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Police Reform - 22 April 2002

Mr. David Curry (Skipton and Ripon): The Secretary of State has earned a solid reputation for speaking directly and not mincing his words. Would he accept that one lesson to be learned from the recent consultation on police pay is that policemen sometimes thought that that created an atmosphere of antagonism, which earned the Secretary of State a rebuff for measures that many people regard as necessary? Would he reserve his antagonism for the Chancellor of the Exchequer? That would be extremely welcome.

Mr. Blunkett: No, I reserve my antagonism for the villains who we are all intent on catching. I reserve praise for the Chancellor for the Budget last Wednesday, andfor the resources that were released for secure accommodation and prison places and for tackling crime and for counter-terrorism, all of which I hope the House will strongly welcome. The distribution of those resources will be announced shortly.

I also want to reinforce heavily the backing for the police for the work that they are engaged in across the country. With an extra 4,500 police officers over the last two years, we now have an opportunity to build on the improvement in morale and to invest in catching and convicting more criminals, in preventing more criminals from reoffending and, above all, in creating a safer society in which hatred, prejudice and fascism can be thwarted.

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David Curry MP | House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA | tel: 020 7219 6202