argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2019-02-05
Topic: Law and Crime
Questions: Body-worn video cameras are available to every prison officer in England and Wales, but they are not routinely provided in Scotland. Will the Minister outline the benefits to both prisoners and officers of those cameras and encourage the Scottish Government to follow this Government’s lead?; Does the Secretary of State agree that it is unconscionable that the workers who clean his offices and the security guards who keep the Ministry of Justice safe are not paid the living wage? Will he commit today to finally paying them a wage they can decently live on, with terms and conditions that mean they can take a family holiday?; Following the sexual assault of four female prisoners by a male claiming to be transgender, what additional advice has been given to prison authorities about housing transgender prisoners?; Can the Minister tell the House whether it is a requirement for prison governors to stay up to date with control and restraint training to receive the required hours addition allowance?; People were shocked to read that over half the knife crime in London is associated with teenagers or children. Can my right hon. Friend reassure the House that he is working with the Home Office to ensure that the new knife crime protection orders will effectively target children who are carrying knives and not end up putting into custody children who are at risk but have never carried a knife?; The Government continue to drag their feet on publishing their review of legal aid. Will the Minister tell the House exactly when we can expect it by?; The Minister of State said earlier that the best help for rehabilitation is to have a job. Do we not urgently need to reform the Disclosure and Barring Service system, so we still protect the public from dangerous criminals and dangerous people, but stop blighting the lives of hundreds of thousands of citizens who are trying to turn their lives around?; Nepacs provides a very valuable family support service to Kirklevington Grange Prison in my constituency, but its Big Lottery funding runs out in May. Will the Minister meet me and Nepacs to see whether there is any way we can continue this great service?
Wesley Paul William Streeting (Labour, Centre-left): Why is it that grown men in their 30s and 40s involved in county lines cases are escaping jail, even though we know that their trafficking in drugs and children is blighting the lives of children growing up in communities such as mine?
Windrush Scheme — House of Commons, 2019-02-05
Topic: Social Welfare
Kate Ofunne Osamor (Labour, Centre-left): In December last year, the Home Office agreed to support members of the Windrush generation who had been mistreated by the Government with up to £5,000, but four of my constituents have found the arrangements for access to the fund overly stringent. Victims require immediate and ongoing assistance. Does the Home Secretary not agree that we should be ensuring that the people who were affected by the Windrush situation can re-establish themselves in the community? Moreover, there has been no cohesion between central and local government in this regard. I ask the Home Secretary to look at the system and make sure that it works for the most vulnerable people.
Windrush Scheme — House of Commons, 2019-02-05
Topic: Law and Crime
Katherine Anne Green (Labour, Centre-left): In the light of the Sims case, which we heard about a few moments ago, and Sir Martin Forde’s comments, will the Home Secretary commit to further training for the Windrush taskforce in handling cases correctly, particularly complex cases?
Windrush Scheme — House of Commons, 2019-02-05
Topic: Social Welfare
Victoria Jane Foxcroft (Labour, Centre-left): My constituent has been waiting since 26 December for a decision on his Windrush application. The process has taken nine times the length of the two-week turnaround period that was promised. That is unacceptable when people cannot work, cannot claim benefits and are struggling to live, even though they are from this country.
Police Grant Report — House of Commons, 2019-02-05
Topic: Law and Crime
Christopher John Bryant (Labour, Centre-left): I am sorry that I do not have much voice One of the new tools we have given to the police is the ability to take people to court for assaults on emergency workers, including police officers, but it would be a terrible problem if, after bringing in this new law, the police have no time or facilities to implement it. Will the Home Secretary make sure the police are taking this on board seriously and have the time and financial resources to ensure that we protect all our emergency workers? Some of the violent crime he talks about affects ambulance workers, mental health nurses and nurses in accident and emergency.
Police Grant Report — House of Commons, 2019-02-05
Topic: Law and Crime
James Dolan Cunningham (Labour, Centre-left): May I make the Home Secretary aware that in parts of Coventry, both in affluent parts and in less well-off parts, there has been an increase in burglaries and knife crime? The police used a dispersal order in the centre of Coventry on Saturday after a young man was badly stabbed. Will the Home Secretary increase police numbers in the west midlands, particularly in Coventry, where I am told by the police that they operate at only 75%?
Police Grant Report — House of Commons, 2019-02-05
Topic: Law and Crime
Clive James Charles Betts (Labour, Centre-left): I thank the Minister for Policing and the Fire Service for the supportive comments he has made about the improvements that South Yorkshire police force has made in the past year. However, it has the legacy issues of Hillsborough and child sexual exploitation in Rotherham to deal with, and each year it has to come to the Government with an application for a special grant. It has been given that, but the grant has to be top-sliced, putting an additional burden on police funding. Will the Home Secretary agree to a meeting with the South Yorkshire PCC and local MPs, involving either him or the Policing Minister, to see whether we can find a better way to deal with these issues in the future?
Police Grant Report — House of Commons, 2019-02-05
Topic: Law and Crime
Paula Michelle Sherriff (Labour, Centre-left): Does the Home Secretary agree that as a result of having 21,000 fewer police officers on our streets, our intelligence-gathering capabilities have been severely restricted? Does he also agree that the proposal he is putting forward today is just nowhere near enough?
Police Grant Report — House of Commons, 2019-02-05
Topic: Law and Crime
Alexander Cunningham (Labour, Centre-left): Police recorded crime figures for the last full year showed that police areas with the highest number of crimes per 1,000 people have received the smallest increase in funding. Cleveland has the highest crime figures yet it has the lowest increase. The Minister has ignored the letter from Cleveland MPs about our budget, so will he explain this bizarre outcome or, better still, recognise that he has got the Cleveland settlement very wrong?
Police Grant Report — House of Commons, 2019-02-05
Topic: Law and Crime
John Eugene Joseph Dromey (Labour, Centre-left): Let me ask the Home Secretary the question that Ministers seem reluctant to answer. Police numbers have fallen by 21,000, and by 2,000 in the west midlands, and crime is soaring. Are the Government seriously suggesting that there is no link between falling police numbers and increasing crime?
Police Grant Report — House of Commons, 2019-02-05
Topic: Law and Crime
Richard Haines Burden (Labour, Centre-left): May I press the Home Secretary a little more on these figures? I am talking about the support that local forces get from his Department, not what is being passed on to local council tax payers. The West Midlands PCC has estimated that simply to stand still West Midlands police force needs an increase in excess of £24 million. As the additional amount the Home Secretary is putting forward is just over £15 million, how is that anything other than a real-terms cut?
Police Grant Report — House of Commons, 2019-02-05
Topic: Law and Crime
James McMahon (Labour, Centre-left): Does the Home Secretary accept that the real lived experience of many people in Greater Manchester is that many crimes do not even get investigated, and are simply recorded? In many communities, police stations have been closed altogether, and in my own town we do not have a single custody cell left open for a population of quarter of a million.
Police Grant Report — House of Commons, 2019-02-05
Topic: Law and Crime
Angela Eagle (Labour, Centre-left): The right hon. Gentleman seems to be saying that the increases he is talking about will lead to better crime-fighting results, but he is denying that the cuts that led to 1,000 fewer officers in the Merseyside police force have affected the rise in crime. Will he now answer the question asked by my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Erdington (Jack Dromey)? There is actually a link between police funding and crime levels, and he should come clean about it. The right hon. Gentleman cannot claim that if money is going up, crime rates will get better, but deny there is a link the other way around.
Police Grant Report — House of Commons, 2019-02-05
Topic: Law and Crime
Diane Julie Abbott (Labour, Centre-left): There can be no question but that the biggest indictment of this Government’s record on law and order is their long-standing failure to fund the police properly. Sadly, that is as true of this year’s funding allocation as it is of any other year’s. I have to say to the Home Secretary, in the kindest possible manner, that he is brazen in expecting Opposition Members to follow him into the Lobby on this funding settlement. We would be less than responsible if we voted for one that is patently inadequate. It is not just Members on the Opposition Benches who are saying that but ordinary police officers. The chair of the Police Federation, John Apter, said: "This appears to be a quick fix. A sticking plaster solution that injects extra money in the short-term, but one which sees the burden falling unfairly on local council tax payers." Senior police officers think that this settlement is inadequate. The president of the Police Superintendents Association, Gavin Thomas, has said: "Whilst I welcome this injection of funding, it is still far short of what the service requires to effectively meet the challenges of 21st century policing."
Police Grant Report — House of Commons, 2019-02-05
Topic: Law and Crime
Ruth Stephanie Nicole George (Labour, Centre-left): My right hon. Friend is making an excellent speech. In Derbyshire, my own area, the Government’s increase in the grant does not even meet the increase in the police pension costs. There is a shortfall of £400,000, which has to be met by council tax payers before they even start to contribute towards the extra policing that we so desperately need, and which officers on the frontline need to help them combat the stress that the Home Secretary mentioned.
Police Grant Report — House of Commons, 2019-02-05
Topic: Law and Crime
Diane Julie Abbott (Labour, Centre-left): My hon. Friend makes an important point on behalf of her constituents in Derbyshire The West Midlands police and crime commissioner says publicly what many PCCs say privately—that this Government funding does not come anywhere near to covering what the force requires just to stand still.
Police Grant Report — House of Commons, 2019-02-05
Topic: Law and Crime
Diane Julie Abbott (Labour, Centre-left): I would never accuse the Home Secretary of being so petty. This is what the West Midlands police and crime commissioner said: "This government funding does not come anywhere near to covering what the force requires…£25.6m is needed to cover extra pension costs, government-set pay increases and rising fuel costs this year."
Police Grant Report — House of Commons, 2019-02-05
Topic: Law and Crime
Conor Patrick McGinn (Labour, Centre-left): I strongly endorse what my right hon. Friend is saying. People in my constituency will have listened with incredulity to the Home Secretary talking about extra resources when, yesterday, they were told that Newton-le-Willows police station will close, except for a few hours on a Friday, precisely because there is a lack of resources. Does my right hon. Friend agree that, on this Government’s watch, there are fewer police officers and they are further away from the communities that they seek to serve?
Police Grant Report — House of Commons, 2019-02-05
Topic: Law and Crime
Diane Julie Abbott (Labour, Centre-left): My hon. Friend makes a very important point Having spoken about what policing professionals think about this settlement, I have to stress that it does not take policing professionals to make the public aware of the consequences of the failure to provide resources and therefore police capacity. All over the country, the public are aware of issues such as the delays in responding to 999 calls. The inspectorate of constabulary, in its annual review, found instances of the police taking days to respond to calls that should have been acted on within an hour. At a recent meeting in Wolverhampton to discuss public safety, I found many people saying that they had reported instances of open drug dealing, for instance, but that no police officers had turned up—nothing was done. This all points to a lack of capacity.
Police Grant Report — House of Commons, 2019-02-05
Topic: Government Operations
Anna Rhiannon McMorrin (Labour, Centre-left): Does my right hon. Friend agree that we must also find a way to adequately fund capital cities outside London? Cardiff hosts 400 major events a year and is the seat of the Welsh Government, yet it does not receive any extra funding as a capital city, which means that resources come from elsewhere. Could that perhaps be reflected in any settlement?
Police Grant Report — House of Commons, 2019-02-05
Topic: Law and Crime
Diane Julie Abbott (Labour, Centre-left): My hon. Friend makes an important point. Later in my remarks, I will come to how the Home Office manages resources in general Ministers seem to remain in denial about the consequences of their actions. At least the Home Secretary was able to admit on the BBC that the Government have cut 21,000 police officers, but, as my hon. Friends have elicited in questioning, Ministers continue to insist, almost alone in the country, that lower police numbers have had no negative effect in the fight against crime. That is an absurd idea.
Police Grant Report — House of Commons, 2019-02-05
Topic: Law and Crime
Gerald Jones (Labour, Centre-left): Does my right hon. Friend recognise that, apart from Leicestershire, where there has been a very small increase in the number of police community support officers, the only part of the country where there has been such a rise is Wales, where there has been an increase of 217 PCSOs since 2010? Will she join me in praising the Welsh Labour Government for funding 500 PCSOs across Wales and standing up for the people of Wales when this Government are failing them?
Police Grant Report — House of Commons, 2019-02-05
Topic: Law and Crime
Diane Julie Abbott (Labour, Centre-left): I certainly join my hon. Friend in congratulating the Government of Wales, particularly on their emphasis on community policing The real record of the UK Government is this: police officer numbers have not been this low in decades, chief constables up and down the country are warning about the consequences of the cuts in their areas and in their forces, and police-recorded violent crime is now at its highest level on record. Earlier, the Home Secretary tried to ascribe that increase to better recording of crime, but he is not supported on that by the Office for National Statistics, which says: "Over the last year we’ve seen rises in vehicle offences, robbery, and some lower-volume but higher-harm types of violence." Recorded knife crime offences are at their highest level since records began. We know that the effectiveness of the police has been compromised, as arrests have halved in a decade and the sanction detection rate of charges and cautions has plummeted. Tory cuts have consequences.
Police Grant Report — House of Commons, 2019-02-05
Topic: Law and Crime
Diane Julie Abbott (Labour, Centre-left): I draw the hon. Gentleman’s attention to the fact that the Labour party is under new management now This may be, as Ministers say, the largest funding increase since 2010, but it is still inadequate, as ordinary police officers, senior police officers and PCCs say.
Police Grant Report — House of Commons, 2019-02-05
Topic: Law and Crime
Angela Eagle (Labour, Centre-left): My right hon. Friend is recognising the truth that resources are connected to results when it comes to dealing with crime. Does she agree that the cuts that have seen 1,000 officers disappear from the Merseyside force have created a situation where those who are committing crimes see less evidence of the police being able to follow them up, which creates a view on the street that lawlessness can be got away with? That actually encourages criminality while making it much harder for the law-abiding to report it to the police.
Police Grant Report — House of Commons, 2019-02-05
Topic: Law and Crime
Diane Julie Abbott (Labour, Centre-left): I agree with my hon. Friend. Of course, on Merseyside we have also seen an alarming rise in knife crime Part of the problem is the new demands on policing to which the Home Secretary referred. However, an increasing problem is that, with the collapse of public sector funding elsewhere, the police have become the public service of last resort, particularly in relation to issues such as mental health. We will be debating this later this afternoon, but central Government have taken 60%—£16 billion—out of local government funding since 2010. Cuts to youth services, housing and schools must have a bearing on levels of crime, particularly youth crime Let me touch on something that is often not discussed—the problem with having annual funding reviews. Ministers will be aware of the long-standing concern about annual funding. City of London police has said: "Annualised funding allocations result in short term strategies that deliver short term impact", and that they are a constraint. The PCC for Northamptonshire, Stephen Mold, said that that the "imposition of one year funding settlements…hampers effective long term financial planning" And the PCC for Dorset, Martyn Underhill, said that the "absence of any indication of funding beyond 12 months" compromises the ability to formulate "a realistic medium term financial plan".
Police Grant Report — House of Commons, 2019-02-05
Topic: Law and Crime
John Eugene Joseph Dromey (Labour, Centre-left): My right hon. Friend is making an excellent speech, standing up for our police service. The Government may be in denial about the clear link between falling numbers and rising crime, but will my right hon. Friend join me in saying that what is also wrong is the grotesque unfairness on the part of the Government? Why is it that the high-need West Midlands police service gets cut by 25%, while Surrey police service—with much lower need and lower crime levels—gets cut by 11%? It is not just about cutting the police service; it is about the grotesque unfairness that goes with it.
Police Grant Report — House of Commons, 2019-02-05
Topic: Law and Crime
Diane Julie Abbott (Labour, Centre-left): I agree with my hon. Friend on the question of unfairness, particularly in relation to the precept, but I will come to that issue in a few minutes The Home Secretary needs to face up to the fact that there is an issue regarding the poor overall financial management of the police by the Home Office. Let me remind him what the National Audit Office had to say last year about the Home Office’s overall management of police finances: "We concluded that there were significant gaps in the Department’s understanding of demand and of pressures on the service, and it needed to be better informed to discharge its duties of overseeing the police and distributing funding."
Police Grant Report — House of Commons, 2019-02-05
Topic: Law and Crime
Sarah Ann Jones (Labour, Centre-left): I completely agree with what my right hon. Friend is saying. Does she agree that the knife crime prevention orders that were announced this week as a late addition to the Offensive Weapons Bill have had no cost impact assessment whatever, that there is no evidential basis for them and no assessment of the impact on equalities, and that introducing them is therefore very short-sighted and probably expensive and ineffective?
Police Grant Report — House of Commons, 2019-02-05
Topic: Law and Crime
Diane Julie Abbott (Labour, Centre-left): My hon. Friend is right to raise the issue of knife crime prevention orders. One problem is that the issue is not the state of the law, but policing capacity The National Audit Office also said: "The Home Office’s light touch approach to overseeing police forces means it does not know if the police system is financially sustainable. It lacks a long-term plan for policing and significant gaps remain in its understanding of demand for police services and their costs." And this brazen Home Secretary expects us to join him in the Lobby tonight Let me move on to the precept, because I cannot leave any discussion about the funding of the police without mentioning how Ministers insist on talking as if allowing PCCs to raise more money through the precept is somehow new central Government funding. I would have thought that Home Office Ministers might have learnt from the admonition of the chair of UK Statistics Authority, Sir David Norgrove, who recommended that "the Home Office’s Head of Profession for Statistics speak to communications colleagues about the importance of clear public statements about police funding and ensure they understand the structure of police funding."
Police Grant Report — House of Commons, 2019-02-05
Topic: Law and Crime
Diane Julie Abbott (Labour, Centre-left): I am trying to make some progress. Maybe the chair of the UK Statistics Authority should have spoken to Ministers. Ministers want to claim that allowing an increase in the precept to fund the police somehow counts as a loosening of the purse strings. It really is not. The precept is not some magic money tree.
Police Grant Report — House of Commons, 2019-02-05
Topic: Law and Crime
Stephanie Louise Peacock (Labour, Centre-left): I congratulate my right hon. Friend on the powerful speech that she is making. Does she agree that areas such as Barnsley will be able to raise significantly less money than wealthier areas? This is absolutely outrageous. Crime is going up, police numbers are going down and this Government are in complete denial.
Police Grant Report — House of Commons, 2019-02-05
Topic: Law and Crime
Diane Julie Abbott (Labour, Centre-left): The precept is a regressive tax that bears down disproportionately—[Interruption.] Had the hon. Lady waited, I might have given way The precept is a regressive tax that bears down disproportionately on poorer people and poorer regions. It is unfair on the population within a given region and it is unfair between regions. As the Police Federation said: "They are passing the buck of funding the police service to the public by doubling the council tax precept that police and crime commissioners are allowed to charge." This is no way to fund a cohesive police force We see a rise in violent crime, cuts to police numbers and increasing concern about public safety. This Government have let down ordinary police officers and the public. Their overall management of police funding is demonstrably poor. And no, we will not be joining the Home Secretary in the Lobby tonight.