24-hour drinking could go as new Government scraps police targets

HOME Secretary Theresa May pledged to hand power back to the police frontline today as part of a "radical" new deal to transform the service.

The new Secretary of State said the coalition Government will "do things differently" by scrapping Whitehall interference, ditching paperwork and removing targets.

She offered police more powers and discretion to get on with their job but said that in return they must accept local accountability from a directly-elected individual.

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She revealed 24-hour drinking laws, widely blamed for an increase in violence in some cities, are under review and could be axed.

In her first speech since being appointed last week, Mrs May she is "not interested in running the police" and wants to give all officers professional responsibility.

She warned the Police Federation annual conference in Bournemouth that police must "bear a fair share of the burden" as sacrifices are made to tackle the budget deficit.

She said: "I want to give the service back its professional responsibility, getting rid of the centralised bureaucracy that wastes money, saps morale and crushes innovation.

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"I want to free the men and women of our police forces to do what they are trained to do, want to do and the public expects them to do - make our society safer.

"But in return for this new freedom, the police service must accept a transfer of power over policing from Whitehall to communities by giving local people a real say over how their streets are policed."

The Home Secretary added that the Government will respect and trust police, restore pride in the job and "bring some common sense back to policing".

Mrs May also said pay and pensions for police and staff will undergo a "full review" as the Government attempts to cut waste and inefficiency in a bid to protect the frontline.

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Frontline police representatives were told the power to charge people suspected of low-level offences will be returned to custody sergeants, cutting out the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

Under the new system, CPS solicitors will remain responsible for serious cases but misdemeanours, possibly including common assault, theft or breach of bail, will be in the hands of police.

The Home Secretary said her Government will examine "untangling the knot" of health and safety rules and re-balance the law in favour of those who stand up to thugs.

She said national "one-size-fits-all" targets will be dismantled and unnecessary paperwork scrapped, starting with a form used for stopping people in the street.

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Police were also told more detailed crime maps will be published enabling the public to challenge them on their performance at local beat meetings.

But she stepped back from guaranteeing that police numbers, currently around 140,000 and already frozen or falling in some areas, will not fall as a result of cutbacks.

She said: "In the environment in which we are in I am not going to make any commitment on numbers.

"I think what the public want out there is for police officers to be out on the streets.

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"Police want to be freed from their desks and out on the streets doing their job of preventing crime and catching criminals.

"That is what we will do by cutting paperwork and reducing bureaucracy."

Police Federation chairman Paul McKeever said police suffer "initiative fatigue", are fed up with bureaucrats constantly checking their work and want to be treated as professionals.

Punning on the British comedy films, he said the Labour Government created a "carry on offending" culture by putting the rights of criminals first and creating unnecessary laws.

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Mr McKeever said: "Home Secretary, give the public the police service that they want and deserve, a force that recognises what we are there for, to serve the communities we police."

He added: "We need to be accountable, but we appear to have such an unnecessary number of quangos and bodies created to check on us that one wonders if this is merely to create jobs than fulfil any useful function."

Mrs May's comments came as Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg promised the "biggest shake-up of our democracy" in almost two centuries as he set out plans for political reform.

He accused the previous government of obsessive lawmaking and pledged to get rid of unnecessary laws and introduce a mechanism to block new criminal offences.

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Questioned by a police officer in the audience about the problems caused by heavy drinking, Mrs May confirmed that a review is under way.

She said: "We are going to look at the licensing laws. I was in opposition when the new laws were introduced and I argued against them.

"I argued that those were the sorts of problems that would come about but I was told we would have a cafe culture. We think they have produced problems on the streets.

"There are some other issues to look at around the binge drinking culture that has grown up. We think it is right that we do review these laws."

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Earlier this month, Judge Christopher Harvey Clark QC said relaxing the nation's licensing laws was partly to blame for incidents of violence on the streets.

He was sentencing a man after a violent attack in Bournemouth, where the Police Federation conference is taking place, which has a massive night-time economy.