It was precisely because of the inadequacy of that system that we developed a more satisfactory arrangement. The Minister has sought to assuage our concerns by indicating that the Government have no intention of substituting the private security industry for the police force. It is important for us to ensure, in practice as well as in rhetoric, that there is a role for the private security industry, but that it does not seek to supplant or nudge out of the way the public service called the police force. Does it not concern my hon. The police are expecting more and more people to employ private security firms and to use alarm systems, because, unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer police on the beat to guarantee the safe towns and safe countryside that people have taken for granted in the past.
Friend is entirely right.
Under this Government, who said that they would support the police, we have fewer police. They bear greater burdens, they are given less support, and they are constantly told that they must do more with less. Friend has encapsulated that point in his characteristically eloquent fashion. I think that I was in the Chamber on the occasions on which she asked those questions. I therefore know the feeling with which she speaks on the subject, and I hope that she feels that she had a proper outing today.