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Building Safer Communities: Police and Justice Bill published

25 January 2006

A package of measures to build safer, stronger communities and instil a culture of respect in society was announced today by the Home Secretary Charles Clarke.

The Police and Justice Bill will continue to drive up standards across the police service, empower communities to take an active role in tackling anti-social behaviour and further strengthen the capabilities of the police and their partners to bear down on those who cause misery in our communities.

Key measures in the Bill to boost effective policing include:

• The establishment of a Police Improvement Agency to drive further improvements in the police service, streamline functions and free up more resources for front-line policing;
• Standardisation of Community Support Officer (CSO) powers so that they can contribute fully to neighbourhood policing and deal with more issues on the spot.
• Aligning Basic Command Unit (BCU) and Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP) boundaries with local authorities so that they can work together more effectively to reduce crime.

Taking forward commitments outlined in the Respect Action Plan published earlier this month, the Bill will:

• Widen the number of agencies that can enter into Parenting Contracts and apply for Parenting Orders;
• Provide a power for CSOs to take truants back to school;
• Give Trading Standards Officers the power to issue Penalty Notices for Disorder to clamp down on licensed premises that sell alcohol to under-18s;
• Strengthen conditional cautions to add a punitive element to the conditions;
• Establish a Community Call for Action to trigger intervention by the local authority if community safety issues have not been adequately addressed by the police or their partners.

View the full Police and Justice Bill on the Parliament website. (new window)

Mr Clarke said:

"I am committed to changing the face of policing in England and Wales so that, on the one hand, forces are equipped to tackle serious organised crime but at the same time they can provide a visible neighbourhood policing presence in our communities.

"This Bill will help free up police time to deal with more serious crime and ensure that CSOs have the powers they need to play a full role in neighbourhood policing, by dealing with low-level crime and anti-social behaviour.

"I believe that communities need powers too. The Community Call for Action will do just that by enabling local residents for the first time to hold the police, local authorities and their partners to account if they have failed to deal effectively with anti-social behaviour in their area."

Hazel Blears, Minister for Respect said:

"This Bill shows that the Government is taking swift action to build a culture of respect in communities up and down the country. We will continue our successful drive to crack down on anti-social behaviour as well as broadening our approach to prevent it occurring in the first place by providing the police and local authorities with the powers they need to tackle disrespect in our homes, on our streets and in our schools."

The Bill will also introduce a rigorous system of independent scrutiny to ensure that standards are upheld across the criminal justice system and immigration service. A single Criminal Justice Inspectorate will create a centre of expertise from the current inspectorates, sharing best practice in independent inspection and driving up standards across the system.

In addition, the Independent Police Complaints Commission’s remit will be extended to cover immigration service enforcement activity. They will investigate serious complaints or incidents that have resulted in deaths or serious injuries, as they currently do for the police service.

Notes to Editors:

1. The Police and Justice Bill was published today Wednesday 25 January and is available on the UK Parliament website. View the full Police and Justice Bill. (new window)
2. List of key provisions:

a) Establish the National Policing Improvement Agency to drive improvement in the police service. The agency will take over responsibility for some of the functions of the Police Information Technology Organisation (PITO) and Centrex.

b) Bring Basic Command Units (BCUs) in line with existing local authority boundaries and place them on a statutory footing. This will enable them to work more efficiently with Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships.

c) Create a single inspectorate for Justice, Community Safety and Custody with one Chief Inspector. It will replace the five existing inspectorates:

• HM Inspectorate of Constabulary
• HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate
• HM Magistrates’ Courts Service Inspectorate
• HM Inspectorate of Prisons
• HM Inspectorate of Probation

Police Powers:

d) Give police the power to capture passenger and crew data on journeys within the UK.

e) Extend powers to the police to attach conditions to bail granted not in a police station.

Intervention powers:

f) Amend the existing intervention powers in relation to poor performing police forces to ensure that they are fit for purpose in terms of supporting forces to bring about performance improvements.

g) Bring poor performing police authorities within the scope of the intervention powers

Community Support Officers:

h) Standardise CSO powers so that they can contribute fully to neighbourhood policing and deal with more issues on the spot.

i) Give CSOs the power to deal with truants.

Crime and Anti-social behaviour:

j) Community Call for Action provisions will increase the ability of local communities to take action to resolve problems that have not been tackled adequately by police and or their partners.

k) Extend the number of agencies that can enter into Parenting Contracts and apply for Parenting Orders.

l) Increase the powers for trading standards officers so they can issue PNDs.
Broadening the use and scope of conditional cautions.

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