My Lords, I rise in support of the Motion moved by the noble Baroness, Lady Harris. I declare an interest as a former member of the Police Federation—which every officer is, as the noble Baroness said—and also as a former president of the Police Superintendents’ Association of England and Wales. It concerns me that a police service that is held in very high regard throughout the world is to some extent being trampled into the ground. The police service lost the right to take industrial action in 1919. It does not seek to have the right to strike, but since it does not have that right, it is entitled to expect fair treatment.
The Police Federation has not been perfect. It has made mistakes—we acknowledge that, and the police service will acknowledge that. However, this regulation goes a step too far, as the noble Baroness, Lady Harris, pointed out. It is probably reasonable to give officers the option of whether to join the Police Federation, which at the moment is not the case: it is a closed shop. Whether officers should have to pay dues is a difficult issue, because funding is critical for the federation to do its job of representing its members in legal cases and going round the country doing what it does.
Crucially, the police are in such a position that they have to be treated fairly by the Government. I know that there have been one or two skirmishes with the Government—I am thinking of Downing Street-gate, as it is called—and I hope that this is not simply revenge for that type of incident. The police service is far too important for this type of trivia to be brought upon the Police Federation with that purpose in mind.
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There is room for reform. The Normington proposals recommend reforms and the Police Federation accepts reforms. But the noble Baroness, Lady Harris, is absolutely right to bring this Motion before the House. I certainly support it, particularly her point about an organisation that says, “You needn’t join the Police Federation, but should you find yourself in difficulty and therefore require its services, you are not prohibited from joining, for that reason alone, to get the benefits from the organisation and then simply withdraw when things go smoothly”. That is grossly unfair.
I hope that the Government’s motives are not those to which I alluded and that they will give deep thought to this issue. The police service in this country is extremely important. It does not have the right to strike for obvious reasons. It is such a critical organisation, particularly at present when cuts are obviously affecting manpower. There is a restriction of a 1% pay rise for the next few years, which applies to other members of the public sector. Morale is particularly low at present. The Police Federation has just held a survey and I have never seen such figures. Usually you get people complaining about this and that but this serious survey suggests that the service is feeling really badly about itself. It is not the time to kick the service when it is down. I hope that that is not the intention of the Government. We do not want to destroy what I believe is the best police service in the world.