Lincoln Conservative Association

Karl’s Oral Parliamentary Questions to David Mundell MP, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland, which took place in the House of Commons on Wednesday, 4 May, 2011:

4 May 2011 : Column 663 (taken from Hansard)

Election Timing

11. Karl McCartney (Lincoln) (Con): What progress he has made on measures to prevent the coincidence of elections to the House of Commons and to the Scottish Parliament in May 2015. [53566]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland (David Mundell): Government amendments to the Fixed-term Parliaments Bill deferring the 2015 Scottish Parliament elections until 5 May 2016 were agreed by the other place on 29 March.

Karl McCartney: In addition to outlining those measures, will my right hon. Friend update the House on progress towards the establishment of the commission to examine the West Lothian question, on its membership and on when we might expect to see its conclusions and recommendations?

David Mundell: As my hon. Friend knows, the coalition’s programme for government promised to establish a commission to consider the West Lothian question. A commission will be established this year to consider it, and the Government are committed to addressing the issue. We are continuing to give careful consideration to the timing, composition, scope and remit of the commission. It will need to take into account our proposals for reform of the House of Lords to create a wholly or mainly elected second Chamber, the changes in how this House does its business, and amendments to the devolution regimes such as those in the Scotland Bill, which is now before the House.

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For further information, please contact Karl M^cCartney MP at karl.mccartney.mp@parliament.uk

Karl M^cCartney, Member of Parliament for Lincoln, has welcomed the Conservative-led government’s world leading website www.police.uk which provides data maps that show crime and anti-social behaviour at a street by street level in Lincoln. This means, from today, everyone can see exactly what crime is happening and where – right down to the level of their street corner.  If anyone has concerns about the crime they see or how issues are dealt with, they can raise them with the police.

Under Labour the police were directed by Whitehall diktat. They spent their time chasing centrally-defined targets, not responding to the needs of local communities they were supposed to be serving. Despite record spending, bureaucracy and form-filling kept police behind desks. They were not on the streets fighting crime. A recent report by the police inspectorate showed only eleven per cent of police officers were visible and available to the public at any time.

The Conservative-led coalition government is introducing a series of measures as part of their plan to fight crime:

• Slashing bureaucracy – steps already taken to save up to 800,000 hours of police time by scrapping the stop form and limiting stop and search reporting.
• Removing all targets and setting the police just one goal: to cut crime.
• Introducing directly-elected Police and Crime Commissioners to ensure that police forces respond to the needs of local communities
• Providing transparent information so local communities really know about crime in their area.

Karl said: ‘I am really pleased that the Conservative-led government has demonstrated they are serious about cutting the levels of crime and anti-social behaviour in our communities.

By providing crime data in an open format that anyone can access, even from their mobile, we can all hold the police to account. We can ensure they deal with the issues that actually matter to us locally not those decided by a Whitehall bureaucrat’.

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For further information, please contact Karl M^cCartney MP at karl.mccartney.mp@parliament.uk

Notes to editors

Other relevant quotes:

Home Secretary Theresa May said:

·         ‘We want people to be able to see what crime is happening on their street and to be able to tell their local police if they have concerns, and challenge them about how issues are being dealt with.

·         ‘From today, this new information will allow them to do just that. This is a major achievement, reconnecting the police and communities through the power of information.

·         ‘But this is just the start. We want to build on this by working with the police and communities to explore how we can go further and faster and drive forward even greater transparency across crime, policing and justice’ (Home Office Press Release, 31 January 2011).

Minister for Policing and Criminal Justice Nick Herbert said:

·         ‘I have been an advocate of street-level crime mapping since seeing it work in Los Angeles so I am excited to see this website launched today, particularly as I believe it goes further and is more comprehensive than any other scheme.  www.police.uk will make England and Wales world leaders in this field, with every citizen able to access details about crimes on their streets.

·         ‘Together with the introduction of directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners, we are giving people the information and power to hold their local forces to account and ensure that crime in their neighbourhood is driven down’ (Home Office Press Release, 31 January 2011).

The Association of Chief Police Officers’ lead on crime information Deputy Chief Constable Neil Rhodes said:

·         ‘This new community-focussed approach means the public can access street level crime information simply by entering their street name or postcode into the website.

·         ‘Links to local neighbourhood policing teams will also be available and will help to build community involvement in policing.

·         ‘Making information available to the public will not only help to raise awareness of how the police service is working to reduce crime and disorder in communities, but will help reduce the fear of crime and in areas where crime is occurring, provide encouragement to the public to support the police with information and remain watchful when appropriate’ (Home Office Press Release, 31 January 2011).

The Commissioner for Victims and Witnesses Louise Casey said:

·         ‘Publishing information about street level crime and policing helps local people hold the police to account for what they are doing to tackle it.

·         ‘Greater transparency is vital if the public are to have the confidence to report crime and victims are to get the help and support they rightly deserve’ (Home Office Press Release, 31 January 2011).

The Information Commissioner Christopher Graham said:

·         ‘I welcome the drive to improve accountability through greater transparency. Crime mapping can be an effective means of letting people know what crimes are taking place in their local area although care needs to be taken as this can potentially have an impact on the privacy of individuals such as victims or witnesses.

·         ‘We are pleased to have had the opportunity to provide advice about the privacy implications and that our advice has been incorporated into many of the safeguards that have been put in place. It will be important that this initiative is reviewed to ensure that the privacy safeguards are effective in practice’ (Home Office Press Release, 31 January 2011).

www.police.uk

·         The interactive map allows access to six categories of crime these are: burglary, robbery, vehicle crime, violence, other crime and anti-social behaviour (a total of all of these combined is also included).

·         In May 2010, the Prime Minister set out the Government’s plans to open up data and information to the public. This included the commitment to, from January 2011, publish detailed local crime data statistics every month, so the public can get proper information about crime in their neighbourhood and hold the police to account for their performance.

·         The information accessed through www.police.uk is the first phase of a wider package of work to make crime, justice and policing more transparent. Building on this the Home Office has appointed ‘trailblazer’ police force areas who will develop and work on innovative ways to deliver greater transparency locally. These are:

• The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead – a Big Society Vanguard – will be publishing together with Thames Valley Police more detailed crime and anti-social behaviour data.  This will enable trends in late night anti-social behaviour to be identified and addressed, particularly in the licensing process. It will help residents identify priorities and work with the police in their communities.
• Hampshire Constabulary – are developing a brand new online socially interactive facility which will allow public and partners the ability to see street level crime, incident and activity data on a daily basis and enable them to play an active part in the resolution of community problems.
• Lincolnshire Police and West Yorkshire Police – will explore how to supply sentencing outcome information alongside the details on crime enabling communities to see the crime and the outcome in one place and be better able to hold local criminal justice services to account.
• Surrey Police  – are developing an interactive application for mobile phones which will improve communication between communities and neighbourhood policing teams. The application will allow people to see crime maps for where they live, receive updates on police interventions, and allow them to comment and vote on what matters most to them in their neighbourhood.
• Leicestershire Constabulary – will explore how to develop online case tracking systems for individual victims so that they can monitor the progress of their case online.

11% of the Police Are Visible At Any One Time

·         ‘On average, only 11% of total police strength are visible and available to the general public at any one time; and in our sample, more police were available on a Monday morning than on a Friday night’ (HMIC Valuing the Police, July 2010, p.3).

Conservative Plans to Cut Crime

·         ‘The first steps to scrap the stop and account form used by police – and save an estimated 450,000 hours of time each year – were taken today. New proposals laid in parliament today will also reduce the amount of information officers are required to take as part of the stop and search process. In future, seven items will need to be recorded rather than twelve. This will save around 350,000 hours of time each year’ (Home Office News, 17 November 2010).

·         Nick Herbert, Policing Minister: ‘The Home Secretary and I could not have been more clear. The primary mission of the police is to cut crime….Nor are we implying that we want to re-introduce crude targets. In fact, the reverse. I believe that central government has interfered with the policing mission for too long. The service has had to respond to endless targets, strategic policing priorities and action plans on specific crimes, on offences brought to justice, on standards of service, on public confidence’ (Police Review Magazine, 15 October 2010).

·         David Cameron: ‘By replacing invisible police authorities with directly elected police and crime commissioners, we can forge a direct link between the police and the public, ensuring that the public have a voice in setting police priorities and have the power to hold the police to account for keeping our streets safe and secure’ (Home Office Press Release, 26 July 2010).

·         Theresa May, Home Secretary said: ‘For too long, people have been faced with crime levels that are too high and a police service that has been too focused on Whitehall targets to really get to grips with what matters locally. Today, I am starting an ambitious programme of reform for policing in the 21st Century. At the strategic level, this includes a new National Crime Agency to strengthen the fight against organised crime and toughen policing at the border. On a local level, it will put local people at the heart of policing by giving them the power to elect Police and Crime Commissioners. I am also setting out how we will ensure police forces work more efficiently to strengthen the fight against crime while providing taxpayers with better value for money in these tough economic times’ (Home Office Press Release, 26 July 2010).

Tomorrow, Britain faces its most important General Election for a generation. We need to use every second that remains to tell voters about the choice they face. Our message is clear:

• Only by voting Conservative tomorrow will you get a new government that starts cleaning up the mess on Friday.
• A vote for the Lib Dems is a vote for five more years of Gordon Brown.
• Labour only offer more of the same – and their desperate campaign is designed to scare families, older people and the vulnerable.
• The Liberal Democrats’ policies for an immigration amnesty, to scrap prison sentences under six months, keep Labour’s jobs tax and join the euro would damage Britain.

From day one, we will start to fulfil our no nonsense, no frills contract with the British people – to cut the waste, sort out the welfare mess, improve front line services and deliver change for the better. We won’t leave the poorest and the most vulnerable behind, because we’re all in this together.

If we don’t do these things, you should vote us out in five years’ time.  A Conservative Government will be accountable to you.

The latest newsletter has just been released. Why not download a copy and find out about what is happening right now around the Constituency as the General Election draws ever closer giving the people of Lincoln their opportunity to pass judgement on Gordon Brown and his beleaguered colleagues.

The newsletter has a message from our Parliamentary Candidate along with dates of future events. To read it just click the link below:

January 2010 Newsletter – Updated

To coincide with the launch of the County Council Election Campaign which culminates on 4th June 2009 with the County Council Elections, Lincoln Conservatives have today taken the wraps off their updated web presence.

Whether you are looking for the latest news from Lincoln Conservatives or want to find out more about the candidates for the forthcoming County Council Elections you can find it at the new web site. Also, we have an in-depth profile of Karl McCartney the Conservative Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the next General Election.

The site has a contact form where residents within the constituency boundaries can get in touch with Karl and his colleagues about any issues they have either locally or nationally.