Policing and Crime Bill

My Lords, this amendment probes Clause 11. I hope that this will be turn out to be an area in which we share the objective. Clause 11 allows the Secretary of State to make regulations on the standards of police equipment for one or more police forces in order to promote efficiency and effectiveness. Clause 12 allows the Secretary of State to make regulations to require one or more police forces to adopt particular procedures and practices in order to facilitate joint or co-ordinated operations. Does the Minister accept that there have been problems, which are not limited to the police but extend across all emergency services, in responding to large-scale events such as terrorist attacks or natural disasters, because forces do not always share the same equipment and procedures? Arguably, the ability of the emergency services to work together is hindered by a lack of national standards. Will the Minister therefore say how far the Secretary of State’s existing powers to set regulations for equipment for all police forces and to require all police forces to adopt particular procedures and practices have been used to date? We on these Benches believe without question in the operational independence of the emergency services, but see the need for national standards to help to ensure interoperability. Secondly, can the Minister say how far the Government intend to use these powers to achieve this desired interoperability on the basis of national standards in relation, in particular, to the police?