Member

A lot has been said, quite properly, about whether the Probation Service has the right resources now to cope with the surge of people as they leave. I am interested in the police service. One thing that the Government said in response to some of the burdens that have been placed on the police is that there are 13,000 extra officers coming into the neighbourhoods. It is time to shoot that fox. That is 13,000 people, of whom some will be special constables and some will be police community support officers. They all have their value but they are not cops who can be deployed in the way that officers can be to enforce the law. There is not even a guarantee that there will be a growth in the number of officers. The police officer numbers may increase in neighbourhoods by moving them out of murder teams, organised crime teams or all the other things they do. If the Government were to rely on the fact that the 13,000 extra officers in neighbourhoods were going to help in this particular effort, I am not convinced. It is time for the Government to be clear about how many more officers there will be. If the answer is none, that does not help with things such as this, which is just one of the things that we are asking the police to do.