Agenda item

Police and Crime Panel (5 February) - verbal update from Councillor McCloskey

There had been no meetings of the Health and Care or Economic Growth scrutiny committees since the last meeting of this committee and as such, Councillor Clucas had not been required to attend.   

Councillor McCloskey gave a verbal update on the recent (05/02) meeting of the Police and Crime Panel. The focus of this meeting had been the budget for 2016-17.  The settlement had better than expected which had allowed for the release of £8m from Police reserves, which had been earmarked to cushion against the proposed cuts. This would leave £23m in the earmarked reserves to upgrade IT, replace vehicles within the fleet and develop estates.  The police precept would be increased by 1.2% which would raise £560k and equate to £2.58 a year increase for Band D households.  This would enable the Chief Constable to end the recruitment freeze and result in an additional 40 Police Officers and 200 Special Constables being recruited over the next 4 years.  The Chief Constable had made a case for a 2% increase but in view of the fact that the precept had been increased by this amount in the previous two years and that taxpayers were facing a further increase for local council services in 2016-17, it was felt that this placed an unfair burden on taxpayers.  It was moved and seconded that the precept be reconsidered and increased to 1.9% but the motion was lost as the two thirds majority was not achieved.

The panel had also received updates on the Police and Crime Commissioner elections in May, and were advised that the Commissioners Officer had set-up a candidate and agents meeting for the 2 March and a familiarisation event for the 11 April for prospective candidates.  The Commissioner explained that phase one of works to Wilton (Holland) House had been completed and that the site was now open, but work was not complete, with phase 2, disabled access to the building and resurfacing of the car park, having been delayed. 

Since the meeting of the Panel, Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary (HMIC) had released her annual report (which covered June 2014-June 2015) and the overall judgement was that the force required improvement.  Whilst the force was found to be ‘good’ at preventing crime and anti-social behaviour, and keeping people safe, in relation to investigating crimes, the Inspector had concerns that standards of investigations were letting the force down. The victim support satisfaction rates were also lower than the national average.  On the plus side, although anti-social behaviour was higher than the national average, it was reduced from the previous year.  She reminded members that this report had been published after the last meeting of the Panel and assured members that it would be discussed at the next meeting (11/03), where the panel would be able to question the Commissioner, but did not have the right to scrutinise the Chief Constable directly.  She felt that the lack of training and experience in relation to major crimes was because of the low level of such crimes in the area.