Policing and Crime Bill

I added my name to this amendment, but the Liberal Democrats have a rather different system for the construction of police authorities. The first parts of Amendment 44A would be quite difficult to support, although I support proposed new sub-paragraph (3), which states: ""A relevant council or joint committee shall exercise its power to appoint members of a police authority under sub-paragraph (1)(a) … to ensure that … it has regard to the relevance of the skills, knowledge and experience of the members for whose appointment it is responsible"." That is a very important part of the amendment. As the noble Baroness, Lady Henig, said, having spent a number of years in a full police authority, lining everybody up to interview people to pick the independent members of an authority is ridiculous. Yet, that is what we had to do. I support proposed new sub-paragraph (4), which refers to "a committee of the authority", which would be a sensible way forward. We may have to bring forward at another stage proposals on the make-up of police authorities.