To sign and confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 17 January 2013.

AGREED that the minutes of the meeting held on 17 January 2013 are approved and signed by the Chair as a true and accurate record.

AGREED that, in the absence of Councillor Kennedy, Mr Firbank acts as the Vice Chair of the meeting.

Personal interests

Mike Firbank – he undertook chaplaincy work in Camborne and Redruth and a number of close friends were serving police officers

Councillor Barker – he was responsible for budgetary matters at Teignbridge District Council

Councillor Greenslade – his son in law was a serving police officer in the Devon and Cornwall force; he was Director of Exeter airport; he knew and had worked with Mr Sawyer for some time and he was responsible for budgetary matters at Devon County Council

Councillor Sanders – he was responsible for budgetary matters at Devon County Council

Bernadette Smith – a family member was a serving police officer in the Devon and Cornwall force

To receive questions from (and provide answers to) members of the public that are relevant to the Panel’s functions.

Questions should be no longer than 100 words and sent to Democratic Support, Plymouth City Council, Civic Centre, Plymouth PL1 2AA or democraticsupport@plymouth.gov.uk.  Questions must be received at least 5 complete working days before the meeting.

No questions had been received from members of the public.

The Panel will hold a Confirmation Hearing for the position of Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall Police.  Mr Shaun Sawyer, Temporary Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall Police, is the Police and Crime Commissioner’s preferred candidate.

The Chair advised that the confirmation hearing was being held in order to consider the Police and Crime Commissioner’s proposed appointment to the position of Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall Police.  He welcomed Mr Sawyer (the preferred candidate) and Mr Hogg (the Police and Crime Commissioner [PCC]) to the meeting.

The Chair advised Mr Sawyer that during the course of the hearing the Panel hoped to gain further information from him about how he met the criteria for the post and his suitability for the role and would ask him a series of questions to enable them to assess his professional competence and personal independence.

After the confirmation hearing, the Panel would meet in private to consider the appointment and the press and public would be asked to leave the meeting.  The PCC would then be advised of the Panel’s decision. 

The following questions were asked and answers given.

Personal independence

Cllr Croad: in your role, you would be expected to maintain political independence from the PCC and his office but you would also be expected to support and assist the PCC with the delivery of the Police and Crime Plan.  What did he see as the challenges and opportunities in this respect and how would he deal with this?

Mr Sawyer responded that operational independence was enshrined in the Home Secretary’s policing protocol and the office of Chief Constable took an oath of independence to serve the Crown and the public.  He took the oath very seriously.  He had been a serving police officer for 27 years and in previous roles (including in counter terrorism) he had maintained a tradition of operational independence.  He had regard to the environment in which he worked which included local authorities, the Commissioner as well as the Home Secretary (with regard to the strategic policing requirement).  When he made operational decisions or decisions about the style of policing he was apolitical and proportionality of the police response was a factor to be taken into account.  Policing was effective only with the consent of the public.  He reminded Panel members that the PCC had also taken an oath of impartiality and that he could not foresee a position when the PCC and he would not be able to agree a way forward, by discussion,.

Councillor Hare Scott: in your role as Chief Constable, you would be required to balance operational needs within a framework of priorities and objectives set by the Police and Crime Commissioner.  What did he see as the risks associated with this and how would he overcome them?

Mr Sawyer advised that a major tension could often be between short term and long term considerations and local and national priorities had to be taken into account.  It could sometimes be easier to respond in the short term.  However, he considered that a long term view was essential. Areas such as safeguarding and public disorder required considerable funding but he was also concerned to connect with hard to reach groups and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 31.

The Police and Crime Panel will review the Police and Crime Commissioner’s draft Police and Crime Plan.

The Chair asked the Police and Crime Commissioner to present his draft Police and Crime Plan.

The PCC gave a presentation to the Panel about the various elements contained within the draft Plan (attached to the agenda).  He commented that, this year due to the timing of the PCC elections in November 2012, the consultation period had been necessarily truncated.  The consultation resulted in around 140 responses being received.

He acknowledged that his relationship with the Panel would be critical and advised that he had fully consulted the Chief Constable about the Plan.  The delivery plans were being developed and, since being elected, he had appointed a senior adviser and was developing relationships with partners and an open and transparent governance structure.

He wanted to establish how he could contribute to a flourishing economy and the wellbeing of the people and the area.  To do this he would work with Local Enterprise Partnerships, Health and Wellbeing boards, the health sector, young people and business.  His team combined a balance of being strategic and offering a public face for people to turn to.  Particular issues were sexual offences, anti-social behaviour and drug and alcohol dependency.

He had been elected to give the public a greater say in policing priorities and there was a balance to be struck between this, professional policing, politics and balancing resources.  He had regard to the Community Safety Partnerships’ peninsula  strategic assessment, consultation responses and his own judgement.  He wondered whether the voluntary sector should have a greater contribution and would review this annually. He considered that people wanted to be reassured about the integrity of the police and to understand how they worked.  The sharing of resources between rural and urban areas would need to be balanced and value for money had to be demonstrated.

The PCC went through his plan in some detail and Mr Walton (Treasurer, Office of the PCC) highlighted some of the main financial aspects of the plan.

The Chair advised that this and the next agenda item could be considered together and members could ask questions about either.

Following the presentation, the PCC answered members questions:

Q    The Plan refers to importance of the strategic role and working together with partners – if the pain of budget reductions is spread too widely would this affect commissioning, budgets and the ability to target priority areas?

A    Only two months into the job, the PCC wanted to develop relations with all partners including Community Safety Partnerships, the local Criminal Justice Board, Health and Wellbeing boards and so on and had a matrix of all the areas in which he needed to work.  He would put politics aside and hoped to bring other options and solutions.  With regard to funding for external organisations to be provided by the Home Office to the Commissioner, it was expected that this would be cut by about 10%. He was minded to provide this funding, in 2013/14, to the organisations who were previous beneficiaries, minus the cut evenly  ...  view the full minutes text for item 32.

The Police and Crime Panel considered the Police and Crime Commissioner’s proposal to increase the precept by 2% and the reasoning behind that proposal (as presented, discussed and considered in the previous item above).

AGREED that, having considered the evidence presented by the Police and Crime Commissioner, the Chief Constable and their support staff, the precept proposal is accepted without further recommendation.