Crime and Security Bill

I would not pretend that statistics relating to ethnicity and crime are not complex. We need to look at the causes of crime and the age groups involved and all sorts of issues. However, it should concern us that there are considerable disproportionalities between one population and another. That certainly happens with the stop and search, as I mentioned. A young black male is much more likely to be stopped and searched, and in London in particular, in recent years, the stop and search of young Asian men has increased. In turn, that is reflected in the DNA database. The retention of the DNA data of someone who has not been charged with, let alone convicted of, an offence is a basic issue. The right hon. Member for Haltemprice and Howden gave some specific examples, so let me give a couple concerning people I have dealt with in the past few months. One 15-year-old girl was accused, exactly as the right hon. Gentleman suggested, by another girl in the same school. There was an argument at school and there was perhaps a little bit of pushing one way or the other, and that girl ended up being arrested and is now on the DNA database. When her mother and I asked for her data to be removed, the answer was no. I looked at the procedure that is currently used in the Metropolitan police. Its guidance on removing people from the database states that""exceptional cases will be extremely rare"" and gives examples of when that might happen, which include""where the original arrest was found to be unlawful"" or when "no offence" whatever "existed". The reality is that virtually no one is removed. That 15-year-old will remain on the database. I have had two examples in the past few months of Asian men—one in his 30s, one in his 50s—who had been on holiday to visit relatives in the US. On their way back through Gatwick and Heathrow, they were stopped under anti-terrorism powers and their DNA samples were taken. In neither case has there been any charge, nor is there going to be. That is quite clear. However, from what the Home Secretary said in his opening speech, those two men, who have not been charged or convicted, and who have no previous record whatever, may remain on the database for years, because they were stopped and questioned under anti-terrorism powers. I cannot see what the hard evidence is to support the proposals in the Bill. I heard the statistics the Home Secretary mentioned, but the basis for his argument from those statistics is extreme flimsy—it was based on thin research that has not decided anything definitively. That the data are thin has been admitted, and yet they are the basis on which we are going to bring in primary legislation that specifies the number of years for which data can be held. At the very least, we should be looking at a measure that allows the number of years to be changed quickly and easily if we get the definitive research that I believe we need. It is almost a no-smoke-without-fire argument: the fact that somebody has been arrested at one point leads to the assumption that they are more likely to commit a crime than somebody who has not been arrested. The evidence to back that up that I have seen—the hard evidence, based on solid data going back over a significant period—seems remarkably thin. I do not think we should be going down that road on the basis of data of that standard. Finally, I welcome another part of the Bill that the Home Secretary mentioned—the measures to regulate wheel-clamping. That has been a real nightmare to deal with in many areas, and certainly in my constituency. I have seen a number of cases of the absolute abuse of power by private companies carrying out wheel-clamping on private land. I have seen cases of people who work in shops—not shop owners—being conned into signing a contract with a company, which then comes along and clamps people in the back alleyway behind the shop. I have seen cases of people being clamped on a garage forecourt after they have simply gone into the shop to buy something. They have come out to find that they are being charged £400 or some other ridiculous amount of money to release their car. I welcome measures to deal with that. The Bill contains the power to regulate, and what we need as soon as possible is the statutory code of practice that will put the detail into effect. That is what is needed, not just the requirement for the companies to register. Alongside that, I hope that we can also use this Bill to consider some of the other activities of private security companies. I am really concerned about how many areas they operate in. I dealt recently with the case of a constituent who had had a problem in a department store. The private security company involved handled her somewhat roughly, she was thrown out of the store and banned from entering it again. She was also accused of being racist, but that was totally untrue, as the store eventually admitted. However, she had no comeback against the store, because the private security company was responsible. Such companies operate in far too many places, and they seem to operate without any significant regulation. They may have to be registered and obtain licences from the Security Industry Authority, but if they behave badly it is difficult to get anything done about it.