Speeches by Johnson.

“It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Twigg. I welcome the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Bexhill and Battle (Dr Mullan), and am very interested to hear of his role as a volunteer police officer. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Norwich North (Alice Macdonald) for securing this debate. I am gra…”

“I am very focused on delivery. Of course we want partner agencies to all be sitting around the table, but we want them to deliver, and that is why, for example, we are putting additional funding into neighbourhood policing, to ensure that there is a local presence. We are bringing in respect orders. We have introduced …”

“Yes, I am sure he is doing his best. I would say to him that, over 14 years, the previous Conservative Government removed targets in the Home Office and removed the accountability structures that the Home Office should have set in place. We are going to have a performance framework in the Home Office so that we can hol…”

“I think that the shadow Minister—obviously he is not the shadow Policing Minister—”

“I would really like to get on actually. The shadow Home Secretary had quite a lot of time at the beginning of the debate, and I would like to respond to the Back Benchers who have spent many hours in the Chamber in order to make their points. However, in response to a question that he asked about knife scanning technol…”

“indicated dissent.”

“It is an honour and privilege to wind up the debate on what is, as the Home Secretary set out in her opening speech, a critically important Bill. It is critically important for all sorts of reasons, many of which have been highlighted during the debate. It has been a wide-ranging discussion, which is unsurprising given…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Murrison. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Tipton and Wednesbury (Antonia Bance) on securing this debate and on her very powerful and energetic opening speech. I am grateful to her and all the other hon. Members who have spoken this afternoon. The number wh…”

“Absolutely. I will come to that in just a moment. It is really important to recognise the role that the police have to play in this. It is reassuring to hear in this debate about the proactive steps that many police forces are taking to get to grips with this issue. I pay particular tribute to the work going on in the …”

“Absolutely. Bringing together all the key partners is vital if we are to tackle this—I will say something about that in a moment. The main focus of the debate has been the antisocial use of off-road bikes and other vehicles. In her opening speech, my hon. Friend the Member for Tipton and Wednesbury catalogued the very …”

“It is a pleasure to serve under you this afternoon, Ms McVey. I congratulate the hon. Member for North Cornwall (Ben Maguire) on securing this debate, as well as on his private Member’s Bill, which is before the House. I am grateful for how clearly he set out the serious nature of rural crime, particularly the involvem…”

“The Home Secretary has been very clear that she is looking at that. We are currently having discussions and conversations with football in particular, but we have also made it very clear that if those conversations do not result in some clear action and some clear agreements around funding, then we will move to legisla…”

“That is obviously a very big issue. As London MPs, I know you will be particularly concerned about that. Matt Twist would say to me, when I have asked him questions about this in the past, that because of London and the number of protests that are held in London, particularly over the last couple of years, there has be…”

“You are absolutely right. Trust and confidence in policing is one of the key parts of our Safer Streets mission. One aspect of that—an important one—is the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee. It is about putting those police officers, PCSOs and specials back into our neighbourhoods, our high streets and our communities, …”

“The Home Secretary set out that we are going to have a White Paper this year setting out a reform agenda. That is about looking at what we need for policing going forward. Our policing structures often are from quite a few decades ago. I just look, for example, at the national aviation capability for policing. You have…”

“I think the experience of that period from 29 July through to the middle of August shone a very clear light on where there were gaps, where there were problems and where there were structures that did not work as effectively as we wanted them to. That was a very steep learning curve as a new Policing Minister, and it c…”

“The way policing is set up in this country is very much about the operational independence of the chief constables of the forces. They decide on how they use their resources and the tactics that they employ. I do think there is a role, as we have already discussed, for Ministers and the Home Office to have more of a gr…”

“I certainly think there is more that could be done in terms of communications and explanation of what is going on. Yes, I agree with you on that. There have been examples, and I go back to the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign protests. I think initially when those protests happened, particularly the Metropolitan Police …”

“I am not sure I would say that the police do not have honest conversations with the public. Policing is complicated and complex.”

“There is, but I think that is different. Protest is a very important part of our constitutional right to express ourselves, if we wish to, in peaceful protest. That is not something we have looked at because we recognise that people should be able to protest, but you are right that in the last few years, particularly i…”