Downing Street Says » Law and Order-Home Office

» Monday, January 15, 2007

Law and Order-Home Office

Asked for a reaction to the suggested reports that the Government’s law and order policy have had no effects, the PMOS replied that we firmly rejected this analogy. Overall crime, as measured by the British Crime Survey, was down by over a third since 1997, and it had continued to fall significantly after 2000. Violent crime, as measured by the British Crime Survey, was down by over 43% since 1995. There were 14,000 more police officers, 19,000 additional prison places and over 250,000 more offences being brought to justice each year.

Asked if the Prime Minister was involved in the new database, the PMOS replied that as John Hutton had made clear this morning, it was about data sharing, rather than a new database. This was about how we shared details more intelligently between departments so that people did not have to keep coming back and giving new information. From July 2006, customers could apply for both the state pension and the pension credit via the telephone, and be offered the facility to make a claim for housing benefit and council tax benefit at the same time. In the past, that would have meant four separate calls, but now people could do it all at once.

Asked if the Prime Minister was involved in the decision to suspend the civil servant, and did he still have full confidence in the Ministerial team, the PMOS replied that it was a matter for the Home Office in terms of suspension of senior civil servants, and it would not be right for the PMOS to comment on that. The Prime Minister still had full support for the Home Office Ministerial team for the reasons we had set out last week.

Asked if that suspension would come from the Permanent Secretary or the Cabinet Secretary, the PMO said again that he did not want to comment on the process, because as the Home Office had made clear, this was part of the investigation.

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