18/11/2012 Sunday Politics Yorkshire and Lincolnshire

On the Sunday Politics in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire:

These seats will be filled as we will be speaking to all five of our

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2387 seconds

police commissioners who won their Good morning. It coming up before

12. All five of our newly elected Police and Crime Commissioners to

join us live on the programme. As Lord Prescott is defeated, our

elected crime fighters will be telling us how they hope to pack a

punch in their new roles. But do we need individual commissioners for

each fought area? We are calls for regional policing. -- we look at.

So, here they are, the five elected Police and Crime Commissioners. We

will hear from them in a moment. But first, a reminder of how they

were elected. He is a 62nd round up. -- here it is our 62nd round up.

Lord Prescott has not lost an election since the 1960s and would

have won here, but after second preference votes were totted up, he

was overtaken by Matthew Grove. In Lincolnshire, another upset with

the our consultant and former Yorkshire Television presenter Alan

Hardwick landing the job. A man who says he believes in plain speaking.

In South Yorkshire, Shaun Right romped home with over 50 % of the

vote without any need to count second preferences. In West

Yorkshire, Labour was streets ahead, but it still took second preference

votes to push Mark Burns-Williamson over the finishing line. Every MP

Bar One is a conservative in North Yorkshire, and here, Julia Mulligan

became commissioner. Let's get some of the negative aspects out of the

way. Mark Burns-Williamson, you were elected in West Yorkshire with

it cannot have just over 13 %. Does that give you a clear mandate to do

the job? Over 200,000 people actually did vote, but let's be

clear, the government deciding to have the elections in the middle of

November and the fact that not allowing candidates to have any

Freepost election literature had a big impact in the level of that

turnout. Julia Mulligan, the Mail on Sunday reports that these

elections have cost �14 per vote. Can you justify that to the people

you represent? I think this is an important form and it gives people

a chance to have the same local policing. That is vital and people

do want that. When you explain this policy to them and what it means to

them, they do actually respond quite well to read. We have got a

big job to do to explain what this is about and demonstrate in reality

what it means for local people. What about the voting system?

Matthew Grove, had it been a straightforward pass the post

system, John Prescott would have been sat way while now. -- way you

right now. Was it a fair voting system? I think some people would

have voted differently with their first preference if it had been a

first-past-the-post system. The people decided. We had a very high

turnout at nearly 20 %, so I think the people have spoken and we have

a mandate. Sean right, out of the five commissioners here today, you

have the toughest job in South Yorkshire. We have got to deal with

historical questions about how the police behaved during the

Hillsborough disaster, during the mining strike, more recent

questions of grooming by criminal gangs. How are you going to restore

the reputation of your force's this is at the top of my priority that -

- of the force? This is at the top of my priority list. It is a real

priority and we need to get to the bottom of a number of areas, not

least doing it in a transparent way so that the public can once again

be confident that their police service are acting on their behalf.

I would like to support the Chief Constable were faring the Orgreave

matter -- referring. I would very much like to support that. The

other issue around Hillsborough, that is a big issue that will take

quite some time to resolve. But it will be handled in a way that the

public can see it is being done open and transparently. I'm keen to

consider that not only those issues are dealt with properly, but also

the public can see more policing on our streets. Only by the police

doing a fantastic job that they are doing, that they can see that they

are on their side, that will lead to trust in them from the public.

South Yorkshire police do a fantastic job for the public of

South Yorkshire. It is a very different forced the 1980s. Things

will continue to change, but I'm convinced they are doing a great

job. Alan Hardwick, her familiar face to many of our viewers. -- a

familiar face. You have got Lincolnshire. A huge, a rural

county. It is the worst funded police force in the country per

head of the population. Are you hoping to find some money down the

back of the settee? I suppose the point is that the government to go

away a special role will grant worth �1.8 million a year and

showed that between other forces, to whom it meant a bit of pocket

money. It would have made all the difference in the world to the

policing of Lincolnshire. It was meant to help resolve the problems

there, but the problems are still there. The population of Scotland

is roughly the same as Yorkshire. To save money, individual police

forces north of the bird at -- border are merging into one

national Scottish force. Aspects of Yorkshire's policing are already

done on a plan regional basis -- plan regional. Some are asking why

we have spending so much money paying for these newly elected

commissioners. Should it be just one person doing the job? Of they

are patrolling the roads of West Yorkshire hunting criminals with

the latest technology. But they do not work for West Yorkshire Police,

they are part of a regional team that works across north, south,

east and West Yorkshire and Humberside. The public will just

see police providing a service that they are requiring. Policing

Yorkshire and Humber controls the regional roads team. It also runs

the new regional police die of unit based in Humberside, covering the

whole region -- dive unit. They are also working more closely together.

They share human resources, training facilities. They are

buying cars together and they are looking to do the same with

uniformed. It all so smiley but it means the forces are getting

increasingly difficult to tell apart -- it ought saves money.

Reform and change, tighter budgets, they have pushed the force. Wall

regionalisation is likely. -- more regionalisation. A back office

functions are now being considered for regional mergers. This man is

the deputy chief constable who runs the regional units. We can deliver

services add up to 30 % cheaper than doing it across the four

forces. But his money that helps support the response policing.

just saving money, catching criminals, as well. This team have

caught a car and found a man in possession of cannabis. Policing is

changing. It shouldn't matter where the office is from. We have a

stronger accountability structure through the chief constable and

through the government structures, which in the future will be Police

and Crime Commissioners. So why not one forced to cover the whole of

Yorkshire and Humberside? Next year, Scott and's eight police forces

will become one. There are currently 43 forces across England

and Wales. Could the forces in Yorkshire be merged? I think it is

an inefficient way of policing this country. I would never rule out the

possibility, but we have no plans to do this for the time being.

think regional working is the way to go. So, more changes on the way,

but given we have just elected local Police and Crime

Commissioners, there are also more questions about where they fit in

increasingly complex structures of policing. Do think there is an

argument for a regional police force if it saves money? Not at all.

In two dozen of five, Charles Clarke tried to introduce this

policy. Policing should be kept as local as possible. -- in 2005. We

have saved an awful lot of money in doing so. But it needs to be as

close to the public as possible. One of the key issues raised by the

public is that they don't know the candidates. In South Yorkshire, we

have wanted �5 million -- we have 1.5 million people. But existing

police forces are based on county boundaries. Matthew Grove, you

cover Humberside, which doesn't even exist any more. No, but it is

there to serve the people off Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.

Criminals don't respect boundaries, they operate wherever. We have to

co-operate. Regional structures, it flies against what the public want.

We need efficient services but we don't need to create new

organisations that are more distant from the public. Policing went

wrong when it removed itself from the communities that it is there to

serve. Our job as Police and Crime Commissioners is to reconnect the

public with their policing service. But if it says up to 30 %, surely

there is an argument for it? -- if it saves. I don't think there's an

argument for joining all of the forces together. Policing is

essentially a local issue. People want to know that they're going to

be safe walking down the street. They don't care about other

people's streets. Winter -- we need to make sure policing his cap local.

-- policing is kept below call. have campaigned hard to say and not

in favour of privatising services. I would much rather talk -- father

worked with the other police forces in the region. There is no doubt

that speaking to people during this campaign, they are more interested

in the delivery of policing on a day-to-day level up and that we

need to enable specialist services are done effectively across the

region. Burglars don't stick to existing

boundaries. That is why it by believe in having a regional

collaboration -- that is why I believe. It is an effective way to

address strategic issues where we can tackle problems across a region.

Alan Carr Brick, how would you feel about that? Would you be happy? --

Alan Hardwick. We know that it works and that mergers will not.

Hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money was wasted on money

that was doomed from the start. Talk to local people, find out what

they want and then you can target the diminishing resources we have

into the areas where they can do most. We can save public money and

it makes sense. Some claimed the election of police

commissioners will unleash a new wave of privatisation in a bid to

drive down costs and make savings. One force has already gone down

that road in a big way. Christmas seemed to come early for

Lincolnshire police this year with the promise of this. Venue state-

of-the-art police station to be built and paid for by the private

sector company G4S. All part of a deal to outsource some of the

forces departments. In February this year, linkage a police signed

a 200 million pound deal with G4S to deliver some of its back office

functions. More than 500 members of staff were transferred to the

company. It is the biggest deal of its kind in the UK at the moment

and is intended to save this force more than �20 million over the next

decade. It is a dream deal for a force facing a �20 million cut in

government funding over the next four years. And one which has had

to cut the number of uniformed officers by 90 in the past two

years. But on the ground, experiences have been mixed. They

have been job losses. There has not been as many compulsory

redundancies as we expected, but they have been a lot of it non

filling of vacancies. That hit services. The staff but

Lincolnshire police are now employed by G4S -- the staff of

Lincolnshire police. The intention to build a new police station on

the current site of the headquarters in Nettleham has run

into fierce public resistance, leaving some to conclude that the

new Police and Crime Commissioners will be forced to choose a

different site. It has also been a difficult few months for G4S. First

there was the Olympics debacle, and recently it lost a contract to run

a present in East Yorkshire. When the ligature deal was signed, it

was also thought that other forces would come on board. So far that

hasn't happened. There has been a political reaction that neither

Lincolnshire police or G4S expected. It has brought privatisation of

police services. In a statement to Sunday politics, G4S says it has

delivered 14 % savings through innovative working practices, and

that, the company claims, has allowed the recruitment of

additional police officers, and cared more officers on the beat. --

kept. Newly elected PCC's it will face strong lobbying from both

sides of the privatisation argument -- PCCs. Here in a good cheer

opinion remains divided over virtues of making a profit over

policing. Alan Hardwick, you're forces led the way with

privatisation. Will we see more side of it -- more of it on your

watch? No. This has been one of the most contentious issues I have had

e-mails about. People fear that privatisation of police means we

will have none warranted offices in strange uniforms. This is not going

to happen -- none warranted. I should say here that I don't think

for one second that G4S want to have their officers patrolling any

streets. As has already been said, they have made a solid start in the

contract. But that contract will not be expanded. When it comes to

saving money, Matthew Grove, you have got to look at the

privatisation option's no, we need a mixed economy. We need a

voluntary sector and a private sector as well. But what we can do

is we can start to make a public sector more efficient. It can allow

them to co-operate. We have ambulance service, fire service,

they all have vehicle maintenance units, or repeating the same

functions with managers. Why don't we get them to co-operate together

to provide a better service, save cloth and protect their

organisations? So you would like to see some privatisation? There is

always a place. We have private sector involvement in public sector

at the moment. They run each services. But wholesale

privatisation too large multinational companies, that is

not on my agenda. I want the best quality services delivered locally.

I want local people to be employed in the delivery of those services.

I don't want them being outsourced regionally, nationally and

definitely not internationally. that the case in all chalk -- North

Yorkshire? Yes, we are very fortunate a we are likely to have a

balanced budgets are we it are not looking at making 7th -- so we are

not looking at making savings through privatisation. But there

are opportunities to collaborate with the local council and with

fire and rescue and emergency services, so we need to be focused.

We have got to keep that focus one frontline policing and savings that

we can make in the back office that allows us to have that focus on

frontline policing. A people want to see uniformed officers out on

the streets, they don't want to see them in the office, do they? That

is why I was instrumental in helping to agree funding with the

five councils in West Yorkshire, for example. Various DC Oakes need

to boost the local policing teams. -- There is PCSOs. We wanted

continued collaboration within the region and work with the councils

and the voluntary sector and a good public sector ways of saving money

rather than outsourcing. You have got 20 % cuts to make aware of that

money going to come from? This has been raised to in recent weeks, it

is at the top of the agenda, the public don't want to see their

police services privatised. That is an absolute guarantee. In reality,

South Yorkshire Police is a public service, should remain so,

accountable to the public and not to shareholders. We have small and

medium-sized enterprise contract in place, we have another company

which provides medical services, those at small involved contract

with the private sector are doing a good job. But what we will not be

doing his large-scale outsourcing. For example, what happens when G4S

fails? It is the tax payer which picks up the bill. The last thing

we wanted it is introduce an additional risk into that service

by doing out sourcing run large- scale to multinational companies

whose only interest is profit. 10 seconds each, what are your main

priorities? To ask local people what policing they want and get

them involved good drawing up the policing plan for the next three-

and-a-half-year us. To focus a resources on frontline policing

services that protect the public, deter crime and involve the

community to fight crime. Policing alone cannot tackle crime. It is

the community joining with policing. My focus is around anti-social

behaviour and trying to crack down on cross-border crime. It is also

vital to get local people involved in all of this and having their say.

To absolutely protect the name of the policing teams who were doing a

great job throughout his cheek -- East Yorkshire and make sure the

public's priorities are reflected. More visible policing, less

burglary, less drugs and increase confidence in the police. We will