Member News
The legislative programme includes bills on police reform, ditching ID cards, the freezing of terrorist assets and repealing of many of the previous government's measures.
Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill
The Bill will be introduced to make the police service more accountable to local communities, better equipped to tackle alcohol related violence and anti-social behaviour and crack down on people- and drug-trafficking through the creation of a Border Police.
The Bill would see the appointment of directly-elected individuals to increase police accountability and allow a greater degree of community involvement in setting policing priorities.
The provision as set out in the Coalition government agreement represents a more toned down version of the Conservative manifesto pledge to replace "unaccountable and invisible" police authorities with a directly elected individual responsible for the budget and policing activities of local forces.
Stakeholder Response: Peter Smyth, chairman, Metropolitan Police Federation
The first 'big idea' to be implemented by the new government in the field of criminal justice will be the creation of elected 'police supremos' to replace police authorities.
These people, we learned in the Conservative Party manifesto, will have the power to set the policing priorities for their communities.
London is a milieu of different communities and the supremo is going to have his or her work cut out deciding exactly whose priorities get priority, and who gets left behind.
It may be, of course, that the intention is to have a separate supremo in each London borough, in which case there will be 32 such individuals supervising one police force.
In any event, we hope they will resist the temptation to pander first to the loudest voice or the best-resourced pressure group.
We will certainly be urging that any elected individual listens closely to the voice of our members, who are the practitioners in delivering community safety, and who have the wealth of knowledge and experience that only those who actually do the job can have.
Of course, the promised new campaign against anti-social behaviour and alcohol-related violence is to be welcomed.
This initiative cannot be carried out by the police on their own, so we trust measures will be put in place to ensure partner agencies such as local authorities play their part to the full.
Perhaps the new supremo should be given coercive powers in this respect?
Identity Documents Bill
Given that both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats campaigned on scrapping the identity cards programme it is little surprise that it remains a plank of coalition policy.
The Identity Documents Bill is designed to do just that, as well as dismantling the supporting infrastructure, such as the National Identity Register and the Office of the Identity Commissioner.
Freedom (Great Repeal) Bill
The Freedom Bill is being brought forward to roll back what the coalition sees as state intrusion into individual privacy.
The Bill contains provisions to adopt the Scottish system for the retention of innocent people's DNA and will introduce greater regulation of CCTV and the storage of email and internet records.
Terrorist Asset Freezing Bill
The Bill is intended to place the UK's terrorist asset freezing regime on a secure legislative footing.
Temporary legislation was passed earlier this year to maintain the existing regime, following the Supreme Court's decision to quash secondary legislation to implement terrorist asset freezes. The interim legislation is due to expire on 31 December 2010.
The Bill is intended to ensure the continued protection of national security and enable the UK to meet its United Nations obligations, while taking proper account of civil liberties.
Keep track of the bills via our legislation page.
Stakeholder Response: Law Society President, Robert Heslett
On the measures announced today, we are delighted to see that the Coalition will bring forward plans to introduce a Freedom (Great Repeal) Bill, bring forward greater safeguards in the DNA database, protect historic freedoms through the defence of trial by jury, provide safeguards against the misuse of anti-terrorism legislation, introduce further regulation of CCTV and provide a new mechanism to prevent the proliferation of unnecessary new criminal offences.
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