Crispin Blunt

Conservative Party | Reigate

MPs Protest At Lack Of Debate On Police Restructuring

Crispin Blunt Speaks Out On End Of Surrey Police

The Government is forcing through, at breakneck speed, proposals for the biggest re-organisation of the police in Britain for many decades. The county of Surrey, with a population of over one million, is to lose its police force, as are counties up and down the country. Today the Government announced that the chance for the House of Commons to debate this before all police forces have submitted their plans to the Home Secretary, on 23rd December, has been abandoned. Numerous MPs including Crispin Blunt,    MP for Reigate, raised this with Geoff Hoon MP, the Leader of the House of Commons, as he announced today the change in the House’s business. Crispin Blunt commented:

“The Government can make these changes with no need to pass legislation for Parliament to scrutinise. In a bare three months police authorities and police forces up and down the country will have been expected to deliver plans for their own demise to the Home Secretary. Despite massive concern in Parliament the Government has not given time for MPs to even discuss this.

“For the Surrey police this really is the last straw in terms of their treatment since 1997. They have gone from being one of the best funded police forces to one of the worst. There are now fewer officers per head of population than there were in 1997 and they are, on the whole, significantly less experienced. Central government funding of Surrey Police has gone from five sixths of the whole police budget to under half. This shortfall has been met by the Council Tax-payer as Surrey County Council has sought to defend the county force.

“The idea that a county with an elected council, accountable to its electorate and with a population of over a million, cannot sustain its own police force is preposterous. There may be arguments for a National Police Force, but there are certainly none for a regional police force with whom no-one will feel any identity. The removal of yet another of the key functions exercised at the county level has much more to do with John Prescott’s regionalisation agenda. The Deputy Prime Minister is set on the course of destroying those town and county structures, outside metropolitan areas, which usually have the temerity not to vote Labour.”