asked Her Majesty’s Government:

What progress they have made in introducing neighbourhood policing teams into every community in England and Wales.

My Lords, the government commitment to a neighbourhood policing team in every area by April 2008 has been met. For the first time ever, every household across England and Wales will have a dedicated police team to solve local problems. This marks three years of hard work by police forces and police authorities to roll out neighbourhood policing.

My Lords, I thank the Minister for that response. Does he accept that many of us in this House who have worked in communities have long held the view that you can have safer communities only with community policing, and thus welcome this initiative? Matt Baggott, chief constable of Leicestershire, the lead on ACPO’s neighbourhood policing initiative, has also welcomed it. However, what guarantees do we have that the community policing teams will feed back to the communities and not to the officials in the local authorities who will not necessarily give the information back? What guarantee do we have on budgets? Most importantly, what access outside what I call “office hours”—9 am to 5 pm—will the local community have to these police community teams?

My Lords, my noble friend raises some important points. On the funding side we have a good story to tell, at present and into the future. We have spent about £700 million since 2002 on this initiative. For 2008-09 we have had a good settlement from the CSR: £324 million will be used, £288 million of which is for PCSOs. We are going to continue funding at 50 per cent for the PCSOs who were recruited before the Neighbourhood Policing Fund was launched, and at 75 per cent thereafter. For example, last year we increased funding by 41 per cent.

With regard to feedback, I was in Cambridgeshire on Monday—in the city of Cambridge, in fact—talking about neighbourhood police and going out on to the streets with them. My noble friend is right: this initiative has made a huge difference. The liaison, the integration, the ability to pass information backwards and forwards between the council, housing authorities, groups of local businessmen and the police, and the use of PCSOs, all of these are extraordinarily valuable. I think everyone would accept that it has been a huge step forward.

My Lords, I declare an interest as an ex-mayor of Cambridge. I hope the Minister enjoyed his visit. Does he agree that Crimestoppers does not know any closing hours?

My Lords, I have talked with the noble Baroness before on the Floor of the House about Crimestoppers. It is an extremely useful organisation, which is indeed open all hours. I did not really answer my noble friend’s point on the 24/7 issue; I forgot that one. There are times of the day when the community support teams are not available, but out of hours there are contact numbers that can be phoned and police response teams are always available.

I very much enjoyed my time in Cambridge. I talked to one of the PCSOs and discovered that, like many of them, he was a local man. I said, “You therefore know all the scallywags”—not that I am insinuating that anyone from Cambridge is a scallywag—and he said, “Yes, Minister, I was a scallywag”. That is one of the strengths of this initiative: we are engaging the community in that way.

My Lords, does my noble friend agree that we are not talking simply about anti-social behaviour but about serious matters, such as terrorism? Communities defeat terrorism. Neighbourhood policing is an integral part of the fight against terrorism, and if we get that right we will succeed. Does the Minister agree with that?

My Lords, my noble friend makes a good point. He is right. Of course, my prime interest is in the area of counterterrorism and security, and the NPIA and OSCT within the Home Office are looking at developing the contribution that neighbourhood policing will make to terrorism. It will have a big impact because the way to stop extremism is out there in the communities. I know all noble Lords agree with that, and we are looking at how we can take it forward.

My Lords, I am glad that the Minister feels confident about the financing, but how does he think the five police authorities whose communities wanted to spend more on policing, but which the Government chose to cap, feel? What message does it send out if communities choose to spend more on policing and the Government then decide to the contrary, given that that adds the expense of council tax bills being sent out again, so that money is going on council tax bills and not policing?

My Lords, the noble Baroness raises an important point. Police authorities are the exactly same as local authorities: the same rules and procedures apply to them. There are seven authorities. It looks as though they are in the frame for capping; I do not know how many will finally be capped. However, they have benefited from a decade of sustained funding increase and the overall government grant to police authorities will increase by 2.9 per cent for 2008-09, which is above the rate of inflation.

My Lords, bearing in mind the previous Question, what advice is being given to neighbourhood policing teams about electoral fraud?

My Lords, I do not know a great deal about this, but I think that they are given advice by the Electoral Commission. If I am wrong on that, I will come back to the noble Lord in writing, if I may.

My Lords, is the Minister satisfied that the police support officers’ current holding powers, which are no more than those of a citizen’s arrest, are sufficient? Will he consider whether they should be given full powers of arrest?

My Lords, there has been a lot of discussion about PCSOs and their powers and capabilities. They are an adjunct to the police. Their job is not actually to arrest people and take them to the police station, because then they would not be spending their time in building up community cohesion and problem solving. They are there to stop crime happening in the first place—the real achievement—by co-ordinating across the community. At the moment we think that they are extremely successful. They are supported across the country and there is huge support everywhere I have been. They are doing a very important job. At the moment I do not think that we would look at increasing those powers.

My Lords, one of the exciting aspects of community policing is the recruitment of people from ethnic minorities, who are now going into mainstream policing. Has the Minister worked out the economic impact of such people reducing crime in this country?

My Lords, the noble Lord raises an interesting point. I have to say that I have not considered the point in great detail but I share his view on the importance of recruiting people from across all of our population. The fact that they represent the local community is one of their great strengths. They are, as I said, raising issues with businesses, with the community and with councils. I have heard of a number of cases of potential crimes that were resolved beforehand, making the community safer.