division_name: Policing and Crime
motion: <p class="indent" pid="d783.3/2" pwmotiontext="yes">That this House notes that since 2010 police officer numbers have been reduced by almost 21,000; further notes that some violent crime, including knife crime, has risen to record levels; notes that youth services, including early intervention, have been decimated by a decade of austerity; notes that prosecution rates have fallen sharply; notes that on current plans many police forces will still be left with fewer officers than in 2010; and therefore calls on the Government to recruit 2,000 more frontline police officers than they plan and re-establish neighbourhood policing.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d785.1/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Following a long-term reduction, levels of crime have remained broadly stable in recent years&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d785.1/6" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Over the past five years there has been a rise in the prevalence of sexual assault&#8230;with the latest estimate returning to levels similar to those over a decade ago.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d787.2/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;welcomes the Government&#8217;s commitment to the people&#8217;s priorities to drive down crime in all its forms including serious and violent crime; further welcomes the Government&#8217;s commitment to recruit 20,000 additional police officers and increase police funding to its highest level in over a decade, including over &#163;100m to tackle serious violence; and welcomes the Government&#8217;s intention to bring forward the necessary legislation which will provide police officers with the powers and tools they need to bring criminals to justice and give victims a greater voice.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d794.2/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The move to a single police force has transformed the way rape and other sexual crimes are investigated in Scotland. It has allowed far greater consistency of approach, including to the training of police officers and to the use of specialist officers.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d796.1/7" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;It is important to acknowledge that Scotland has turned its record on violence around.&#8221;&#8212;[Scottish Parliament Official Report, <phrase class="date" code="2020-09-20">20 September</phrase> 2018; c. 61.]</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d803.2/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Auld Ayr, wham ne&#8217;er a town surpasses, For honest men and bonnie lasses&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d808.0/10" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;does not demonstrate evidence of recruitment and retention problems and a resulting impact on operational service delivery&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d819.0/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;From my experience in Rotherham I am convinced that we need a national strategy to tackle organised child abuse. Criminals do not observe local authority or police force boundaries. Locally, there are neither the resources, or expertise, to tackle organised child abuse, by which I mean gang-related child sexual exploitation, institutional abuse, paedophile rings and prolific abusers.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d820.1/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Thank you for your letter of <phrase class="date" code="2020-09-03">3 September</phrase> to the Home Secretary seeking an update on Home Office activity to understand the characteristics of group-based child sexual exploitation&#8230;In your letter you emphasise the need for research and the importance of sharing relevant findings with agencies tasked with protecting vulnerable children and young people and disrupting offenders&#8230;I recognise that the Home Office is uniquely placed to provide some of this insight, protecting operationally sensitive information where it is appropriate and necessary. Officials will consider the most appropriate approach in sharing this work and will advise Ministers, including the Home Secretary, in due course.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d820.1/8" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The report&#8217;s conclusions make profoundly disturbing reading. South Yorkshire police failed the child multiple times, and by doing so, led her to be exposed to long-term horrific abuse. It is particularly concerning that the report upholds a complaint against a senior officer and that it has not been possible for this officer to be identified.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d820.1/9" pwmotiontext="yes">As I am sure you would agree, I do not believe it is possible for Rotherham to have confidence in its police force whilst officers found to have failed so badly, and with such catastrophic consequences, are not held to account for their actions. I would therefore welcome your assurances that every effort will be made to identify officers involved, and that any possible misconduct will be both investigated and action taken, including where appropriate, disciplinary action.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d832.0/10" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;For many years it has been an unspoken secret&#8212;something that senior police officers sniggered about behind their hands&#8212;that the formula that was put in place 10 years ago was so manifestly unfair, but nevertheless politically sensitive, that politicians would never have the courage to meddle with it. During the four years that I was deputy Mayor for policing, there were constant complaints about the police formula and nobody really had the cojones, if that is parliamentary language, to get a grip on it.&#8221;&#8212;[Official Report, <phrase class="date" code="2020-11-04">4 November</phrase> 2015; Vol. 601, c. 1060.]</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="d836.1/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Our love of our country begins with love of our neighbourhoods.&#8221;</p>