Amid the smouldering wreckage of the rioting and looting on our streets, and the senseless murders (devastating for my family as these shocking events occurred over the fourth anniversary of my husband Garry’s death), it’s obvious that action on anti-social behaviour has never been so urgent.

The police ultimately took charge of a very difficult situation to return order and the courts are dealing swiftly and effectively with the hundreds of resulting criminal cases. The criminal justice system is sending out the strong message that this shocking behaviour will not be tolerated. But more has to be done.

Technology is being used in all sorts of amazing ways to help fight crime, worldwide. But here in the UK we have been slow to embrace the future. Technology can be our eyes and ears. Essex police for example use ‘Carmacams’, discreet body-worn cameras whose filmed disorder can be cast-iron evidence in court, do away with coaxing frightened witnesses to testify, and cut down on police paperwork, time and costs. Why aren’t these used more widely?

In the US static kiosks parked in streets require offenders on parole to ‘clock in’, freeing up probation officers to focus on rehabilitating offenders, and keeping proper tabs on criminals’ whereabouts. We should invite open scrutiny into the workings of the criminal justice system, following the transparency encouraged by the Communities Department. Online crime maps with millions logging on shows there is a huge appetite for this information.

More open, innovative partnerships between central and local government – as pioneered through ‘directgov’ – a direct route through to what’s going on in people’s local areas – can make a vast difference. We should harness the riots’ ‘people power’ which swept away the debris, and awakened the silent law-abiding majority. We must empower citizens to volunteer in their local communities and to work together to improve safety.

We cannot continue fighting age-old problems with antiquated solutions. Innovation and personal responsibility have to play a part. This is a time for bold thinking and bolder action. The readers of this blog and my colleagues in both Houses can lead real change if you step up and join me to realise my vision of safer, happier neighbourhoods. We cannot wait a moment longer to take back our communities.

The problem we are addressing, left by the last government, is a cumbersome and expensive system that needs reform. In short the previous government had proposed a Chief Coroner model that both failed to serve families and was unaffordable for the country.

After wide consultation, which was followed by careful consideration of all proposals, we are now moving ahead with important reforms. We will bring in a system that will not only be more cost effective but, more importantly, provide for a much improved system for monitoring performance and improving best practice.

Under our proposals, the functions of the Chief Coroner will be transferred, partly to the judiciary and partly to the Ministry of Justice. This will mean, for instance, that regulations can be made to improve training and investigations can be transferred between areas. Leadership will also be provided by a new Ministerial Board, supported by a Committee of Bereaved Organisations; both of whom will monitor a new National Charter for the Coroner Service, which we are currently consulting on.

Our proposals will be contained in the Public Bodies Bill, shortly to come to the Commons.

Since 1999 damages paid to claimants have risen by 33%, but average claimant’s legal fees have increased by 234%. In 2009/10 the NHS paid out £297 million in clinical negligence damages and paid £121 million to satisfy the claimant lawyer’s costs.

Schools are becoming scared to send children on field trips, insurance premiums are rising, small businesses are being put out of business and larger (self insured) businesses are increasing their product prices to pay lawyer’s fees.

One supermarket advised us that 60% of money paid out for “slips and trips” goes to claimant lawyers and only 40% to the injured party. Indeed liability claims cost them the equivalent of running ten superstores for a year!

Our key suggestion is to end the last Labour government’s change, whereby no win no fee success fees and after the event insurance premiums can be claimed off a losing defendant. This will stop the situation where claimants have no interest in what they pay their lawyers because they don’t have to pay a penny- win or lose. Currently claimants are enticed to make claims, however spurious they may be. Why not – they can’t lose!

Under our proposals, fair legal claims will be resolved at a cheaper cost, whilst unnecessary or avoidable claims will be deterred.

This means you can see, even from your mobile, exactly what crime is happening and where – right down to the level of your street corner. If you have concerns about the crime you see or how issues are dealt with, you can raise them with the police.

The interactive maps open the door on crime and police information. You can view crimes including burglary, violence and anti-social behaviour in a particular area by using a simple postcode search. There will also be details about your neighbourhood policing team and information about regular beat meetings.

Under Labour the police were directed by Whitehall diktat. The police spent their time chasing centrally-defined targets and not responding to the needs of the local communities they were supposed to be serving. A recent report by the police inspectorate showed that only eleven per cent of police officers were visible and available to the general public at any one time.

The government is introducing a series of measures as part of our plan to fight crime:

• Slashing bureaucracy – steps already taken to save up to 800,000 hours of police time by scrapping the stop form and limiting stop and search reporting
• Removing all targets and setting the police just one goal: to cut crime
• Introducing directly-elected Police and Crime Commissioners to ensure that police forces respond to the needs of local communities
• Providing transparent information so local communities really know about crime in their area.

These crime maps which will reconnect the police and communities through the power of information are just the start. It’s clear that this sort of transparent information is very popular as www.police.uk received millions of hits an hour on Tuesday.

I’m proud that England and Wales are world leaders in providing this sort of data. We want to build on this by working with the police and with you to explore how we can go further and faster and drive forward even greater transparency across crime, policing and justice.

By announcing the intention that alcohol should not be sold at below the value of duty and VAT, for the first time a link has been created between price and the harms linked to excessive drinking. The pressures on the police. The disorder in towns and city centres on Friday and Saturday nights. The strain on hard pressed hospitals and healthcare staff.

The ban on these below cost sales isn’t intended to set a minimum unit price in a blanket way as some have suggested to drive up the overall cost of alcohol to hit the responsible social drinker as much as the problematic binge boozer. Rather, than taking this blanket approach, it is intended to deal with the irresponsible practices – the deep discounting and loss leading of alcohol without consideration of the consequences for society. But dealing with problem retailers is just one part of a package of measures targeted at the negative aspects of alcohol.

We are reforming the licensing laws to give communities a stronger say over problem premises. We are looking at rates of duty on problem products like super strength lagers linked to binge boozing. We are cutting the bureaucracy and central targets to free up the police’s time to deal with the problem drinkers where one too many can lead to the worst kind of drunken behaviour.

This is a complex issue made more difficult by Labour’s reckless approach which made Britain’s binge boozing problem worse not better. Those statements about delivering a “café culture” ring pretty hollow now.

I think we can create a society where we can all enjoy alcohol. But the no-go zones in some of our communities at the weekend as a consequence of alcohol excess and the violence that it can bring remain a serious social issue. We need a shift in approach and that is what the Government is committed to delivering.

This will mean asking questions about the role each of us plays in taking responsibility to resolve our own problems where possible.  This is where alternative dispute resolution options, like mediation, have an important place.

All too often court has been seen as the first, rather than the last, resort for dealing with disputes – whether, contractual, boundary or family issues.  People can be engulfed by court actions when their disagreements might be better resolved between themselves at a much earlier stage and with a more satisfactory outcome, rather than by the “winner takes all” approach offered by litigation.

As a government, we want to encourage people in disputes to play a greater role in resolving them themselves, in both civil and family issues.  For instance,  in family disputes our evidence shows that mediation can be quicker, cheaper and provide less stressful outcomes (not least on children) than going to court.

To this end, more needs to be done to increase awareness of access to mediation services and their interaction with the court system.  Over the coming months I shall be working with the legal profession, MP colleagues and other interested parties to pave the way for these reforms.

For the first time you will have a real say in how your local area is policed through directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners. From May 2012 these Commissioners will replace faceless police authorities and they will set goals and priorities for their police forces according to the wishes of the public who elect them.

On top of this, we are strengthening the powers that police and councils have to tackle crime and, in particular, alcohol-related, disorder.

We are putting in place these changes because, for too long, the fight against crime has been tangled up in a web of centrally imposed red tape, driving a wedge between the police and their local communities.

Under Labour the police were behind desks, not out on the streets; they were chasing targets, not fighting crime. As the former chair of the Police Federation said, because of ‘Government diktats, the service has been reduced to a bureaucratic, target-chasing, points-obsessed arm of Whitehall’.

Instead, our reforms will help make the police more visible, available, and accountable – putting the public back at the heart of policing.

If you’re interested in finding out more please click here.

This scheme is part of our determination, led by the PM, that Ministers should lead the way for the public sector to set an example in carbon reduction.  In the MoJ, we have engaged staff (3,000 in our Petty France HQ alone) through a variety of eye catching initiatives.  The latest, a pledge board in the main foyer has been a great success.  Pledges include, to close underused office space, to turn monitors and kettles off and close down the majority of lifts at the weekend.  One comment that the heating should be turned down had attracted a counter note that it was already too cold!  So more research needed there.  Another, to close the gym, seemed a bit dubious but to encourage shorter showers after gym – was interesting.

But local government can also play its part and last Friday in my constituency I was delighted to support the green initiative of Huntingdonshire District Council.  The Council have purchased two homes in St. Ives and St. Neots and, together with the introduction of more traditional energy saving measures such as cavity wall insulation and replacement windows, a ‘Whole House’ renovation has been undertaken in each.

Both properties have been fitted with dual flush toilets, solar panels, energy efficient kitchen appliances and a domestic energy management system to name but a few of the improvement measures, resulting in a staggering 75 per cent reduction in carbon emissions.  A change in the EPC rating from E to B and an estimated saving on utility bills of £630 per year.

The properties, to which some 30 local builders, professionals, consultants, designers and landscapers have contributed, will be open to the public for the next year.  They aim to provide homeowners and builders an opportunity to see how easily and relatively inexpensively your average home can be environmentally renovated.  So well done Hunts DC in leading the way.”

Of course, the Ministry of Justice budgets are subject to the same scrutiny and cost reduction demands that other non ring fenced government budgets are being subjected to.

However, this presents us with a unique opportunity to readdress our administration of Justice – not only to take out waste from the system, but also to realign the relationship and expectation between the individual and the state in the context of civil, criminal and family law in a way which is tune with our Conservative values.

So, in the areas of civil and family law we want to see individuals taking more responsibility for resolving matters themselves. This means that the court system is used as a last rather than first resort, so that public funding can focus help on the most vulnerable.  Too often the adversarial nature of court proceedings enflames the complex nature of disputes which would be more efficiently and cost effectively dealt with through mediation.

Likewise, we are consulting on the closure of inefficient courts. We see this as an opportunity to exploit the use of technology to speed up justice, reduce bureaucracy and to streamline and modernise frontline court services – not least for the benefit for the victims and witnesses.

The history of law reform under the last Labour government was one of constant prevarication, external reviews, reactive measures and uncoordinated piecemeal policy. In contrast, we are committed to reviewing justice in a coordinated and timely fashion.  With this in mind we are simultaneously reviewing court re-organisation, the provision of legal aid, civil law reform, family law and sentencing and rehabilitation policies.

Given that we are proposing to announce consultations on all of these areas before the year end, it would be fair to say that the Justice team is going to be kept very busy over the coming months!

What has also been disturbing has been the way in which it is being sold. Rather than being offered by the drug dealer down a dark ally, Mephedrone is being sold openly over the internet as ‘plant food’ or other absurd descriptions in order to subvert medicines control legislation.

The Government has been slow to act with some suggestions that the risks attached to this new breed of drug were telegraphed as long as five years ago. At the very least, the prevalence of Mephedrone on the club scene has been known about for many months.

What is clear is that the current system for responding to new and emerging drugs just isn’t up to scratch in the internet age. We need a speedier mechanism to respond to new drugs intended for human consumption (however they may be marketed).

Conservatives would reform the drugs laws to provide a new temporary classification to enable controls on sale and supply to be applied where significant public health concerns are raised about a new substance. This would apply for a period of up to one year and would allow time for expert input and analysis to be provided to inform decisions on whether a formal classification should be made or not whilst addressing safety risks. It would also enable appropriate public health alerts to be given in a structured manner.

We need to learn from the tragic loss of life linked to this latest drug. What is clear is that, sadly, there will be many more of its kind which will follow.