Speeches by Mullane.

“Minister, I just asked the Assistant Commissioner about police numbers in the main and he said no, he thought everything was all right. When I speak to my local BCU commander, he welcomes all of what we are doing, but he pretty much was saying to me in a meeting about 10 days ago that he is getting new officers, which …”

“My final question. We had the Home Secretary at one of our Committee meetings, and she was talking through with us about procurement and IT and what would be more beneficial to help police forces. What are your thoughts? Chief Constable Harrington: That is a very big question, beyond public order. If I come back to dea…”

“Chief Constable Harrington, would you agree with the Government’s view that the police, in response to the summer disorder, highlighted weaknesses in national policing structures?”

“What do you think is the impact of public order policing on the Met more broadly?”

“With the subsequent protest, you give your recount to us on the Tommy Robinson supporters as "peaceful protest". Would you agree with that? Do you think that you were able to contain them?”

“Assistant Commissioner Twist, could you briefly summarise last year’s disorder on Whitehall? Could you contrast that with your subsequent policing of the Tommy Robinson supporters’ protest, which had that disorder missing?”

“The Bill paves the way to end 14 years of gimmicks and sticking-plaster politics. The previous Government threw £700 million of taxpayers’ money at the Rwanda scheme, which, from the time it was introduced to the day it was scrapped, saw 84,000 people arrive on our shores in small boats. Given the focus of the Bill, it…”

“In this discussion, although I appreciate that the White Paper has yet to come, we only hear about IT systems—they cannot all have different IT systems—but it will have to be much more complex than that on the efficiencies, if we are going to get to that on the budget. AI, too, I assume will have a part to play. Also, …”

“Is there any kind of worry that once young people are involved with a referral to Prevent and they have a legal team, the legal advice is to say, “No comment”, and protect the person you are representing? Do you see that within the Home Office as something you need to look at from a safeguarding perspective?”

“Is the Home Office prepared for the increase in referrals on Prevent? If the numbers do go up, or Prevent is expanded, are you ready?”

“I was saying that when police efficiencies are spoken about, the general point made is, “Oh, everyone needs a different IT system” and that kind of thing. That will not cut it. How do you see that playing out?”

“Mine are expenditure questions. As you mentioned, 13,000 new neighbourhood officers and police support officers—obviously, the money has gone into that, but given what you just said, it is going to be tight. In the first year, that will be easier for the various police forces. The Home Secretary mentioned the need for …”

“Where something happens and then the focus is gone. You both highlighted that.”

“Yes.”

“Do you have confidence that the data on ethnicity will now be collected? How do you think that would help with prevention, if at all?”

“Following on from Ben’s question on the strategic position on safeguarding: when the focus shifts, which is a problem, and the leadership needs to be there to keep safeguarding and child sexual abuse at the top of the agenda—especially from what you said earlier about the victims—do you think that is possible?”

“You make reference to how it switched to county lines at that point.”

“On violence against women and girls, it is very good what the Government are proposing, but do you think that the police are operationally independent from the Government and how do you think that the Government's priorities will be taken seriously with all that the police have to contend with?”

“In my seat it is vital and I welcome it wholeheartedly. The police and the local authorities want to step up and they want to deal with it. However, do you think that when the new police teams arrive the abstractions will be an issue? In their heart they want to be there dealing with it but the reality is that they are…”

“Home Secretary, you have mentioned confidence in the communities. Antisocial behaviour has a huge and terrible impact on communities. The Government are going to bring in respect orders to make it easier for local authorities and the police to deal with this problem. Why are these new powers necessary when there are ex…”