Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill

It is clear throughout the Bill that the reduction of crime, which involves the prevention of crime, is core to everything. Clause 7(1)(a) states that the plan must include the PCC's police and crime objectives. Later, Clause 7 defines police and crime objectives as including objectives for crime and disorder reduction. In Clause 102, crime and disorder reduction is defined as, "““reduction of crime and disorder (including antisocial and other behaviour and adversely affecting the local environment) … combating the misuse of drugs, alcohol and other substances, and … reduction of reoffending””." I recognise that part of what the noble Lord, Lord Soley, wants to get at is the range of other agencies involved in crime prevention beyond the police. We all recognise that crime prevention in the broadest sense, as well as the reduction of reoffending, is not a matter for the police alone and involves much of the work of community safety partnerships working with a range of other agencies, some public and others in the voluntary sector. That is a problem we have in all aspects of government: however you draw the line for the number of the tasks that you wish to perform, you must always co-operate with others. We had not anticipated that the question of funding would come into the debate on the amendment but, as the noble Lord is well aware, crime prevention is funded partly through the police, partly through local authorities and partly through the Ministry of Justice and Home Office budgets through a range of channels, in which community and safety partnerships play a large role. In recent months, I visited a number in Yorkshire. They are examples of different agencies, including the police, working together to reduce inner-city crime, burglary, drugs-related crime and alcohol-related crime and so on. That is very much part of what has been practised over the past 15 or 20 years, and much of what happened under the previous Government contributed to that. As we all know, alcohol and drug-related crime is a very serious problem, and we will touch on some aspects of that during later stages of the Bill. A police and crime plan is of course a plan about reduction and prevention in the broadest sense. It requires intervention as far as possible in the early stages of anti-social behaviour and so on, and it is also very much concerned with reducing reoffending and preventing the development of persistent and prolific offenders, with whom I am afraid we are all too familiar. The noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, referred to local authorities, and I think that one or two noble Lords raised the question of how this Bill relates to the Localism Bill and other aspects of legislation currently under way—something with which we must all be very concerned. We will look at the references to local authorities across the Bill to see whether that needs to be re-examined, and we will certainly look at the Localism Bill to see how far the two are meant to be compatible. That also applies to what the noble Baroness, Lady Doocey, said about the discrepancy in the powers to reject London strategies. I end by saying simply that the core business of policing is to reduce crime. The Bill encourages police and crime commissioners to consult widely with others. They will clearly include not only police and crime panels but local authorities and other voluntary and public agencies, as one would expect as the plan is developed and varied. I hope that noble Lords will accept that the plans may well need to be varied when circumstances change. I encourage the noble Lord to withdraw his amendment.