Agenda and minutes

Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Panel - Wednesday 2 April 2014 10.30 am

Venue: Council House (Next to the Civic Centre), Plymouth

Contact: Katey Johns  Email: katey.johns@plymouth.gov.uk

Media

Items
No. Item

40.

MINUTES

To sign and confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 7 February 2014.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

As members had not had an opportunity to review the minutes of the last meeting,

 

Agreed that the minutes are submitted to the meeting of the panel in June 2014.

41.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

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

Additional documents:

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest made by members in respect of the items under consideration at the meeting.

42.

PUBLIC QUESTIONS

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.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Two questions had been received from a member of the public.  Although the questions were not relevant to the panel’s function, the Chair had allowed the questions to be submitted today and had asked the Police and Crime Commissioner to respond to them.

 

Mr Chris Boarland attended the meeting to put his questions and the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) responded as follows (a copy of the response had been sent to Mr Boarland in advance of the meeting) –

 

Question By

Subject

Mr Chris Boarland

Police and Crime Plan

1. Police and Crime Plan. Could the PCC please explain what public consultation has been undertaken in respect of the proposed revision to the plan. I was notified in August 2013 of the intention to review the plan, a process which started in September of last year - therefore time was surely not an issue. The OPCC website refers to consultation with partners, but there is no reference to public consultation on which so much store was (rightly) placed when the original plan was published. I can find no reference to the draft (revised) plan on the OPCC website. 

2. Could the panel please ask the PCC again whether he could instruct the Chief Constable to publish his delivery plan, this being the mechanism by which we determine how the police will deliver the Commissioner's Police & Crime plan. . Without this, and a meaningful performance measurement regime, the plan is just a document of laudable statements of the PCC's intentions.  

(This was raised by members at the last PCP meeting and may be answered through the minutes & actions, however these have not been made public yet. The panel should also be aware that the PCC wrote to me on this issue on 20th February 2014, stating that the publication of the Chief Constable's delivery plan was not a matter for the PCC, rather the police. I strongly disagree.)

 

Response from Mr Tony Hogg, the Police and Crime Commissioner:

 

I write in response to the questions you have put to the Police and Crime Panel ahead of its meeting on 2 April. The questions have been passed to me and I have been asked by the Panel to put my responses to you in writing.

 

Turning first to your question regarding consultation on the Plan. As you acknowledge, over recent months I have been reviewing the Police and Crime Plan. In particular I wanted to reflect on experiences during my first year in office and ensure that the Plan meets the needs of our communities and suitably addresses emerging threats and challenges.

 

This review, which commenced slightly later than originally intended in October 2013. The review drew heavily on the experience gained from my first year in office the feedback I have received throughout the past sixteen months. The Police and Crime Panel and the Chief Constable were kept abreast of developments as the review progressed.

 

The review found that a central foundation of the inaugural Police and Crime Plan ‘communities  ...  view the full minutes text for item 42.

43.

REVIEW AND CONFIRMATION HEARING OF THE PROPOSED APPOINTMENT OF THE POLICE AND CRIME COMMISSIONER'S CHIEF EXECUTIVE AND MONITORING OFFICER pdf icon PDF 81 KB

The panel will conduct a confirmation hearing in respect of the proposed appointment of the Police and Crime Commissioner’s selection of Chief Executive and Monitoring Officer.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Community Safety Partnership Manager submitted a report - 

 

(a)

on the procedure for conducting a confirmation hearing to consider the Police and Crime Commissioner’s proposed appointment to the position of Chief Executive and Monitoring Officer (as head of the Commissioner’s staff); 

 

(b)

indicating that the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) had notified the Chair of his proposed appointment of Mr Andrew White for the post;  

 

(c)

 

appending additional information that the PCC was required to provide to the Panel about the recruitment process,  the candidate, the criteria used to assess the candidate, how the candidate satisfied that criteria and the terms and conditions of their employment.      

 

The Chair welcomed Mr Andrew White (the preferred candidate) to the meeting and outlined the procedure for the confirmation hearing.   After the hearing, the Panel would adjourn to consider the appointment, in private.  The PCC would then be advised of the panel’s decision and the PCP would seek to agree with the PCC how and when an announcement would be made.     

 

In order to gain further information from Mr White on how he met the criteria for the post and his suitability for the role, with particular reference to personal independence and professional competence, Mr White responded to questions by members on –

 

(d)

the relationship between the PCC and the Chief Constable;

(e) 

dealing with differing views between an elected representative and a senior professional;

(f)

difference of opinions between the Panel and the PCC

(g)

equality, diversity and human rights;

(h)

Improving poor performance in a large organisation;

(i)

improving police staff survey results on the knowledge of staff on the PCC’s priorities;

(j)

support to the PCC to meet budget cuts whilst keeping crime down;

(k)

working with partners and agencies;

(l)

implementation of the recommendations of the Centre for Public Scrutiny;

(m)

information exchange between the panel and the PCC

(n)

the issuing of OPCC reports and comments (without having regard to the wider picture);

(o)

the role of the post in mediating between elected representatives and the OPCC

 

 

At the end of the session, the Chair provided Mr White with the opportunity to add anything further and Mr White responded that this was a wonderful opportunity to work to improve community safety. 

 

Agreed that under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public are excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, as amended by the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

 

The Panel adjourned to consider the suitability of the candidate for the post of the Chief Executive and Monitoring Officer.

 

Following the adjournment, the panel reconvened and the Chair advised that the panel had had the opportunity, in private session, to consider and review:

 

?

 the Police and Crime Commissioner’s recruitment and selection process;

 

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details about the candidate;

 

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the criteria used to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 43.

44.

REFRESH OF THE POLICE AND CRIME PLAN - 2014-2017: UPDATE pdf icon PDF 187 KB

The Police and Crime Commissioner will provide the panel with an update on the Plan and will describe the next steps for delivery.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Interim Chief Executive submitted a report updating the panel on the Police and Crime Panel.  He reported that -

 

(a)

 following the recent scrutiny of the plan, some issues needed to be amplified and amendments recommended by this panel had also been made;

 

(b)

delivery of the six priorities would be through five delivery boards working jointly with the Chief Constable, and it was hoped that a level of independence would be achieved on each board;       

 

(c)

 

one of the performance measures would relate to the staff awareness of the priorities and the overall direction of the police force;  

(d)

he intended to work closer with the Health and Wellbeing Board in the future;

(e)

 

he had provided a copy of the plan to the Chair of the panel and would provide copies of the plan and the letter sent to the Chair, to all members of the panel.  A summary document was also available and both documents would be available on the website;    

(f)

the website needed to be reviewed for improvement.

 

Following a request by a member, the Chair undertook to incorporate the PCC’s letter to the Chair (referred to in (e) above) into the papers for the meeting to enable public access. 

 

The panel noted the report.

45.

REPORT FROM THE OFFICE OF THE POLICE AND CRIME COMMISSIONER IN RESPECT OF ANY NON-CRIMINAL COMPLAINTS ABOUT THE POLICE AND CRIME COMMISSIONER pdf icon PDF 198 KB

Members will consider the report and after due consideration, agree the resolutions by the Chief Executive Officer and the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Interim Chief Executive submitted a report indicating that no complaints had been made against the PCC under the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 during the period 19 January to 12 March 2014.

 

The report also set out the number of complaints received and handled since the PCC’s election on 15 November 2012.

46.

FUTURE MEETING DATES

The following are the scheduled dates for the panel –

 

·         20 June 2014

·         17 October 2014

·         19 December 2014

·         6 February 2015 (Precept)

·         20 February 2015 (Only required if Precept veto’d)

·         10 April 2015 (Provisional)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Panel noted the dates of the panel meeting for 2014/15 as follows and thanked Katey Johns (Democratic Support) for her work liaising on the proposed dates –

 

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20 June 2014 

?

17 October 2014 

? 

19 December 2014

? 

6 February 2015 (Precept)

?

20 February 2015 (Only required if Precept veto’d)

?

10 April 2015 (Provisional)