Policing and Crime Bill

There is a lot to be learnt from collaborative arrangements. They already operate to a limited extent but as they become more and more a part of the lives of police authorities and police forces, lessons will be learnt about where they work, where they do not work, where disagreements arise or do not arise, where there are huge benefits and where there are financial benefits. My amendment seeks to probe how that information will be assembled, taken into account and communicated across all the authorities. In lobbing the Secretary of State into this matter, I am arguing for the opposite of what I have argued for throughout the Bill. I suggest that an annual report on any collaborative arrangement should be submitted to the Secretary of State and laid before the House. We could perhaps limit that to the first few years so that the learning process only would be covered. I believe that it would be beneficial and very useful for that information to be freely available so that people do not have to try to find it. If that were the case, they would know that a report had been made and that it would be published, and they could take account of it. That would be useful for police authorities, police forces, local government and anybody else who has a role in the matter. It might also be of marginal interest to the Secretary of State who would receive the reports. I seek purely to provide a follow-through for these collaborative arrangements to see how they are working. I beg to move.