Browse content similar to 07/01/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Hello and welcome to Monday in Parliament. The main headlines: | :01:31. | :01:36. | |
labour accuses the Home Secretary of complacency after a terror | :01:36. | :01:42. | |
suspect goes missing over Christmas. The reason he was in London was | :01:42. | :01:49. | |
because he gave him -- she gave him a travel pass. People will hold her | :01:49. | :01:55. | |
responsible. And accusation family have rejected by Theresa May. | :01:55. | :02:00. | |
is no complacency whatsoever. The Government is ensuring that the | :02:00. | :02:04. | |
police are doing all that they can to apply hand this particular | :02:04. | :02:09. | |
individual. The more questions for the Government over the mistakes | :02:09. | :02:16. | |
over the West Coast Main Line franchise. I am in no way trying to | :02:16. | :02:22. | |
deflect from the very bad position this leaves the Government in force | :02:22. | :02:27. | |
and the lack of women holding senior positions in business. | :02:27. | :02:32. | |
Accord for politicians to get their own house in order. Just 22 % of | :02:32. | :02:40. | |
the current members of this House and just 18 % of the Cabinet are | :02:40. | :02:45. | |
women. This is disgraceful. It was back to business in the Commons | :02:45. | :02:49. | |
after the Christmas recess kicking off the first Parliamentary day of | :02:49. | :02:55. | |
2013 was Home Office Question Time, but any new year cheer was short | :02:55. | :03:00. | |
lived. Labour blamed a change in government policy of the | :03:00. | :03:07. | |
disappearance of a terror suspect on Boxing Day. He was subject to a | :03:07. | :03:13. | |
terrorism and prevention measure. Authorities believe him to be a | :03:13. | :03:20. | |
risk to the public but he cannot be deported or brought to court. He | :03:21. | :03:26. | |
was last seen in north London. Labour MPs say the measures they | :03:26. | :03:36. | |
:03:36. | :03:39. | ||
introduced were much tougher than prevention measures. He absconded | :03:39. | :03:45. | |
on Boxing Day. This is someone that the Government has attended terror | :03:45. | :03:49. | |
camps in Australia and is significantly dangerous. He | :03:49. | :03:53. | |
disappeared for the last 12 days. In the final four years of control | :03:53. | :03:58. | |
orders when relocations were used, the Home Secretary will know that | :03:58. | :04:04. | |
no one absconded. The Independent reviewer has asked could he have | :04:04. | :04:08. | |
absconded so easily from the West Country where he was made to live | :04:09. | :04:14. | |
when under a control order? What is the Home Secretary's answer? | :04:14. | :04:19. | |
National security is our top priority and the police is doing | :04:19. | :04:23. | |
everything they can to apprehend this individual but the honourable | :04:23. | :04:28. | |
lady has been careful in her use of statistics. She has quoted a period | :04:28. | :04:37. | |
when there were no ABS bonds from control or does. Of course winner | :04:37. | :04:43. | |
there were seven abscondeds that took place so I am afraid she | :04:43. | :04:46. | |
cannot argue that control orders were stopping people from | :04:46. | :04:52. | |
absconding. But the Home Secretary is not dealing with the crucial | :04:52. | :04:57. | |
issue of relocation. No one has absconded since 2008 and the | :04:57. | :05:02. | |
extensive use of relocations. The Home Secretary took the decision to | :05:03. | :05:08. | |
rule out a relocation for this terror suspect. Even though the | :05:08. | :05:13. | |
judge who reviewed the Control Order said specifically that it was | :05:13. | :05:19. | |
too dangerous to permit him to be in London even for a short period. | :05:19. | :05:24. | |
The Home Secretary told the House she was confident that her policies | :05:24. | :05:29. | |
an extra surveillance would be sufficient. They clearly have not | :05:29. | :05:35. | |
been. Will she admit that she got it wrong on relocations? Will she | :05:35. | :05:40. | |
instigate an urgent review into how he absconded and in the interest of | :05:40. | :05:44. | |
public protection, or will she now changed course and that the | :05:44. | :05:50. | |
legislation right? Just to be clear because the right honourable lady | :05:50. | :05:54. | |
has put this case the uncertain terms which do not reflect the | :05:54. | :06:02. | |
reason why the prevention or do was put in place which was to prevent | :06:02. | :06:06. | |
fund-raising and overseas travel. We do not believe his disappearance | :06:06. | :06:13. | |
is linked to any terrorist plan against the UK. The Prevention | :06:13. | :06:22. | |
order regime introduced rigorous measures to manage the terror | :06:22. | :06:27. | |
suspects we cannot yet deport and the new regime was complemented by | :06:27. | :06:36. | |
funding to the Security Service in the police. The regime is a package | :06:36. | :06:41. | |
as the right honourable lady knows and as I return to there were a | :06:41. | :06:48. | |
number of absconding is under control orders. Ordinary people | :06:48. | :06:54. | |
will be staggered at the Home Secretary's complacency on this. | :06:54. | :06:58. | |
The difference between the first two years and the last four years | :06:58. | :07:04. | |
on control orders is the reason that no one absconded was the power | :07:04. | :07:11. | |
of relocation was used. That is the power she got rid of. She gave him | :07:11. | :07:17. | |
a travel pass. Three or hope he does not do any harm but if he does, | :07:17. | :07:24. | |
people will hold him responsible. say there is no complacency | :07:24. | :07:28. | |
whatsoever. The Government is ensuring that the police and law | :07:28. | :07:32. | |
enforcement agencies are doing all that they can to apprehend this | :07:32. | :07:36. | |
particular individual and it is right that that should be the case | :07:36. | :07:41. | |
and they are doing their road. Home Secretary may recall that | :07:41. | :07:47. | |
Stuart Osborne, when he gave evidence to the committee, he said | :07:47. | :07:52. | |
the relocation power has been very useful for us. Without that and | :07:52. | :07:56. | |
depending on where people choose to live it could be more typical | :07:56. | :08:00. | |
Forest to monitor and enforce the orders. Does the Home Secretary | :08:00. | :08:06. | |
regret the deal she did with the Lib Dems to abolish the power of | :08:06. | :08:14. | |
relocation? What I say to the right honourable lady is that during the | :08:14. | :08:18. | |
transition both the police and security service made clear there | :08:18. | :08:22. | |
was no increase in risk and that appropriate arrangements would be | :08:22. | :08:28. | |
in place to manage an effective transition. Of course we take the | :08:28. | :08:31. | |
absconded meant that has taken place seriously. The police are | :08:31. | :08:36. | |
doing their work to try to apprehend the individual who has | :08:36. | :08:41. | |
absconded but the Prevention orders were put in as measures together | :08:41. | :08:47. | |
with the package that went to extra funding to the police. The police | :08:47. | :08:53. | |
were clear there would be no risk increase. The mistakes made over | :08:53. | :08:57. | |
the awarding of the West Coast rail franchise will be used as a | :08:57. | :09:02. | |
textbook example in civil service training of how not to do things. | :09:02. | :09:08. | |
That is according to the Transport Secretary. He told MPs that lessons | :09:08. | :09:12. | |
would be learnt from the fiasco. Transport operator First Group had | :09:12. | :09:17. | |
been chosen to run services on the West Coast main line. Head of the | :09:17. | :09:22. | |
current operator Virgin above the decision were scrapped when the | :09:22. | :09:27. | |
process had been flawed. Patrick McLoughlin had acknowledged that | :09:27. | :09:35. | |
his department was to blame. More what we need to do is the truth of | :09:35. | :09:40. | |
the matter is this will form part of civil service training for many | :09:40. | :09:45. | |
years to come as to the mistakes that were made and the way in which | :09:45. | :09:50. | |
escalations should be referred up and are taken up the chain. One of | :09:50. | :09:57. | |
the problems we see from this is that that was not done as | :09:57. | :10:02. | |
effectively as it should have been. If you think Ministers were | :10:02. | :10:08. | |
deliberately misled? No, I hope that was not the case and I hope it | :10:08. | :10:13. | |
was not the case. One has only got to go through the late report to | :10:13. | :10:18. | |
see that some of it was not the proper workmanship that one would | :10:18. | :10:23. | |
expect from the Civil Service. That needs to be taken on board. Is it | :10:23. | :10:28. | |
possible for us to agree that there were profound government problems | :10:28. | :10:36. | |
involved in this process? De then the outcome I am not going to | :10:36. | :10:42. | |
defend the governance of this process. You said if they only had | :10:42. | :10:47. | |
someone escalated the issue so what I am hearing his managerial | :10:47. | :10:53. | |
difficulties. It is a long time I have been involved in -- since I | :10:53. | :11:00. | |
have been involved in civil service processes but they are there to | :11:00. | :11:06. | |
insure that the best people are put in the right roles. Involved in | :11:06. | :11:11. | |
this process, how many people would you say were involved who were paid | :11:11. | :11:21. | |
:11:21. | :11:24. | ||
a six-figure salaries? Might answer will be off the top of my head but | :11:24. | :11:31. | |
it involved in the, in franchising and in the franchise award, it will | :11:31. | :11:40. | |
be a small knots number of single figures. From a member of the | :11:40. | :11:45. | |
public's point of view they would expect a high degree of managerial | :11:45. | :11:49. | |
competence from someone paid a six- figure salary. When tens of | :11:49. | :11:59. | |
millions of Pounds of public money is lost under Ministers, where does | :11:59. | :12:07. | |
the ministerial responsibility begin and end? Short answers. | :12:07. | :12:17. | |
will try and give a short answer. If there had been ministerial | :12:17. | :12:21. | |
culpability or an attempt to ignore advice then I think there is | :12:21. | :12:26. | |
ministerial culpability but I do not think anybody is saying that | :12:26. | :12:31. | |
Ministers ignored advice all failed to ask questions. Serious lessons | :12:31. | :12:37. | |
to be learnt from this - of course. This is a serious incident. In no | :12:37. | :12:45. | |
way would I try to deflect from the very bad position this leaves the | :12:45. | :12:50. | |
Government in or indeed the fact that the rail industry rightly | :12:50. | :12:54. | |
wants some guidance as to make sure incidents like this do not happen | :12:54. | :12:59. | |
in the future. Can you agree with the statement that David Cameron | :12:59. | :13:03. | |
gave that Ministers must take responsibility for serious | :13:03. | :13:09. | |
systematic failures and Ministers must not be allowed to shop off | :13:09. | :13:15. | |
responsibility for flawed policy in their department. Do you agree? | :13:15. | :13:18. | |
Every Secretary of State always agrees with the statements of the | :13:18. | :13:25. | |
Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is absolutely right but the Prime | :13:25. | :13:31. | |
Minister was right in that statement. It does rely on the | :13:31. | :13:35. | |
Secretary of State being given the for information and as was clear in | :13:35. | :13:40. | |
certain parts of what happened in this, the Secretary of State were | :13:40. | :13:44. | |
not given that assurance. Indeed the Prime Minister asked for | :13:44. | :13:52. | |
assurance. Days are actually referred to in the report. | :13:52. | :13:56. | |
first day back after the Christmas break was upstaged by David Cameron | :13:56. | :14:00. | |
and Nick Clegg unveiling their mid- term review. Just as the common | :14:00. | :14:05. | |
started work at half-past two, the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime | :14:05. | :14:07. | |
Minister were kicking off their press conference on the coalition's | :14:08. | :14:13. | |
aims. They declared that the coalition was a serious five-year | :14:13. | :14:17. | |
commitment to give Britain's strong and stable determined leadership. | :14:17. | :14:21. | |
They announced a few new initiatives on childcare costs and | :14:21. | :14:26. | |
on the care of older people. Back in the Commons, some MPs complained | :14:27. | :14:36. | |
:14:37. | :14:37. | ||
The Cabinet Office have today tabled a writ and Ministerial | :14:37. | :14:44. | |
statement entitled coalition Government mid-term review. | :14:44. | :14:47. | |
Together in the national interest, there is nothing like starting with | :14:47. | :14:52. | |
comedy. The television coverage has been pretty poor in comedy terms. | :14:52. | :14:57. | |
Can you give me some advice? There has been a press conference in | :14:57. | :15:02. | |
Downing Street today when the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister | :15:02. | :15:06. | |
answered questions on this, but nobody in this House has had the | :15:06. | :15:11. | |
opportunity to ask any question about this document, supposedly a | :15:11. | :15:15. | |
father relaunch of this Government. Why isn't there a government | :15:15. | :15:19. | |
Minister answering questions on the failure of this coalition to | :15:19. | :15:24. | |
implement policies in its first two-and-a-half years? And why no | :15:24. | :15:30. | |
one here answering on this document? I am grateful for the | :15:30. | :15:35. | |
Honourable Gentleman for his attempted point of order, which may | :15:35. | :15:41. | |
find some resonance with the Telfer Bugle or some similar prevailed of | :15:41. | :15:50. | |
information. What I would say, or the Shropshire Star, an extremely a | :15:50. | :15:55. | |
lustrous newspaper. Thank you for pointing that out. You will have an | :15:55. | :15:59. | |
opportunity for questions to the Deputy Prime Minister tomorrow and | :15:59. | :16:04. | |
questions to the Prime Minister on Wednesday. It is a review document. | :16:05. | :16:07. | |
If there are some stance of policy announcements to make flowing from | :16:07. | :16:12. | |
it, individual responsible ministers will doubtless make them | :16:12. | :16:17. | |
to the House. If they earn or father points of order, but there | :16:17. | :16:25. | |
is. Further to that, could you give advice to the House how the leaking | :16:25. | :16:33. | |
of that document in television studios by ministers, or indeed to | :16:33. | :16:38. | |
the Prime Minister, is in order what announcement of new policy to | :16:38. | :16:43. | |
this House fast? I think my response to the honourable | :16:43. | :16:46. | |
gentleman is since than simply the same to my response to the | :16:46. | :16:52. | |
honourable member. -- is sub- standard play similar. I do not | :16:52. | :16:56. | |
wish to disappoint you, but I have not yet read it and have no | :16:56. | :17:02. | |
immediate plans to do so. If there are sub-standard new policy | :17:02. | :17:07. | |
announcements flowing from it, then of course ministers must make them | :17:07. | :17:12. | |
to the House. -- if there are substantial new policy | :17:12. | :17:17. | |
announcements. You seem to have a cheeky grin, which suggests you | :17:17. | :17:22. | |
know you were slightly pushing your luck. | :17:22. | :17:26. | |
You are watching Monday in Parliament here on BBC Parliament. | :17:26. | :17:31. | |
The number of women holding influential positions in British | :17:31. | :17:34. | |
companies remains low and the poor representation of women in business | :17:34. | :17:39. | |
is an issue across the European Union. So the European Commission | :17:39. | :17:44. | |
wants to set a target for all major EU companies to have at least 40% | :17:44. | :17:50. | |
of female non executive directors on their boards. MPs have been | :17:50. | :17:54. | |
debating the promotional and asking whether it is an issue for the | :17:54. | :17:58. | |
European Commission at all. -- debating the proposal. We are | :17:58. | :18:04. | |
committed and it is saying that coalition agreement, promoting | :18:04. | :18:09. | |
gender equality on boards. Historically, proportion of women | :18:09. | :18:19. | |
:18:19. | :18:20. | ||
on boards has been too low. In 1990 night, -- 1999, making 6%. In 2010, | :18:20. | :18:28. | |
it was 12.5%. In 2010, there were only five female Chief Executive | :18:28. | :18:33. | |
officers of companies. We published the report by Lord Davies in 2011. | :18:33. | :18:39. | |
We have been working to implement its recommendations. That review | :18:39. | :18:43. | |
identified several barriers preventing women reaching senior | :18:43. | :18:47. | |
roles and business. Research shows that people have an unconscious | :18:47. | :18:53. | |
bias to reward and promote people like themselves. Informal networks | :18:54. | :19:03. | |
of highly influential and -- informal networks are highly | :19:03. | :19:07. | |
influential in how decisions are made. He said Lord Davies thought | :19:07. | :19:11. | |
business should be leading the way. We think a business-led voluntary | :19:11. | :19:16. | |
approach is right for the UK and we think it is making progress. | :19:16. | :19:20. | |
Central to it is a change in culture and the heart of business. | :19:20. | :19:25. | |
That is the only way that progress is going to be sustainable and long | :19:25. | :19:34. | |
term. The message needs to come from Government itself. I had many | :19:34. | :19:37. | |
conversations with previous prime ministers about trade delegations | :19:37. | :19:41. | |
to companies like India, for example, where there was no | :19:41. | :19:46. | |
diversity of people going on those visits. Can you give the House an | :19:46. | :19:50. | |
undertaking, understanding why we should go down the voluntary | :19:50. | :19:55. | |
approach, that a clear message should be sent that innate | :19:55. | :20:02. | |
appointments the Government makes with delegations that they will be | :20:02. | :20:07. | |
representative of the country? Mort ethnic minority people, more women. | :20:07. | :20:11. | |
I do agree, but these things have to be done on merit. Later this | :20:11. | :20:18. | |
month, I am leading myself a delicate, a trade delegation to | :20:18. | :20:26. | |
India, and the business side of that will be led by a woman. One of | :20:26. | :20:30. | |
the ways of making progress is the voluntary approach, but Lord Davies | :20:30. | :20:35. | |
made clear in speeches that he feels that there has to be progress | :20:35. | :20:39. | |
and that, if progress is not made, we should look at and on voluntary | :20:39. | :20:43. | |
approach. Is he arguing that the Government would be willing to look | :20:43. | :20:48. | |
at that as something the UK would do rather than something the EU | :20:48. | :20:55. | |
would do? Our position is clear, we think voluntary approach is best. I | :20:55. | :21:00. | |
wrote a book saying that this needs to happen and we should hold open | :21:00. | :21:04. | |
the proposition of legislation. The Government's position is clear that | :21:04. | :21:09. | |
we should approach this on a voluntary basis. As for Europe's | :21:10. | :21:14. | |
role... We should try to get there without the legislation. And there | :21:14. | :21:18. | |
does not need to the EU level legislation, but something is highs | :21:18. | :21:24. | |
can do on its own. More women on boards is right and is good | :21:24. | :21:29. | |
business. But it should be the responsibility of this House. | :21:29. | :21:34. | |
we debate the need for greater gender balance for those in | :21:34. | :21:39. | |
leadership and business, but in so doing, this House and Government | :21:39. | :21:43. | |
should acknowledge its own failings in this area. Just 22% of current | :21:43. | :21:51. | |
members of this House, and just 18% of the Cabinet, are women. This is | :21:51. | :21:56. | |
disgraceful in 2012. We are proud on these benches that 33% of the | :21:57. | :22:01. | |
Parliamentary Labour Party, and almost 40% of the Shadow Cabinet, | :22:01. | :22:06. | |
are women, but we all need to do better. By all means, debate, but | :22:06. | :22:09. | |
in this House we are in no means to lecture. | :22:09. | :22:13. | |
And more should be done to increase the representation of people from | :22:14. | :22:17. | |
ethnic minorities. How can we inspire young black and | :22:17. | :22:21. | |
Asian Britons to reach for the top when seeing so few people who look | :22:21. | :22:25. | |
like themselves in boardrooms, never mind of Parliament? | :22:25. | :22:29. | |
Staying with corporate life, appeals for an urgent clampdown on | :22:29. | :22:33. | |
tax abuse by and large companies have been made by all sides of the | :22:34. | :22:39. | |
Commons. MPs spent three-and-a-half hours discussing the extent of tax | :22:39. | :22:42. | |
avoidance in the business sector and ways it might be tackled. | :22:42. | :22:45. | |
Starting the debate, a Liberal Democrat member of the Public | :22:45. | :22:49. | |
Accounts Committee called corporate tax dodging a growing crisis. | :22:49. | :22:54. | |
stories of tax avoidance appear almost every week. Private Eye | :22:54. | :23:00. | |
magazine deserves special mention for their investigation work. | :23:00. | :23:07. | |
Bookmakers, care Homes, professional services, for example, | :23:07. | :23:12. | |
and American Bobby mutts such as Amazon and Facebook and Starbucks. | :23:12. | :23:22. | |
:23:22. | :23:24. | ||
Just a few examples. -- American behemoths. Now News International | :23:24. | :23:28. | |
has 150 companies in tax havens. Transfer pricing, management fees, | :23:28. | :23:35. | |
royalties, some ways to move money. Moving whole businesses and | :23:35. | :23:39. | |
headquarters to new jurisdictions is also becoming much more common. | :23:39. | :23:45. | |
Let us also remember that companies prepared to go to major lens to | :23:45. | :23:50. | |
avoid corporate tax, may avoid other taxes, too. -- to go to major | :23:50. | :23:56. | |
lengths to avoid corporate tax may avoid other taxes, too. The UK | :23:56. | :24:03. | |
should take a look at its own role such as with tax havens, for | :24:03. | :24:09. | |
example, the Isle of Man and Travolta. This has been described | :24:09. | :24:14. | |
as sunny places for shady people. - - Gibraltar. We should look at why | :24:14. | :24:18. | |
we support these places as tax havens and what benefits they are | :24:18. | :24:24. | |
bringing to the UK. It is urgent work takes place at EU level to | :24:24. | :24:28. | |
ensure companies cannot exploit sweetheart tax deals and countries | :24:28. | :24:33. | |
such as the Netherlands. Isn't it the case that, for physical goods, | :24:33. | :24:40. | |
Amazon would have to account for VAT. The differences electronic | :24:40. | :24:49. | |
goods. I would suggest that we look at the Private Member's Bill which | :24:49. | :24:53. | |
talks about the importance of a general avoidance principle, rather | :24:53. | :24:58. | |
than rules, because those can be bent. A principle is much harder to | :24:58. | :25:03. | |
get around. That is the root the government should go down. Norway | :25:03. | :25:07. | |
has to pay to trade within the European Union. Why can't we say to | :25:07. | :25:12. | |
companies, if you wish to trade with them this country, like the | :25:12. | :25:17. | |
countries the honourable member listed, then you have to pay a fee. | :25:17. | :25:23. | |
That will be more than we would gain from your turnover in taxes if | :25:23. | :25:28. | |
you honestly paid corporation tax. If we started with those companies | :25:28. | :25:35. | |
who could well find that other companies could substitute for them | :25:35. | :25:40. | |
there would be no diminishing of the public good, if we actually | :25:40. | :25:43. | |
couldn't go to Starbucks. The whole country would not come to a | :25:43. | :25:47. | |
standstill, we wouldn't have breakdowns if we could not buy | :25:47. | :25:52. | |
Starbucks coffee, having other alternatives. We might even begin | :25:52. | :25:57. | |
to turn the tide has stop that would be unfair -- that would be a | :25:57. | :26:02. | |
favour of honest taxpayers. I do believe that the solution to all | :26:02. | :26:06. | |
this must be much greater simplicity. I do mean radical | :26:07. | :26:12. | |
simplicity. The time for a tinkering is over. Einstein said | :26:12. | :26:16. | |
the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again | :26:16. | :26:20. | |
and expect different results. It is time we got different results and | :26:20. | :26:26. | |
can only get that by taking different action. Starbucks are | :26:26. | :26:29. | |
playing -- paying voluntary tax, not for more reasons, but to | :26:29. | :26:37. | |
protect their brand and profits. Surely if accompany is making a | :26:37. | :26:43. | |
voluntary contribution of �10 million per year, it must also | :26:43. | :26:47. | |
surely be making very much more than that and its only doing that | :26:47. | :26:51. | |
because it hopes to get off the hook. That is something we must | :26:51. | :26:57. | |
legislate about. And finally, back to Home Office questions where | :26:57. | :27:00. | |
Labour MPs claimed that police stations were being shut and that | :27:00. | :27:04. | |
cuts were being made to the number of police officers and Community | :27:04. | :27:10. | |
Support Officers. Just over 18 months ago, you will be aware of | :27:10. | :27:14. | |
widespread arson, looting and violence that emanated from my | :27:14. | :27:18. | |
constituency and spread across the country. Do you view with alarm the | :27:18. | :27:24. | |
mayor's decision to shut half of all London police stations and | :27:24. | :27:28. | |
particularly the concern to close Tottenham police station and see a | :27:28. | :27:32. | |
withdrawal of police officers stationed within it? Isn't this an | :27:32. | :27:41. | |
open season to Londoners bags and gang members and hoodlums? -- thugs. | :27:41. | :27:45. | |
I do not accept that characterisation and maybe draw | :27:45. | :27:50. | |
your attention to a court recently from Sir Bernard Hogan Howe, who | :27:50. | :27:55. | |
said, if we end up with less people and better technology, I would say | :27:55. | :28:01. | |
that would not be a bad thing. You will note that, in London, the | :28:01. | :28:05. | |
Metropolitan Police report that serious road violence has fallen by | :28:05. | :28:10. | |
34% since the launch of the new gang command that took place in | :28:10. | :28:16. | |
February 2012. Two other Laima MPs raised similar | :28:16. | :28:21. | |
concerns with the Home Secretary. - - Two other Labour MPs raised | :28:21. | :28:28. | |
similar concerns with the Home Secretary. We have seen crime rise | :28:28. | :28:32. | |
in the same period as cuts were made. The question as to how many | :28:32. | :28:38. | |
police and crying -- Police Community Support Officers will be | :28:38. | :28:43. | |
made will be taken by that police force. It has been said that the | :28:44. | :28:47. | |
number wants to be changed, but in order to increase the number of | :28:47. | :28:54. | |
police constables available. In May 2010, the Met had over 32,600 | :28:54. | :28:57. | |
police officers. Last April, the mayor promised he would maintain | :28:57. | :29:06. | |
this. Yet in November, the latest figures show just 30,939. Last year, | :29:06. | :29:09. | |
the deputy mayor told the Home Affairs Select Committee that it | :29:09. | :29:14. | |
was a doomsday scenario for London to have only around 31,000 officers. | :29:14. | :29:19. | |
Do you agree with this assessment and, if so, what you intend to do? | :29:19. | :29:25. | |
I suggest you look at the plans the Metropolitan Police have and that | :29:25. | :29:27. | |
they published just before Christmas, which is to maintain | :29:27. | :29:32. | |
numbers at around 32,000, to introduce a flatter management | :29:32. | :29:36. | |
structure and book more constables on they beat. I would have thought | :29:36. | :29:39. | |
the opposition would welcome the fact that the commissioner and | :29:39. | :29:42. | |
deputy mayor and Mayor of London want to ensure there are more | :29:42. | :29:48. | |
police officers on they beat in London. That is surely good news?. | :29:48. | :29:52. |