Agenda item

The Panel is invited to discuss and agree a work programme for 2023/24.

The Lead Officer introduced the report and drew attention to the Panel’s core statutory responsibilities and the proposals for additional scrutiny work set out in the report, which complied with Home Office expectations around proactive scrutiny.

Panel Members were invited to:-

·       Discuss and agree a Work Programme for 2023/24, including the establishment of a Public Confidence Sub-Committee and a Budget Task Group

·       Agree the membership for the Public Confidence-Sub Committee, the Budget Task and Finish Group and the Complaints Sub Committee

·       Approve the Panel meeting dates set out in the Work Programme

The Chair reflected on Panel discussions leading up to the meeting in relation to the Police and Crime Plan, the trajectory of performance data, vetting, institutional racism, the morale of the workforce, identifying disproportionality, the recent HMICFRS inspection and the importance of establishing the Commissioner’s strategy to tackle public confidence issues.

Gary Davies, Independent Member volunteered to join the Public Confidence

Sub-Committee.  He said it was important for the Panel to understand the strategy for improving public confidence and it was important for the Commissioner to hold the Chief Constable to account.  He added that public confidence in the Police service was low nationally, but there would be an inevitable local impact following the Chief Constable’s announcement that the force was institutionally racist.

Julie Knight, Independent Member also volunteered to join the Public Confidence Sub-Committee.  She was concerned about the trajectory of the performance data, and she would be interested to scrutinise performance reports coming from the Constabulary.  She said the morale of the Constabulary service going forward was an important factor.

Councillor Asher Craig commented that communication and engagement with the community was vitality important in addressing public confidence.  The Panel welcomed her suggestion for Maya Mate-Kole to provide external assurance on the work of the Public Confidence Sub-Committee. It was noted that she was currently involved in the Avon and Somerset’s Tackling Disproportionality work alongside Councillor Craig.

Councillors Brian Bolt and Nicola Clark also volunteered to join the group.

The discussion about public confidence continued.  Members were interested to know more about the declaration the Chief Constable had made in relation to Institutional Racism. What methodology would be used to assess if the strategy to address the culture challenges was working and at what point would the Constabulary know it was no longer institutionally racist. 

The Commissioner was invited to speak.  He said the issue of addressing institutional racism would involve a change in culture which would be a complicated and lengthy process and take many years to achieve. In future, indicators such as whether parents had to warn their children about stop and searches by the Constabulary would indicate whether the service had improved.  

In response to further questions, the Commissioner offered to give a wider explanation during his Update Report at Item 12.

The Panel agreed that the purpose of the Budget Task and Finish Group would be to scrutinise the quarterly outturn monitoring reports provided by the Commissioner, and to make a formal recommendation to the wider panel on the precept level.  The point was made that the formation of the group had emerged from the last Precept proposal and that the Panel considered it important to make an assessment of the budgetary position at key stages across the year in order to make an informed decision on the precept proposal next year.

Volunteers were sought and it was agreed the Budget Task and Finish Group should be made up of Councillor Heather Shearer along with Councillors Jonathan Hucker (Chair), Andy Wait and Peter Crew.

The Chief of Staff informed the Panel that the OPCC officer contact for the task and finish group would be the Chief Finance Officer and it would be useful if he could have an early meeting with the Chair and notification of the meeting dates for his diary.  

The Panel moved on to discuss the Complaints Sub-Committee.  The Lead Officer outlined the current process of dealing with conduct complaints against the Commissioner which involved the initial delegation of handling to the Chief of Staff in the OPCC. It was emphasised that the Panel remained the final arbiter however, and complaints escalated to the Panel were handled by Independent Member Gary Davies in consultation with the Lead Officer. The Panel noted that this provided a mechanism for filtering complaints, allowing the Complaints Sub-Committee to meet only when the nature of the complaint required a wider input.

The Panel was invited to re-establish the Complaints Sub Committee which would ideally have 4 members.  Councillors Martin Wale, Federica Smith-Roberts, and Brian Bolt volunteered to join the Independent Member on the Complaints

Sub-Committee.

Members agreed the proposed dates of the meetings of the Police and Crime Panel during 2023/24.

Action:

1.    The Public Confidence Sub-Committee will be made up of Independent Members Gary Davies and Julie Knight and, Councillors Brian Bolt and Nicola Clark.

2.    The Budget Task and Finish Group will be made up of Councillor Heather Shearer and Councillors Jonathan Hucker (Chair), Andy Wait and Peter Crew.

3.   Councillor Hucker and Paul Butler (CFO) – meeting to be arranged.

4.   The Complaints Panel will be made up of Independent Member Gary Davies and Councillors Martin Wale, Frederica Smith-Roberts and Brian Bolt.

5.   To proceed with the proposed dates of the meetings of the Police and Crime Panel during 2023/24.