Fighting Crime (Public Engagement)

The Minister is generous in giving way three times in rapid succession. I, too, went out with the specials—in Chesterfield last Friday night as part of national specials week. I spent seven hours on the beat with Section Officer Mick Bagshaw and a number of other specials. That night, 11 specials were on duty, and that doubled the police presence in Chesterfield—it was Halloween, and a lot more low-level mischief calls and so on were expected. The specials were very effective. However, because Derbyshire is the fourth worst funded police authority in the country, it cannot afford enough vehicles to ensure that the specials have the mobility that vehicles provide. The specials do a lot of beat work as well, of course, but the shortage of vehicles is a big problem. The Government themselves say that Derbyshire needs £5 million more a year, but will not give it the money. Can that problem not be resolved, so that more specials, more police community support officers, which whom I shall be going out on the beat shortly, and more regular officers—I have already been out on the beat with some of them—get back on patrol?