Yvette Cooper MP: speeches

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Speeches

21 Oct 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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My hon. Friend makes an extremely important point. The mission for safer streets that the Government have set includes a really ambitious mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade. We know that that is immensely difficult, and I hope that all the devolved Administrations, as well as local communities and organisations, will want to be part of it. My hon. Friend is right to prioritise women’s online safety, and that is why my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology is prioritising action on online deepfake abuse.
21 Oct 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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We will be appointing a Windrush commissioner. This is something I feel strongly about. The hon. Member will know that as the Select Committee Chair, I asked many questions about the Windrush scandal. It is a stain not just on the Home Office, but on the British state, and it is important we right those wrongs.
21 Oct 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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My hon. Friend makes an important point, and I thank her for standing up for her community. We want to strengthen the law to give the police more powers to tackle the nightmare of dangerous off-road bikes.
21 Oct 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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The hon. Member will know that in this country we have operational independence for the police, and independence for the Crown Prosecution Service and the courts. I strongly support police officers, who have faced cases of the most disgraceful violence and attacks. It is important that we support our police in the face of those attacks and ensure that they have the whole community behind them.
21 Oct 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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My hon. Friend makes an important point. To tackle the chaos in the asylum system the rules need to be properly respected and enforced. That is why we have increased by more than 20% the enforced returns over the summer of those who have no right to be here. We have also increased the number of charter flights, including the biggest ever charter flight return.
21 Oct 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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I gently remind the hon. Member that his party’s Government failed to review the funding formula for very many years. However, he is right that the issues of rural and urban areas are immensely important, which is why we have committed to a rural crime action plan.
21 Oct 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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My hon. Friend is right that we have an extensive challenge with the backlog, which means that very expensive hotels are too often used as asylum accommodation. We need to clear the backlog and ensure that we end hotel use, but that also means addressing the serious challenges around violence against women and girls.
21 Oct 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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As the hon. Gentleman will know, the impact assessment is provided by the Home Office, and what we inherited from the previous Government was not simply the incredibly costly Rwanda programme, but also the retrospective element of the Illegal Migration Act 2023, which was so damaging that the shadow Home Secretary, when he was in the job, did not implement many of the measures. That retrospective element has cost the Home Office hundreds of millions of pounds, and those costs would go forward into the future.
21 Oct 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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The former Home Secretary—the current shadow Home Secretary—now seems to be admitting to the totally chaotic state of asylum accommodation finances. He had to continually seek last-minute reserve claims, because his Government had underfunded the asylum accommodation problems that they had caused by letting the asylum backlog soar. As a result, the taxpayer ended up footing the bill. This Government will be making savings from asylum accommodation by getting the system back in order. I know that the right hon. Member has been kicked out of the Tory party leadership contest because he cannot count.
21 Oct 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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I think it is a matter for us all to take the security of people immensely seriously, and to ensure that terrorist, extremist and criminal threats do not win in their attempt to pose threats not just to life, but to our way of life.
21 Oct 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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I have met the IOPC chair to talk through the issues facing that body. The hon. Gentleman is right that we need to speed up the decision-making process. He will also recognise that there are considerable challenges in the system that we have inherited.
21 Oct 2024 · Neighbourhood Policing · Hansard source
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I have long been a strong supporter of the Elizabeth medal. I pay tribute to Bryn Hughes and others for their work campaigning for recognition for police officers and other emergency workers who have been lost in the line of duty, and who have given so much to support other people and keep others safe. I have attended the police bravery awards every year for the last 14 years, exactly because it is so important to support brave officers. I am absolutely determined to ensure that we not only continue with that work, but go further to support brave officers who put their lives at risk. I am very happy to continue cross-party working on this issue.
21 Oct 2024 · Neighbourhood Policing · Hansard source
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The hon. Member makes a serious point. We need to increase neighbourhood policing in rural areas and to recognise the additional different challenges that rural areas can face, both because of the geography and the particular kinds of crime that affect farmers and farming equipment. That is why we have set out our intention to draw up a new rural crime action plan, alongside our plans for neighbourhood policing.
21 Oct 2024 · Neighbourhood Policing · Hansard source
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I welcome the points the hon. Member makes. To tackle shoplifting, we need to ensure that strong enough laws and policing partnerships are in place, and that we do prevention and follow-up work with young people. As she may know, we are setting up a new Young Futures programme, which is all about the greater work we need to do to prevent young people being drawn into crime in the first place. I encourage her to tell us more details about her local work to tackle this issue.
21 Oct 2024 · Neighbourhood Policing · Hansard source
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I caution the right hon. Member against excluding one of the most common crimes in the country from his figures. Some of the crimes that impact town centres at the heart of local communities most heavily, such as shoplifting, street crime and street theft, have soared in recent years, but there was no response at all by the previous Government. We are making those crimes a priority as part of our plans to change some of the laws around shoplifting and assault on shop workers, as well as getting more police back on the beat.
21 Oct 2024 · Neighbourhood Policing · Hansard source
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My hon. Friend is right that we now have thousands fewer police officers and PCSOs on the streets than we had a decade ago. This includes the previous Government halving the number of PCSOs and cutting the number of special constables by two thirds. This newly elected Government are working at pace to introduce a new neighbourhood policing guarantee, putting police officers and PCSOs back on the streets. We have also announced funding and support for the College of Policing to begin the national roll-out of specialist training for neighbourhood officers in order to professionalise and strengthen the work they do in every corner of the country.
21 Oct 2024 · Neighbourhood Policing · Hansard source
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My hon. Friend makes an important point. This is a challenge we are facing across the country. The proportion of people saying that they barely ever see the police is now nearly half, up from a quarter when the Conservatives came to power in 2010. This has been deeply damaging to public confidence, and we need the police back on the beat, but they also need the powers to act. That is why we will also bring forward new powers to tackle shoplifting and antisocial behaviour, especially in our town centres.
21 Oct 2024 · Neighbourhood Policing · Hansard source
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My hon. Friend makes an important point. Drug dealing, drug misuse and other forms of antisocial behaviour and crime are a real challenge in many communities. First, we need to get neighbourhood police back on the beat to address these challenges. Secondly, neighbourhood police need greater powers, and we will introduce respect orders that allow the police to take action against repeat offenders and to make sure that our streets and communities can be kept safe.
21 Oct 2024 · Neighbourhood Policing · Hansard source
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Neighbourhood policing is the bedrock of the British policing model, yet in many areas of the country it has been decimated in recent years. This Government are committed to rebuilding neighbourhood policing by putting officers, police community support officers and special constables back in our communities with new powers to tackle antisocial behaviour and local crime.
21 Oct 2024 · Neighbourhood Policing · Hansard source
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I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Ealing Southall (Deirdre Costigan) for the leadership she is showing in her community. The point she raises is partly about increasing neighbourhood police numbers, which is part of this Labour Government’s plan. It is also about ensuring that we have partnerships between the police and local communities, rather than communities feeling that they have to do this alone. Such partnerships between the police and communities are at the heart of the British model of policing by consent, which is what we need to restore and rebuild after the damage that has been done.
21 Oct 2024 · Neighbourhood Policing · Hansard source
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The hon. Member is right that off-road bikes are a total nightmare in some communities. I have talked to residents who have been driven mad by the scourge of dangerous off-road bikes that are used to harass and intimidate people. We are looking at ways to strengthen the law on off-road biking to give the police the powers they need to tackle that kind of damaging antisocial behaviour.
21 Oct 2024 · Neighbourhood Policing · Hansard source
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The hon. Member raises an important issue. That co-ordination between police and mental health services can be crucial in some of the most serious cases, where people are a danger to the public for reasons perhaps linked to a mental health crisis, but also in many cases where someone is not a danger to the public and mental health professionals may be far better able to respond than police officers. Significant work has been done, but she is right that we need further close working between police and mental health services across the country. That has also been part of the work that my right hon. Friend the Health Secretary is doing in the NHS and the Department of Health and Social Care on improving mental health services.
14 Oct 2024 · Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill · Hansard source
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The right hon. Member makes an important point and I thank him for his long-standing interest in the issue. Those responsible for premises and events in the enhanced tier will be required to provide the regulator with a document that sets out all the public protection measures and procedures they have, and how they expect those processes to reduce their vulnerability and risk of harm from terrorism. The first category is about monitoring for risks and indicators. That might include monitoring prevention measures—for example, if there has been some kind of security breach a week before or some days before—or assessing what the risks might be. The third measure is about physical safety, which might include the physical arrangements that can prevent somebody from being able to take action in advance of a major event to create that risk and threat. There are ways of having those checks in place. The Bill ensures that there is a new regulator to oversee compliance through a new function of the Security Industry Authority. We expect the SIA’s primary role to be supporting and advising businesses to implement the legislation’s requirements. Even though the SIA will have a suite of powers and sanctions, including the power to issue fines for non-compliance or to shut down events in the enhanced tier, in fact those sanctions are primarily civil. I reassure the House that those responsible for premises and events will be given time to understand and that the SIA’s approach will be to support venues to adopt the new measures. A range of factors will be taken into account so that penalties will be used only to address the most serious or repeated failings.
14 Oct 2024 · Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill · Hansard source
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I said I would give way to the right hon. Member for South Holland and The Deepings (Sir John Hayes). I will then come to the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon).
14 Oct 2024 · Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill · Hansard source
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I will give way first to my hon. Friend and then I will come back to the right hon. Gentleman.

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