do such an important job in her community, and in all our communities. It is about not just numbers but how the police work in an area. Neighbourhood police teams are transforming policing in our local communities, with 80 per cent. of their time being spent on front-line policing. Moreover, they are governed locally by the terms of the policing pledge, which is partly designed locally. They are measured by the confidence that local people have in the police and in their partners. Let me say something about police funding. Given that we live in a changed set of financial circumstances, my hon. Friend has raised some understandable concerns. We have guaranteed that the money will be there for warranted officers and PCSOs into the future. We have already announced a £259 million increase in overall police funding for 2011. None the less, in the longer term, it will be necessary for the police to continue to look for more savings. As my hon. Friend acknowledged, the police in her area are already embarked on such a process. The police service delivered value-for-money improvements of £500 million in 2008-09, and is on track to deliver £1.3 billion per annum by March 2011.