Policing and Crime Bill

This seems to be an opportunity to open up consideration of the representative members. We briefly touched in our last amendment on ACPO’s role in nominating. Will the Minister say a little more on ACPO’s role in advising the panel and how that will change under the Bill? Secondly, the amendment tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Henig, is interesting in what it leaves out. She leaves out from proposed new Section 53C: ""The Secretary of State may refer any report made by Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Constabulary to the panel"." That means that HMIC can ask the Secretary of State and the Secretary of State will refer. One wonders which reports HMIC deems so important that it has to go via the Secretary of State to ask the panel to consider them that do not fall into subsection (4), which the noble Baroness has included. I ask the Minister for two explanations. The first relates to the nomination process for members of the panel. As I understand it, in the past ACPO and APA used to work in an advisory capacity on putting forward nominations, but here they are now both with statutory responsibility. The second is the interesting aspect of what HMIC is going to be referring or asking the Secretary of State. Indeed, the provision does not specify that, so the Secretary of State may refer of his own volition an HMIC report to the panel. What might that report be on?