Susanna Challenges Home Secretary Suella Braverman Over Police Recruitment | Good Morning Britain

Foreigner Ratherman joins us now. Good

morning

, Secretary of the Interior. Can he tell us if he has filled the gap in the number of

police

officers that have been lost in recent years? We are very confident that we are on the right track. to deliver on our Manifesto commitment to have recruited 20,000 new

police

officers and we look forward to the announcement later today just to correct you Susanna, we are not filling a gap, we are going and if we achieve this target we will . We have a record number of police officers in the history of policing in England and it is higher than any figure previous Labor administrations had achieved.

When you came to government, there were around 142,000 police officers in England and Wales and in 2022 there were around 142,000 police officers in England and Wales; meanwhile, under his rule, the numbers dropped to 121,929 in 2017, so when I say they are simply filling the gap, they are simply filling the gap, as I said "we." We are very sure that we are not filling any void. We are actually a new generation that you lost. We will bring a thousand police officers. Minister of the Interior. We feel comfortable. Government we are in. We trust that we are on the right track. have a record number so high than any previous number recorded when it comes to the number of officers 2017 under your government 20,000 police officers were removed from our police forces what I recognize and what I am here to celebrate is the hard work done by police chiefs across the country my question was: do you recognize that under your government 20,000 police officers were fired again?

I've already said it twice but I'll say it again. I know because it's not. Leaving the question, my question was: do you recognize that 20,000 police officers were eliminated? books, uh, even before 2010, so it's a record number higher than the highest working years of the previous administration, so looking at what's happened in the last 10 years is kind of irrelevant. We made a promise in 2019, we were elected based on a Manifesto commitment to recruit 20,000 new agents. I'm delighted that we're confident that we're on track to achieve that goal, so you think it's irrelevant what police numbers were like in 2017.

Don't you think that if police forces were reduced by 20,000 officers, that could have affected the way they approach crime. Listen, we came to power in 2010 inheriting a financial crisis and a huge, you know, the Labor government left no money. We had to make very difficult decisions. cutting 20,000 police officers is that we had to make incredibly difficult decisions on a series of public sector spending decisions and that affected policing, but what I'm doing is recognizing that twenty thousand police officers work under your government, which which I do recognize. is that if we reach our target we will have surpassed any numbers that have ever been in our police force and I think that is a great achievement on the part of the police, a great achievement on the part of this Conservative government considering that we have had an increase in the general population in Over the course of those 13 years, when you say we have a record number, how many more than the 142,000 do you think you can announce this

morning

?

Well, we made our promise in 2019, that was when The promise we made was to take into account the increase in population. If we meet our goal, we will have, as I say, a record number of police officers who are working to comment on the record number as a sentence, right? I am what I am asking for. If there are around 142,000 when the government took over, how many more do you think there will be when you make the announcement this morning? We have 500, as I said, compared to 2019. We made a promise when the government took office in 2010.

I am not going to announce a figure, we will have to wait for the announcement to be made at the right time. We are confident we are on track to meet our

recruitment

target of 20,000, which will mean more visible policing. policing that is more responsive to anti-social behaviour, to violence, to theft, to theft, that is what the British people want, that is what we are offering, so more police officers is

good

, but you acknowledge that you cut twenty thousand over the course of this government that can't It's been

good

to be able to do it I think this is the fourth time you've asked the question Susanna I think the problem is that we inherited an unprecedented financial disaster in 2010 caused by the previous Labor administration, as I said, his own Chancellor of the Exchequer left a note. saying there was no money left when there is no money left you have to make very difficult decisions those decisions were the right decisions more than 10 years ago now we are in 2023 in a different situation in a different context we made a commitment in the last general election to recruit 20,000 new officials and I am very confident that we are on the right track to fill that gap.

Yes, with respect to the Minister of the Interior. The reason Suzanne asks you the question four times is because four times you refuse. to answer it and the truth is that the numbers went down by twenty thousand and now they are looking for them to go up again by twenty thousand, a little more than they were in 2010 and those are the facts, it just seems better than I recognize that I can ask you about the quality of these police recruits because today we have had a survey that follows last year's inspectors' report which shows that there is a postcode lottery in the way vetting is carried out in forces across the country , the Council's chief constable says that 90 per cent of the time vetting works, but it appears that in many cases forces are still not applying the appropriate standards to vetting and we have, as we had confirmed today, a continuation of people entering the police force who should.

Being in the police, in the words of the chief inspector. I wonder why he doesn't act on it, two years after the Sarah Everard merger, and actually apply the proper standards for investigation and

recruitment

that apply at all times to all police forces. rather than allowing some police forces, on the word of the inspector, to fail to meet appropriate standards, well, of course, there have been

challenges

to police standards in recent years and I have acted. I have made it clear that I have instructed the Police College. to update their guidance on vetting, that is on a legal basis that applies to all police forces.

I asked the Minister of the Interior for inspections. I asked the inspector to review all the police forces and check if they are compliant with the new data, but let me just know and explain, make them compliant, let me explain what happens with background investigations. I want to assure people that there is an extensive process that continues with the recruitment of new police officers, which takes several weeks. Checks are carried out on convictions and warnings. Financial controls are carried out. We carry out character checks, personal checks on family members and associates, these checks are thorough and only once people meet the high standards will they be accepted into the police force.

We don't just take any or all of those who apply to be a police officer, for example, out of every 10. I think that reflects an appropriate level of rigor and discernment that is necessary in a recruitment process, but in the words of the Chief Inspector today there are people who have been hired in recent years who should not be selected. police officers that we saw in the David Carrick case, how appalling that can be, isn't it your obligation to assure the public that you are coming back and to ensure that everyone who is a police officer must be a police officer?

Good enough to know that most of the time it's okay, well, you have to keep your head. I have already ordered all police forces to go back and check their data to compare their databases with the national police database to verify exactly the information. types of concerns that all resources raise those concerns then they must take appropriate action disciplinary action I have announced that I am reviewing the redundancy process if there are any and there are some causes if you listen to Mark Rowley, he has spoken extensively about his frustrations with the dismissals process, regulations or even the law may need to be changed and if that is necessary I will take steps to change the law and empower police chiefs to quickly dismiss police officers who are unfit to use The bad years after the death of Sarah Everard.

I mean, surely I should have acted sooner. I mean, why are you waiting to find out if you should take further action? Surely in today's report it is clear that he has not taken enough. steps and I need to do better again. I doubt it, I think given that in the last two years a lot of action has been taken, there have been several reviews, not just by the inspector, there were about 40 recommendations made at the end of last year by the inspection that came out and looked at exactly which is the problem, we have received Louise Casey's report, we will soon have another review into wider standards and culture within the police, it is right that we make these decisions on the basis of the appropriate evidence base and the reports we have are building that basis of evidence, but we are already taking action, we are reviewing the dismissal process, we are updating the guidance and we are ensuring that all police forces meet their requirements and checking their databases so that they do not have inappropriate people, voluntary guidance, although isn't it?

It is not on a statutory basis, meaning it applies to all forces only briefly before we let them go. Cleveland missed 15 of its new recruits. leicestershire none, are you confident that the same standard applies between those two areas? Well, as I said, it is the job of police chiefs to carry out their recruitment and verification processes which are subject to guidance and standards that are set nationally, but as I said for every 10 applicants for the police service, on average , only one person will get through, uh, get through the bird, the hurdles and the hurdles that we put in front of them, get through the checks, the rigorous security checks and criminal background checks, and the financial checks, are you sure they're being done?

It was carried out rigorously, for example, in Leicestershire. Well, we have asked the inspection to quickly check how the forces are doing. They should receive a report very soon on their evaluation. They carried out that review. I directed them to carry out that review earlier this year. year they are doing, they are going to report and then we will be able to see how well the forces are doing this morning. He is not sure. Now I asked the boss what their data is like, what are their background investigation standards, it's like they're going to report. I don't want to get ahead of the proper reporting process that we are subject to.

Home Secretary, we really appreciate your time this morning. Thank you so much.