Chapter 3
Crime and security:
Safe communities, secure borders
Forward to neighbourhood policing,
not back to rising crime
1979-1997: Recorded crime had almost doubled
2005: Almost 13,000 more police officers
2010: A neighbourhood policing team in
every community
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Today, there is less chance of being a victim of crime than for
more than 20 years. But our security is threatened by major
organised crime; volume crimes such as burglary and car
theft, often linked to drug abuse; fear of violent crime; and
anti-social behaviour. Each needs a very different approach.
We are giving the police and local councils the power to tackle
anti-social behaviour; we will develop neighbourhood policing
for every community and crack down on drug dealing and
hard drug use to reduce volume crime; we are modernising
our asylum and immigration system; and we will take the necessary
measures to protect our country from international
terrorism.
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The new Labour case
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The modern world offers freedoms and opportunities unheralded a
generation ago. But with new freedoms come new fears and threats to
our security. Our progressive case is that to counter these threats we
need strong communities built on mutual respect and the rule of law.
We prize the liberty of the individual; but that means protecting the
law-abiding majority from the minority who abuse the system.We
believe in being tough on crime and its causes so we will expand drugs
testing and treatment, and tackle the conditions – from lack of youth
provision to irresponsible drinking – that foster crime and anti-social
behaviour. In a third term we will make the contract of rights and
responsibilities an enduring foundation of community life.
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A neighbourhood policing team for every community
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Overall crime as measured by the authoritative British Crime Survey
is down 30 per cent – the equivalent of almost five million fewer crimes
a year. Record numbers of police – almost 13,000 more than in 1997
– working with 4,600 new Community Support Officers (CSOs),
local councils, and the Crown Prosecution Service deserve the credit.
But local people want a more visible police presence and a role in
setting local police priorities. So our pledge is a neighbourhood policing
team for every community.We will carry on funding the police
service to enable it to continue to employ historically high numbers of
police officers.
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Hard-working police officers should be supported by professional and
trained support staff. So a new £340 million a year fund will take CSO
numbers up to 24,000 – to work alongside the equivalent of an additional
12,000 police officers freed up for frontline duties. And we will
work with representatives of police officers and other police staff to
develop a modern career framework for the whole police team.
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Not all problems need a 999 response, so a single phone number
staffed by police, local councils and other local services will be available
across the country to deal with anti-social behaviour and other
non-emergency problems.
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Empowering communities against anti-social behaviour
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People want communities where the decent law-abiding majority are
in charge. The experience of almost 4,000 Anti-Social Behaviour
Orders, nearly 66,000 Penalty Notices for Disorder, and the closure of
over 150 crack houses shows that communities can fight back against
crime.We are ready to go further.
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Parish Council wardens, like those working for local authorities, will be
given the power to issue Penalty Notices for Disorder for noise, graffiti
and throwing fireworks.Victims of anti-social behaviour will be able
to give evidence anonymously. Local people will be able to take on
‘neighbours from hell’ by triggering action by councils and the police.
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We have reformed housing and planning legislation to ensure that
councils plan for the needs of genuine Gypsies and travellers. But with
rights must go responsibilities so we have provided tough new powers
for councils and the police to tackle the problem of unauthorised sites.
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Excessive alcohol consumption fuels anti-social behaviour and violence.
The new Licensing Act will make it easier for the police and
councils to deal with pubs and clubs that cause problems. Local councils
and police will be able to designate Alcohol Disorder Zones to help
pay for extra policing around city centre pubs and clubs, with new
powers to immediately shut down premises selling alcohol to underage
drinkers, and bans from town and city centres for persistent
offenders. Police will be able to exclude yobs from town centres for 24
hours when they issue a Penalty Notice for Disorder.
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We will continue to overhaul our youth justice system and improve
Young Offender Institutions.We will make more use of intensive community
programmes, including electronic tagging and tracking to deal
with the most persistent young offenders, and will increase the number
of parents of young offenders getting help with their children’s
behaviour.We will increase, by at least a half, programmes targeted at
young people most at risk of offending and will expand drug-treatment
services for young people.
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Cutting crime through cutting drug dependency
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Communities know that crime reduction depends on drug reduction.
There are now 54 per cent more drug users in treatment and new
powers for the police to close crack houses and get drug dealers off our
streets.We will introduce compulsory drug testing at arrest for all
property and drugs offenders, beginning in high-crime areas, with
compulsory treatment assessment for those who test positive.
Offenders under probation supervision will be randomly drug tested
to mirror what already happens to offenders in custody.
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From 2006, the Serious Organised Crime Agency will bring together
over 4,000 specialist staff to tackle terrorism, drug dealers, people traffickers
and other national and international organized criminals. And
in consultation with local police authorities and chief constables we
will re-structure police resources in order to develop strong leadership,
streamline all police support services, and focus upon national and
regional organised crime.
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Reducing the use of guns and knives
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Dangerous weapons fuel violence.We have banned all handguns,
introduced five-year minimum sentences for those caught with an
unlawful firearm and raised the age limit for owning an air gun. Now
we will go further.We will introduce a Violent Crime Reduction Bill to
restrict the sale of replica guns, raise the age limit for buying knives to
18 and tighten the law on air guns. Head teachers will have legal rights
to search pupils for knives or guns. At-risk pubs and clubs will be
required to search for them and we will introduce tougher
sentences for carrying replica guns, for those involved in serious knife
crimes and for those convicted of assaulting workers serving the public.
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Punishing criminals, reducing offending
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As court sentences have got tougher, we have built over 16,000 more
prison places than there were in 1997. The most high-risk violent
offenders will now be detained in custody indefinitely and our 2003
Criminal Justice Act confirmed that life sentences must mean life for the
most heinous murders.Where significant new evidence comes to light
we have abolished the ‘double jeopardy’ rule so that serious criminals
who have been unjustly acquitted can be tried again. And we will introduce
much tougher penalties for those who cause death by careless driving
or who kill while driving without a licence or while disqualified.
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We will tackle reoffending. By 2007 every offender will be supervised
after release; we will increase the use of electronic tagging; and we will
test the use of compulsory lie detector tests to monitor convicted sex
offenders. Our new National Offender Management Service will ensure
that every offender is individually case-managed from beginning to end
of their sentence, both in and out of custody – with increased effort targeted
on drugs treatment, education and basic skills training to reduce
reoffending. Voluntary organisations and the private sector will be
offered greater opportunities to deliver offender services and we will
give local people a greater say in shaping community punishment.
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Making sure crime does not pay
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Those who commit crimes should not profit from them. Already we
have introduced laws that enable the courts to confiscate the assets and
property of drug dealers and other major criminals.We will enable the
police and prosecuting authorities to keep at least half of all the criminal
assets they seize to fund local crime-fighting priorities.And we will
develop new proposals to ensure that criminals are not able to profit
from publishing books about their crimes. In addition we will support
magistrates effectively in fighting crime and improve the enforcement
of court decisions – including the payment of fines.
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Where a defendant fails to turn up for court without good excuse,the presumption
should be that the trial and sentencing should go ahead anyway.
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We will overhaul laws on fraud and the way that fraud trials are conducted
to update them for the 21st century and make them quicker
and more effective.
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Backing the victim
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The legal system must dispense justice to the victim as well as the
accused.We have invested to create a modern, self-confident prosecution
service. With new powers and new technology to bring more
offenders to justice more speedily and effectively.We will improve the
way the courts work for victims, witnesses and jurors by:
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* Building a nationwide network of witness and victim support units that
provide practical help.
* Expanding specialist courts to deal with domestic violence and specialist
advocates to support the victims of such crime and of other serious crimes
like murder and rape.
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We will extend the use of restorative justice schemes and Community
Justice Centres to address the needs of victims, resolve disputes and
help offenders to make recompense to victims for their crimes.
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Legal aid will be reformed to better help the vulnerable.We will ensure
independent regulation of the legal profession, and greater competition
in the legal services market to ensure people get value for money.
We will tackle the compensation culture – resisting invalid claims, but
upholding people’s rights.
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Following consultation on the draft Bill we have published,we will legislate
for a new offence of corporate manslaughter.
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Migration: The facts
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Over seven million people entered the UK from outside the EU in
2003: of whom 180,000 came here to work and over 300,000 to study,
with the rest coming here as business visitors and tourists.People from
overseas spent almost £12 billion in the UK, and overseas students
alone are worth £5 billion a year to our economy. At a time when we
have over 600,000 vacancies in the UK job market, skilled migrants
are contributing 10-15 per cent of our economy’s overall growth.
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Since 1997, the time taken to process an initial asylum application has
been reduced from 20 months to two months in over 80 per cent of
cases.The number of asylum applications has been cut by two-thirds
since 2002.The backlog of claims has been cut from over 50,000 at
the end of 1996 to just over 10,000.There are 550 UK Immigration
Officers posted in France and Belgium to check passports of people
boarding boats and trains, and Airline Liaison Officers and overseas
entry clearance staff are helping to stop 1,000 people a day improperly
entering the UK.
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Building a strong and diverse country
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For centuries Britain has been a home for people from the rest of
Europe and further afield. Immigration has been good for Britain.We
want to keep it that way.
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Our philosophy is simple: if you are ready to work hard and there is work
for you to do, then you are welcome here.We need controls that work
and a crackdown on abuse to ensure thatwe have a robust and fair immigration
system fit for the 21st century that is in the interests of Britain.
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A points system for immigration
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We need skilled workers. So we will establish a points system for those
seeking to migrate here. More skills mean more points and more
chance of being allowed to come here.
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We will ensure that only skilled workers are allowed to settle long-term
in the UK, with English language tests for everyone who wants to stay
permanently and an end to chain migration.
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Where there has been evidence of abuse from particular countries, the
immigration service will be able to ask for financial bonds to guarantee
that migrants return home.We will continue to improve the quality
and speed of immigration and asylum decisions. Appeal rights for
non-family immigration cases will be removed and we will introduce
civil penalties on employers of up to £2,000 for each illegal immigrant
they employ.
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Strong and secure borders
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While the Tories would halve investment in our immigration services,
we would invest in the latest technology to keep our borders strong
and secure.
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By 2008, those needing a visa to enter the UK will be fingerprinted.We
will issue ID cards to all visitors planning to stay for more than three
months. Over the next five years we will implement a new electronic
borders system that will track visitors entering or leaving the UK.
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Across the world there is a drive to increase the security of identity
documents and we cannot be left behind. From next year we are introducing
biometric ‘ePassports’. It makes sense to provide citizens with
an equally secure identity card to protect them at home from identity
theft and clamp down on illegal working and fraudulent use of public
services.We will introduce ID cards, including biometric data like
fingerprints, backed up by a national register and rolling out initially
on a voluntary basis as people renew their passports.
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Fair rules
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We can and should honour our obligations to victims of persecution
without allowing abuse of the asylum system.We will:
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* Fast-track all unfounded asylum seekers with electronic tagging where
necessary and more use of detention as we expand the number of detention
places available.
* Remove more failed applicants.We have more than doubled the number of
failed asylum seekers we remove from the UK compared to 1996. By fingerprinting
every visa applicant and prosecuting those who deliberately
destroy their documents we will speed up the time taken to redocument
and remove people and will take action against those countries that refuse
to cooperate. By the end of 2005, our aim is for removals of failed asylum
seekers to exceed new unfounded claims.
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Tough action to combat international terrorism
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We know that there are people already in the country and who seek to
enter the United Kingdom who want to attack our way of life. Our liberties
are prized but so is our security.
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Police and other law enforcement agencies now have the powers they
need to ban terrorist organisations, to clampdown on their fundraising
and to hold suspects for extended questioning while charges are
brought. Over 700 arrests have been made since 2001.Wherever possible,
suspects should be prosecuted through the courts in the normal
way. So we will introduce new laws to help catch and convict those
involved in helping to plan terrorist activity or who glorify or condone
acts of terror. But we also need to disrupt and prevent terrorist activity.
New control orders will enable police and security agencies to keep
track on those they suspect of planning terrorist outrages including
bans on who they can contact or meet, electronic tagging and curfew
orders, and for those who present the highest risk, a requirement to
stay permanently at home.
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We will continue to improve coordination between enforcement agencies
and cooperation with other countries so that every effort is made
to defeat the terrorists.
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The choice for 2010
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Labour’s goals for 2010 are clear.Overall crime down, the number
of offenders brought to justice up, with a neighbourhood
policing team in every community to crack down on crime and
disorder and a modern criminal justice system fit for the 21st
century. And to reduce threats from overseas: secure borders
backed up by ID cards and a crackdown on abuse of our immigration
system.The Conservative threat is equally clear. Savage
cuts to our border controls, ‘fantasy island’ asylum policies and
a return to the days of broken promises on police numbers and
crime investment.
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