Policing and Crime Bill

The amendment was discussed in Committee in the other place. The proposed new clause sets out the responsibilities of police authorities. It gives them the power to determine their own council tax precepts and removes the powers of the Home Secretary to override it. It also gives police authorities the power to determine their own local policing priorities. Amendment 18 would give a directly elected police authority complete control over setting its precept, without being subject to the directives of central government, and therefore without the rate-capping and precept-capping powers that we have lived with for 20 years or more. It would also give the police authority more power and independence to set its own objectives in response to its local needs, community and electorate. Those objectives would differ in different parts of the country. We hear about postcode lotteries, but to some extent they must be accepted. If local bodies—be they health bodies, local councils or police bodies—are elected to represent local views, there will be some differences in where communities in different parts of the country put their emphasis. I beg to move.