Fighting Crime (Public Engagement)

I thank my right hon. Friend for his warm welcome, for which I am particularly grateful as he is Chairman of the Home Affairs Committee. He makes an important point. Communication will be a hugely important part of the pledge. As I have said, one of the things that undermines the confidence of local communities is their not knowing what has happened in relation to a crime that they have been the victim of. It is also important to remember that the pledge is not only national; there will also be a local aspect to it, negotiated at local level. I have always felt that that one issue can undermine policing in an area. Sometimes there is a problem with a young person or a serial offender and their victims complain to the police. A few weeks later, people meet the victims and ask them how things are and they say, ““Oh, it's a lot better. By the way, what's happened to so and so?”” They do not know that the offender has been arrested, been charged and is in custody. Although they end up being informed of that, knowing that something has been done about somebody who has caused problems is reassuring for the victim and the community. My right hon. Friend has raised a real issue, and we will make sure that it plays an important part in the work that we are doing. To help to ensure that the police are accountable for their pledge, we propose that crime and policing representatives be elected by each community to chair the district's crime and disorder reduction partnership and sit on the police authority. They will be one of the main voices of the community and provide a much needed point of contact for those around them. More on that will be announced in due course. The Home Secretary recently announced an investment of £5 million to establish a community crime fighter programme to help local people to tackle crime in their neighbourhood. By the end of next year, more than 3,600 local people will be trained as community crime fighters—that represents one person for each of the neighbourhood policing teams. The Home Secretary also announced this week the 60 pioneer areas, covering almost 15 million people—more than one in four of the population of England and Wales—that have committed to work with the Government and push their local services further and faster, to get more effectively on their local public's side in the fight against crime, thus taking forward some of the key recommendations in Louise Casey's review. The public want the police to be visible in their local streets. There are 13,500 police sergeants and constables supported by 16,000 police community support officers, the specials and police staff. We now have a network of teams and officers dedicated to their local communities. To answer specifically the point made by the hon. Member for Kettering, I should say that we will have 6,000 new special constables over the next three years, and that we are also investing £2.25 million that will see 20,000 special constables working alongside police community support officers. As I said, last Friday—Halloween evening—I was out with special constables in my area. It was particularly reassuring to see how they were integrated with the neighbourhood policing team, rather than being a bolt-on or add-on service that just turned up. They were an integral part of what was happening to tackle crime in the area. I am sure that the Members who have mentioned specials and been out with them will have seen that for themselves in their own areas. It would be remiss of me not to thank the specials for the sometimes dangerous work that they do, and I also thank all our police officers, PCSOs and police staff very publicly for what they do on our behalf. This year, more than 400 local agencies took part in ““Not in my neighbourhood”” week, which provides local partners—including crime and disorder reduction partnerships, local police, neighbourhood watch schemes and community organisations—with a national banner under which they can publicise the work being done to tackle crime and antisocial behaviour. However, successful neighbourhood policing is not about telling the police what needs to be done and then sitting back on our laurels. We need to establish dialogue. The neighbourhood policing approach needs people to get involved and to work with the police and other local agencies in taking back some of the ground lost to antisocial behaviour and, where necessary, reclaiming the streets, parks, buses and other public spaces for the law-abiding majority. I am pleased that that is happening in communities throughout England and Wales.