Policing and Crime Bill

Amendment 44A 44A: After Clause 12, insert the following new Clause— "Police authorities: membership (1) Schedule 2 to the Police Act 1996 (c. 16) is amended as follows. (2) Paragraph 2 shall be renumbered sub-paragraph 2(1). (3) After sub-paragraph 2(1) insert new sub-paragraphs— "(2) A relevant council or joint committee shall exercise its power to appoint members of a police authority under paragraph (1)(a) and (b) so as to ensure that, so far as practicable, in the case of the members for whose appointment it is responsible, the proportion who are members of any given party— (a) where it is a council that is responsible for their appointment, is the same as the proportion of the members of the council who are members of that party; and (b) where it is a joint committee that is so responsible, is the same as the proportion of the members of the relevant councils taken as a whole who are members of that party. (3) A relevant council or joint committee shall exercise its power to appoint members of a police authority under sub-paragraph (1)(a) or (b) so as to ensure that, as far as practicable, it has regard to the relevance of the skills, knowledge and experience of the members for whose appointment it is responsible." (4) At the end of paragraph 3(1)(a) insert "or a committee of the authority"."