Speeches by Cooper.

“My hon. Friend makes an important point. On the history and the action that has been taken, one thing that Baroness Casey criticises in particular is a 2020 report produced by the Home Office under the previous Government. She says that the conclusions that it came to were simply not justified by the data, and that the…”

“My hon. Friend is right to highlight the work of West Yorkshire police. They have done pioneering work to find new ways to identify victims who may be at risk and to summon evidence where there are repeat missing cases, and they have been forensic and determined in pursuit of action. I commend the work of the assistant…”

“This is Baroness Casey’s independent report. The whole point about asking somebody like Baroness Casey to do an independent report is that we know that they will come to their own conclusions, not anybody else’s. As the hon. Gentleman will see, the report has Baroness Casey’s forthright style and conclusions. In her ev…”

“My hon. Friend is right to raise the appalling case in his constituency, where seven people were convicted on Friday. He will also know that further criminal investigations are still ongoing—it is shameful how long it has taken to get justice for those victims. I agree with him that no one can hide from justice on this…”

“Ten days ago, and this is Baroness Casey’s independent report. Anybody who suggests that she would change her views and reports for anyone has not met her.”

“I do thank my former honourable Friend Ann Cryer, because she did speak out and stand up for children who were being abused. It is because of that that I recognise, as part of the response I made to the 2022 child abuse inquiry and again today, that this has been a historic failure over very many decades. Just as I rec…”

“There are two issues: there is the actual prevalence of violence against women and girls, and then there is the reporting of it. We want more victims of crime to be confident to report their case to the police, to be able to get the support they need. We know that sexual assaults and sexual crimes have been under-repor…”

“I want to pay tribute to the first responders—the police, the fire service and the ambulance service—for the way they responded to what was a horrific incident. We will all have seen the images. It came on what should have been a day of joy for the city of Liverpool. Obviously, there were so many people there in the fi…”

“The Law Commission are undertaking a review on contempt of court and how information can be provided in anticipation of a trial. We have a long-standing tradition of trial by jury in this country, which has impacts on what can be said to ensure that there is a fair trial and that we do not end up with trial by jury bei…”

“The first steps we have set out on neighbourhood policing are perhaps one of the most important things we have done since I was last before the Committee. Over many years we have had the decline of neighbourhood policing, if not the decimation of neighbourhood policing, with many areas seeing their neighbourhood polici…”

“We have been working very closely with the National Police Chiefs’ Council on how we roll out neighbourhood policing, including by making sure that we have regular monitoring, including month-by-month monitoring, to ensure that neighbourhood policing is being rolled out and that the financing within the £200 million fo…”

“First of all, neighbourhood policing matters in rural areas as much as it matters in urban areas. They are obviously different and will operate in different ways, with different patterns of working in rural areas, but that needs to be responsive to the kinds of communities. Secondly, we are working with the National Po…”

“The point of neighbourhood policing is to respond to the different kinds of challenges within each individual community. Depending on some areas, that might be about daytime shoplifting in particular town centres, or it might be about the nighttime economy—there might be particular areas where there are challenges in t…”

“Clearly, we need to ensure that the prisons crisis is dealt with, that we do everything possible to make sure that criminals face justice and penalties for their crimes, and that public safety is maintained. We inherited the most appalling prison crisis. The previous Government, even in 14 years, had built only a few h…”

“First of all, on the terrorism offenders, obviously the most serious offenders are being exempted. There needs to be proper action in communities to make sure that cases are monitored, which is why the Lord Chancellor has already announced the increase in probation. As much as many Members might want to tempt me to com…”

“Clearly, those will be a central focus not just of the Home Office but right across the Government. We have set out our plan for change, and it is important that that is delivered and that we ensure the centrality of security underpinning much of what we do. It is the approach that we take in the Home Office, but it is…”

“We are working with the police in a way that I think has not been done by the Home Office before—certainly not for a very long time—in drawing up proposals for the police reform White Paper. It is looking at a series of issues on how we modernise, reform and overhaul policing. That includes looking at what should right…”

“We are aligning our approach with some of the work around local government. For example, where mayors are being introduced, we have talked about policing powers coming under part of the responsibilities of mayors and deputy mayors. I understand the question that you raise, but some of these issues will be set out in th…”

“We are strengthening that capacity. I think the Home Office did not have that capacity. Policing in the Home Office had been hollowed out over many years, going back to about 2013, as part of the reforms that were introduced. I think the Home Office was then hollowed out on policing and lost a lot of the sense of overs…”

“As you know, most police forces now use retrospective facial recognition, but there is also huge potential in terms of live facial recognition. Police forces strongly think that it requires a clear legal framework within which they can operate. The Policing Minister has been holding a series of meetings with police for…”