Meeting documents

To declare any personal or disclosable pecuniary interests.

David Carroll declared an interest in item 7 and left the meeting as he had been nominated as the Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner, and the Confirmation Hearing for this post was to be held at item 7.

Of the meeting held on 14 September 2012

The Minutes of the Panel meeting held on 14 September 2012 were agreed as a correct record subject to amending the name of Jesse Grey.

The Panel Chairman introduced this item. He explained that the role of the Panel was to scrutinise the performance of the Police and Crime Commissioner and to scrutinise his policies. The legislation requires a light touch approach to scrutiny and a requirement to "support the Police and Crime Commissioner". They would not be dealing with operational issues and would adopt a critical friend approach. The Thames Valley was a huge area and the Panel aimed to have six standard meetings a year, involving looking at the budget and Police and Crime Plan. The Panel would rotate venues across the Thames Valley. The final version of the Police and Crime is due to be scrutinised by the Panel on 22 March 2013. The budget precept will be scrutinised by the Panel on 1 February 2013.

5.1 Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC)

5.2 Chief Constable ( at invitation of PCC)

The Police and Crime Commissioner outlined his roles and responsibilities and vision for future. He has been in the post for two weeks, since his election and has been looking at the delivery of priorities, which is still in its early stages. He outlined what he had done in the last fortnight:-

The PCC had been briefed by the following people:-

·         Chief Constable

·         Deputy Chief Constable

·         Three Assistant Chief Constables and the Assistant Chief Constable who deals with Special Constables.

·         Home Office and Home Secretary on a variety of things including terrorism and insurgency. A large amount of funding will go towards these areas

·         Director of Finance

·         Director of Information Science and Technology

·         Head of Human Resources

The PCC has visited:-

·         One Community Safety Partnership in Oxford

·         One Local Police Area in (Oxford City)

·         One Neighbourhood Action Group

·         Organisation relating to victims of crime, involving meeting with victims of crime.

The PCC has also been setting up his office, which will be a long process. The budget and Police and Crime Plan has already been worked on by the Police Authority, of which the PCC was originally a Member. There will be a few changes to these but nothing major. They are now available for the Panel’s comments which he will take into account as much as possible.

The PCC has a detailed visit programme coming up which will include meeting/visting:-

·         All Local Police Areas

·         Superintendents

·         Dog and Horse Units

·         Serious Organised Crime Squad

·         Councils

·         Safer Community Partnerships

In terms of visits and meetings it will be difficult to cover the Thames Valley in a short timescale bearing in mind the number of different organisations:-

·         21 Constituencies

·         18 Councils

·         9 Health and Wellbeing Boards

·         14 Local Police Areas

·         Over 100 Neighbourhood Action Groups

·         17 Safer Community Partnerships

It will be a huge task for the PCC and his appointed Deputy. One of biggest problems will be setting up the best system in communicating with the public, otherwise he could be overwhelmed by letters and emails and visits. In addition, the staffing structure of the Office of the PCC needs to be addressed.

One of the main issues in reducing crime is drug and alcohol problems and the Police can only play a part in this. The main part they play is in catching criminals. There are problems with the late night economy, violence, anti social behaviour, sexual crimes and domestic abuse. These are derived outside of the policing system and are connected to schools, parenting, to how Councils organise themselves, the Safer Community Partnerships, the Criminal Justice System and the Crown Prosecution Service. Councils and Safer Community Partnerships have a large role to play in how these big issues are tackled. For example with burglary, many persistent offenders can be drug abusers. So there will be a large focus on Drug and Alcohol Teams and Safer Community Partnerships.

The funding for this year will not be altered but will be reconsidered in further years.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The following questions were put to the PCC.

There is concern around the allocation of funding to partners. What is the method of allocation?

The funding system for community safety partnerships will not be altered for 2013/14. It is a small part of the Police budget, less than 1%. It will not be changed unless there is something fundamental. It will be reviewed next year once the PCC can identify what is working and what is not. The most important thing is to reduce crime and the importance of areas such as working with the DAT and Health and Wellbeing Boards.

If Council Tax is raised above a certain level a referendum must be held. The maximum percentage increase in the Council Tax precept that is being allowed by Government is 2% and if you go beyond that it is a referendum scenario – if the 2% precept increase is not taken this year in 2013/14 the resultant reduced level of funding will be fixed in the base budget so there is no maneuverability for 2014/15. The PCC quoted an assumed precept increase of 2.5% in 2014/15. If Council Tax funding continues to be cut, it will start hitting the frontline and referendums are expensive to administer.

Looking at a complex budget of £380 million a year a Member proposed that the Chairman and Vice-Chairman have delegated authority to set up a Working Party of 5 Panel Members to look at the budget in detail. On a vote being taken the Panel agreed that a Working Party should be set up.

RESOLVED

That a five Member Working Party be set up to look at the budget in detail including Mr T Egleton, Mr M Booty, Mr T Burke, Mr I McCracken, Mr B Patman

In terms of relationships with the public how do you intend to communicate with the electorate?

This is a huge area and the Police and Crime Plan outlines what the PCC is going to do – it is a public document which will be the basis of communication. There is other paperwork such as the Annual Report and Council Tax leaflets. In addition there is the website, bi-monthly meetings with public, this Panel meeting, media briefings, Twitter/Facebook/You tube will soon be up and running. The PCC will endeavour to do a huge number of visits. There is an email address and he will do his best to answer them all. In terms of location there is a central office at Kidlington and there will be an office in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. The PCC will do his best to communicate and will put in extra resources if required.

On communication – the strategy will be put forward for the Thames Valley as a whole. How will you communicate with the District Councils – different areas have different problems and needs and one method of communication may not suit all interested parties?

In the previous structure the District Councils did not have any voice on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The Panel considered the report and following questioning the main points are summarised under the three questions below:-

What will Cllr Carroll contribute to police governance that the Commissioner alone would not?

·         He has been a Member of the Thames Valley Police Authority and the Chairman of its Complaints and Professional Standards Committee.

·         He is an experienced councillor, being the Executive Deputy Leader of Wycombe District Council and a Member of Buckinghamshire County Council and therefore has extensive experience of engaging with, and acting as the advocate of, the communities he serves.

·         He was an experienced magistrate, being appointed in 1987 and serving for over 4 years and therefore has knowledge of the Criminal Justice System.

·         He owned a small business which has been very successful

·         He has played a large role in community safety. One example was the role he played in addressing the terrorist incident in High Wycombe. At the time he was Cabinet Member for Community Engagement and he was personally thanked by the Minister for the work he undertook liaising with the community and the police.

How will the Deputy work alongside the Commissioner and complement his role? What delegated powers will the Deputy PCC have?

·         Shares the Commissioner’s values and respects the tradition of non-politicised British policing, as well as his view that that the primary role of the police service and the Commissioner acting on behalf of the public is to cut crime and improve crime detection rates. 

·         Complements the Commissioner’s own experience, skills and knowledge in terms of his governance experience as the Chairman of the Police Authority’s ‘Complaints and Professional Standards Committee’, whereas the Commissioner’s experience and skills focussed on performance management and holding the Force to account as Chairman of the Authority’s Performance Review Committee.

·         They have worked together on the Police Authority for a number of years and have a good working relationship.

·         Appendix 1 makes it clear what responsibilities are delegated to the Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner - the areas that cannot be delegated are agreeing the precept, Police and Crime Plan and dismissing the Chief Constable.

·         He will act as a critical friend and liaise with Community Safety Partnerships.

·         There will be an appraisal system but this is a new role. The roles and responsibilities of the Deputy PCC should be put into the Police and Crime Plan. An Association of PCC has clearly defined their roles. A copy can be submitted to the Panel.

Will the Deputy PCC have any particular responsibilities in terms of partners, specific locations etc?

·         David Carroll’s specific background knowledge of the views of the communities of Buckinghamshire will complement the Commissioner’s knowledge of those across Berkshire.  Together, their combined experience as members of the Police Authority will also inform their understanding of the service needs of the communities across Oxfordshire in particular and of the balance required between urban and rural communities in general across the Thames Valley.

·         Whilst David Carroll has knowledge of one particular  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The Panel has a role in dealing with non-criminal complaints against the PCC which is contained within the written report.  The Chairman reported on the need to set up a Sub-Group and the following Members volunteered:-

·         Mr Terry Burke

·         MrRajinder Sohpal

·         Mr Mark Booty

·         Mr Mohammed Sharif

·         Mrs Pam Pearce

·         Mr Iain McCracken

·         Mr Jesse Grey

On a vote being taken (which was unanimous) the Panel made the following resolution.

RESOLVED

That the Panel:

1.   Make the delegations to the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner Chief Executive set out in section 3.1 of the report.

2.  Make the delegations to the Panel’s Scrutiny Officer and a Complaints Sub-Committee set out in section 3.2 of the report

3.  Make the delegations to the Panel’s Scrutiny officer and a Complaints Sub-Committee set out in Section 3.5 of the report and approve the complaint handling process detailed at Appendix A of the report

4.  Make the delegations to the Panel’s scrutiny officer as set out in section 3.7 of the report

Friday 1 February 2013

1^st February 2013 at Oxfordshire County Council