Policing Of Party Conferences

EDM number 624 in 1993-94, proposed by Diana Maddock on 16/02/1994.

That this House notes that the conferences of the major political parties, and particularly the party of Government, require considerable policing measures from local police forces, and that funding of these measures currently comes 51 per cent. from the Home Office and 49 per cent. from local authority police budgets as is standard for the funding of local policing; further notes that the ú1.3 million burden of policing the 1994 Conservative Party Conference in Bournemouth means that Dorset Police will have significantly less to spend on crime detection and prevention for the people of Dorset; welcomes the proposal in the Criminal Justice Bill for grants to be given to help political parties with their conference security costs, and the implicit recognition that major party conferences are events in the public interest; believes that major party conferences are also national events which should therefore not detract from local policing priorities; and calls upon the Government to amend the Criminal Justice Bill to place the full burden of the cost of policing the conferences of the major political parties on the Home Office.

This motion has been signed by a total of 21 MPs.