Fighting Crime (Public Engagement)

I thank the Minister for that prompt. We must value good neighbours. The good neighbour is one of the building blocks of a successful local community policing scheme. The other building block is the beat police officer. I have been to numerous residents' meetings at which residents have nothing good to say about the police and their response time, but at which they praise the beat officer as if he were the new messiah. That is because they see the beat officer regularly. They do not hold the beat officer responsible for anything that goes wrong with the criminal justice system. They see that beat officer, and are very grateful. The system has somehow become detached from the person who is seen as the local bobby. We need to make sure that the system is re-engaged; what people see should somehow be fed into a system, so that there is a network to inform people that crime is occurring. Again, I do not wish to stray into what the Home Affairs Committee will say in our report next week, but empowering citizens is important. Police should be given the confidence to realise that when people ring regularly, they are not a nuisance; they are there to help them. Sometimes, we get feedback suggesting that if people ring regularly, the attitude towards them is, ““Why do they keep ringing us? We can't do anything about it.”” We have a problem with quad bikes in Hamilton in my constituency. The quad bikes are out every weekend, and the residents ring the police station every Monday. The police feel very upset about that, because there is nothing that they can do other than rush out and arrest the young people, but they feel that they do not have the resources to do so. A partnership is needed, and that is the basis of how we can proceed. My final point in this very important debate is that it is absolutely crucial that the Government try to build a better consensus with the Opposition parties on this issue. As to whether we need a forum in which to do that, I do not know. There are clever people in the Home Office—some of them are here today—who, I am sure, will work up some initiatives for the Minister. Somehow, we need to raise the issue above party politics, and if we can do that and pool the good ideas that exist in all parts of the House, we can fashion a new era of policing for our country. I think that we have the best police officers in the world, actually. They are brave and hard-working, but we must understand that we need to re-engage them positively with the rest of the community. Somehow, we need to involve everyone in that process, and I know that the Minister, who is consensual not confrontational, will want to think about the ways in which he can build on all the ideas that we have put forward today. There is not a huge attendance in the House, and it may be something to do with the fact that something is happening in Scotland later this evening, but we can build on this consensus and take up these new ideas. If the Minister were to return to the House with these new ideas, we could debate them again and try to fashion a programme that was acceptable to the whole country and to all the political parties.