Ministerial Statements On The North Yorkshire Police

EDM number 1234 in 1995-96, proposed by Hugh Bayley on 14/10/1996.

That this House regrets that the Home Office Minister, the honourable Member for Penrith and the Border, misled the House on 15th February when he accused the Labour County Council of failing to fund the North Yorkshire police properly, notes that North Yorkshire County Council was controlled by the Conservative Party until 1993 when the Liberal Democrats became the largest and the Conservatives the second largest party on the council; notes that the Minister was told about his error by the honourable Member for York in letters dated 17th February and 26th April, and in a letter to the Home Secretary dated 20th August, but theMinister has neither replied nor sought to correct the misleading statement in the Official Report; notes that the previous Home Office Minister, the honourable Member for Bexhill and Battle, misled the House on 14th May 1992 when he claimed inaccurately that the average annual increase in reported offences in North Yorkshire was higher under the last Labour government than under the Conservatives but this Minister corrected his mistake in a pursuant written answer on 5th June 1992 which acknowledged that the increase averaged 1.5 per cent. a year under Labour compared to 7.8 per cent. a year under the Conservatives; rebukes the current Home Office Minister for misleading the House and for failing both to correct his error and to replyto correspondence from an honourable Member; and calls on the Minister to correct his error in the Official Report without further delay.

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