To sign and confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 11 July 2013.

Agreed the minutes of the meeting held on 11 July 2013, subject to an amendment to Minute 4, resolution (4), in respect of the Scrutiny Work Programme, to include consideration of the Police and Crime Commissioner’s expenses and allowances.

Members will be asked to make any declaration of interest in respect of items on this agenda.

The following declarations of interest were made in respect of items under consideration at the meeting –

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 democratic.support@plymouth.gov.uk.  Questions must be received at least 5 complete working days before the meeting.

There were no questions from members of the public.

The panel will receive a more detailed response from the Chief Constable to questions raised on 11 July 2013.

In response to concerns raised by Members at the previous meeting, the Panel welcomed Chief Constable Sawyer and Inspector Richard Pryce, who were in attendance to discuss road closures following traffic incidents and the new 101 non-emergency telephone service.

With regard to road traffic accident (RTA) closures, Members received a presentation which –

·         put Devon and Cornwall Police’s Road Closure Policy for Collision Investigation into context, including that –

o   Devon and Cornwall Police was the largest geographic force in England;

o   the majority of the force boundary was coastal and there were only three strategic routes covering the region, namely M5, A38 and A30;

·         provided information relating to the number of people either killed or seriously injured on Devon and Cornwall’s roads over the last five years;

·         explained why due diligence was required by the Police during their investigation of RTAs and that they had a duty under the Human Rights Act to ensure as much evidence was secured as possible from the scene;

·         gave examples of incidents which had taken place, including press coverage;

·         acknowledged the financial impact not just to the region’s economy but nationally as a result of road closures;

·         detailed what was being done to minimise the impact of future incidents, such as investment in technology and movement of staff into specialist traffic units;

·         highlighted that a Ministerial Conference on road closures would be taking place on 16 October 2013.

In response to questions raised, Panel members were informed that –

With regard to the 101 non-emergency service number, the Panel was advised that –

·         the 101 non-emergency number had been introduced in order to ease pressure on 999;

·         it cost 15 pence to call, 91 per  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.

Members will be asked to note the update on complaints received by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner.

The OPCC Chief Executive reported that during the period 25 June to 25 September 2013 one complaint had been received which had not been upheld.

Some discussion took place on whether a copy of responses made to individual complaints should be circulated to the panel.  The Chair reminded members that both he and the Vice-Chair were able to visit the OPCC and dip sample any of the complaints received and suggested that perhaps it was time they both did that in view of the discussion that had taken place.

Agreed that –

The panel will consider the Police and Crime Commissioner’s Commissioning Plan as its first topic of proactive scrutiny.

In accordance with its agreed work programme, the panel scrutinised the Police and Crime Commissioner’s commissioning decisions and his future commissioning intentions.  Members heard –

·         from the Panel’s Co-ordinator, who outlined the process to be followed for this item of pro-active scrutiny;

·         from the OPCC’s Chief Executive and Performance Manager who, by way of a presentation –

o   explained the context for the Police and Crime Commissioner’s commissioning;

o   set out key principles for Devon and Cornwall;

o   clarified current and proposed grant allocations;

o   outlined the next steps to be taken

·         that the Police and Commissioner had communicated his commissioning intentions to various external partner agencies, including –

o   the Chairs and Managers of the Community Safety Partnerships and Drug and Alcohol Teams;

o   DV Partnerships;

o   Youth Offending Team Management Board and Managers;

o   the Chief Constable

o   the Leaders of the relevant Local Authorities;

·         from a number of witnesses who set out their thoughts and concerns on the Commissioning Intentions Plan, including –

o   Fiona Flemming, Strategic Commissioning Manager, Plymouth City Council;

o   Nicola Channon, Safer Devon Partnership Manager, Devon County Council;

o   Mark Richardson, Chief Executive, Cornwall Voluntary Sector;

o   Steve Woollett, Chief Executive, South West Forum.

Having taken the opportunity to question the Police and Crime Commissioner and the witnesses, panel members suggested that it would be helpful to have sight of the funding allocation matrix in order to help them understand the demographics in relation to incidents of crime and how this related to the amount allocated to each of the region’s Community Safety Partnerships.

The Chair thanked the Police and Crime Commissioner and his team for their presentation and, in particular, the witnesses for taking the time to attend and add value to the scrutiny process.

Agreed that, having heard from the Police and Crime Commissioner and witnesses, the Police and Crime Panel take the opportunity to comment on and make recommendations to the Police and Crime Commissioner in respect of his future commissioning framework and rationale and ensure this aligns with the priorities identified in local and Peninsula Strategic Assessments as well as the Police and Crime Plan.

Note: A detailed report setting out the findings of this review would be produced and circulated to panel members for their comment prior to submission of any recommendations to the Police and Crime Commissioner who would then have one month to respond.   A copy of that report, together with the PCC’s response will be published on the Police and Crime Panel’s website in due course.

 (Councillors Croad, Excell and Penberthy and Yvonne Atkinson declared personal interests in respect of the above item).

The Police and Crime Commissioner has provided the panel with his regular report regarding the activities and decisions he has made to date.  The report also details any forthcoming planned events.

The panel heard from the Police and Crime Commissioner regarding activities undertaken and decisions made to date, as well as details of forthcoming planned events.  As a supplement to information not contained within the report, the Commissioner highlighted the following salient points –

In response to questions raised, the panel was advised that –

The Chair suggested that any future questions on staffing be reserved for the next panel meeting when scrutiny of the Police and Crime Commissioner’s staffing arrangements would be taking place.

In preparation for the scrutiny of the Police and Crime Commissioner’s staffing arrangements, Councillor Penberthy requested that the panel be provided with a copy of the OPCC’s staffing structure, to include staff names and contact details along with some information about their roles.  In addition, circulation to the panel of information about the OPCC’s advisory groups and what each of them were doing would also be welcomed.

The panel noted the update with thanks.

(This item was moved up the agenda in order to facilitate

better meeting management).

The panel will be asked to support Councillor Rule’s request to attend a conference on its behalf.

Councillor Rule suggested that should anyone have a question or issue they would like her to raise at the conference, they e-mail them to her before the event.

Agreed –

(This item was moved further down the agenda in order to facilitate

better meeting management).

For information, the dates of future panel meetings are listed below –

·         Friday 20 December 2013

·         Friday 7 February 2014

·         Friday 21 February 2014

The panel noted the dates of future meetings and in particular that of the next meeting on 20 December 2013.