Police and Justice Bill

I am certainly not confused. I am absolutely clear about what the Bill is designed to achieve. It is about implementing the things that were in our White Paper about devolving power to local people, engaging local communities and making sure that they have more of a say in what happens. The Government are committed to the tripartite balance that is important to ensure the independence of policing in this country. We want to make sure that we have appropriate powers at the centre, but that there are also strong operational powers, through the chief constables and particularly through BCU commanders. We will do that by putting them on a statutory footing. We also want to ensure that the new police authorities have increased powers. For the first time, their power to hold the chief constable to account will be in statute, and they will be given further powers through secondary legislation. In particular, they will be given the responsibility to consider diversity in policing, which will be an extremely important power for them to have. As I said, the increased involvement of locally elected councillors through the crime and disorder reduction partnerships will strengthen the tripartite balance so that we do not risk the danger of our policing losing its independence. The issue of elected police authorities was raised. More than 18 months ago we consulted, through the White Paper, about whether there should be directly elected police authorities. The rejection of that option was virtually unanimous. There were a number of serious objections, including the danger of extremist groups obtaining representation, particularly if there was a low turnout in the elections, and the potential for single issue groups to dominate. Liberal Democrat Members have raised some of those concerns in relation to the community call for action. Another consideration was a possible move to a much more short-term approach. If elections were approaching, there would be a real temptation to direct resources into the area of the greatest political and electoral advantage. There would be the potential for the politicisation of the various accountability bodies. Any move to direct elections needs to be thought about extremely seriously. As long ago as 1994, the right hon. and learned Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Mr. Howard) said:"““I reject entirely the view . . . that there should be directly elected police authorities. That would be a recipe for politicising the police service.””—[Official Report, 26 April 1994; Vol. 242, c. 112–13.]" Presumably the Conservatives have entirely rejected their previous position and want direct election. Have they taken into account the whole series of serious objections that people have because of the possibility of direct elections skewing the important democratic balance of the tripartite relationship that has served this country extremely well by ensuring the independence, particularly the political independence, of our police service?