54. The Home Office has not made a formal announcement of new policy. But the new Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, gave a sense of her approach during the debate on the new crime figures on 19 July. During that debate, she showed sympathy for an inputs-led approach to policy, and criticized the Opposition for putative reductions in spending:
- "Staffing levels across the police service are at a record high, at more than 223,000 people." 33
- "Talk is cheap, which is just as well because it is all that the shadow Chancellor would be willing to fund. Until the right hon. Gentleman can put some backbone into his leader and some economic sense into the shadow Chancellor, his words will ring hollow." 34
55. This is particularly striking because evidence has shown that police spending has increased by over 40 per cent in real terms since 1999-00 without any impact on the trend in overall levels. The House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee made exactly the same point in a report earlier this month:
"A significant drop in overall crime as measured by the British Crime Survey (BCS) occurred between 1995 and 2001 but the downward trend has levelled off since then. In contrast, the bulk of additional police funding was provided during the second half of the last decade, from 2000-01 to 2004-05. It follows that the significant decrease in overall BCS-measured crime occurred before any significant increase in police funding or police officer numbers. Although it is difficult to draw firm conclusions from high-level data on overall crime and funding levels, the reduction in overall crime levels does not seem to have been directly related to additional resources." 35
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33 Smith, J. (2007), Hansard, 19 July, col. 463.
34 Smith, J. (2007), Hansard, 19 July, col. 467.
35 House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee (2007), Fourth Report: Police funding.