Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill

My Lords, I do not think that some of the issues that we are discussing in these amendments are rhetorical matters. My Amendment 239 approaches the issues which my noble friend Lady Henig raised in Amendment 235 from a slightly different perspective. Some 35 hours ago, I sat listening to the Home Secretary introduce the new CONTEST strategy for the United Kingdom. That document, which pulls together the efforts being made to counter terrorism, is fundamental to the issues that we are talking about here in relation to the national strategic policing requirement. Of course, this document describes the importance of having a national network feeding in to the counterterrorist effort—if we do not have such a national network, we cannot deliver effective counterterrorist policing. That is why it is so important that the Government have put the strategic policing requirement into the Bill. What makes it difficult for us in your Lordships’ House to consider these matters tonight is that, of course, no one, as far as I am aware—certainly none of your Lordships—has yet seen the strategic policing requirement, or a draft thereof. When I have listened to senior police officers, they say that there are a number of building blocks for anyone to understand how this legislation will work. One of those building blocks is the memorandum that we have seen—the Minister has promised us that she will come back to us on whether that will be part of the Bill. Another key building block is what is going to be contained in the strategic policing requirement. Until we see that, we cannot see what will be the balance of responsibilities for chief officers of police. I hope that we will at least see a draft of the strategic policing requirement before the Bill goes to Third Reading. I had understood that something was due to be published some while back for consultation. As far as I am aware, unless it has appeared very recently, nothing has yet been published.