Police Restructuring

Members may wish to have an update on developments in relation to police restructuring in Wales, particularly in view of the recent changes in the Home Office Ministerial line up.

Prior to his departure, the previous Home Secretary wrote to me on 25 April to inform me that he has agreed to an amendment to the Police and Justice Bill which would allow a Strategic Police Authority (SPA) to:-

a. delegate specific functions to an individual member, or to an area committee; and
b. appoint one or more additional Deputy Chief Constables.

Whilst the Local Government Act 1972 permits local and police authorities to delegate their functions (save the setting of a precept) to committees, sub-committees or officers of the authority, police authorities may not arrange for their functions to be delegated in respect of only part of their area.  The Home Office believes that maintaining this restriction would make it difficult for new SPAs to conduct their business in the most effective manner.  In the case of Wales, for example, the SPA will have up to 43 members and the Home Secretary was persuaded of the need to allow it to put in place arrangements for streamlining  its decision-making processes, including, in appropriate cases, by delegating functions to area committees or members. The bar on appointing persons other than police authority members to a committee would also be lifted.

The Home Secretary will be taking reserve powers to enable him to regulate the functions that may be delegated to area committees and the membership of such committees.  As you know, the Social Justice and Regeneration Committee is currently considering the issues and options for regional and local accountability which would underpin a new Strategic Police Force in Wales.  I therefore wrote to Charles Clarke prior to his departure asking that we should be consulted over the use of this reserve power to ensure that any SPA proposals fit with the other structures in relation to policy delivery in Wales.

In relation to the appointment of additional Deputy Chief Constables in Wales, I know that this is something that the Chief Constables have felt strongly about.   They have argued that the geography of and transportation links within Wales are such that an all-Wales police force should not be expected to have only one Deputy Chief Constable  in its operational management team.  I do believe that this concession will add weight the agreement that we reached with the Home Office earlier this year that there should be geographical leads in a new Strategic Police Force which who will be able to manage critical incidents and provide visible local strategic leadership.

In relation to the financing of the restructuring, the Home Office have now committed themselves to meeting all net additional set up costs – but clearly agreement needs to be reached as to what those costs are.  I am aware that the Home Office officials are currently in dialogue the Welsh Police Force Merger team to discuss in detail the revisions that have been made to the original business case and the standards being applied to Wales and I hope that we will have greater clarity on this issue soon.  However, in terms of longer term funding of a single force in Wales,  I understand that the Home Office Finance Working Group is now considering whether it is appropriate to review the police funding formula in time for 2008-2009 or to defer a review until after the restructuring process is complete – this is something we have been advocating.

I am afraid that I have little progress to report on the precept issue, although I understand that this is the subject of urgent debate in Whitehall. In my letter to Charles Clarke last week I again emphasised the urgency of this matter.

In view of the fact that the finance issues are still be satisfactorily resolved,  I again pressed the need reconsider the 1 April 2007 deadline and reinforced the risks that I believe are associated with the short timescale, in my last letter to the Home Secretary.

In order to ensure that the new Home Office ministerial team are aware of our position on all these issues, I spoke to Liam Byrne MP, the new Minister of State at the Home Office earlier this week.   I reinforced the points on the finance issues and also our strong belief that the current timetable was simply too ambitious. We have arranged to meet later this month to discuss these issues in more depth and I will continue to keep members informed of developments.