Policing and Crime Bill

My Lords, I must declare an interest as a former chair of a police authority and the present vice-president of the Association of Police Authorities. I put my name to the amendment tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Henig, and, with the agreement of your Lordships' House, move it on her behalf. She unfortunately cannot be with us tonight. This amendment relates to Clause 5 on police collaboration, which we discussed some time ago. At present, police authorities can use local government legislation about the supply of goods and services by local authorities as an alternative means of collaboration. The effect of the Bill’s wording is to prevent police authorities entering into these types of agreements with other police authorities and force them to use the collaboration arrangements set out in the Bill in these circumstances. Is that the Government’s intention? It seems that the local government legalisation could still be used to collaborate when entering agreements with non-police bodies, but not when entering agreements with policing organisations. It is a police authority’s statutory duty to ensure efficiency and effectiveness, so it follows that it should be left to the police authority to decide what structural arrangements best meet local needs. Preventing or mandating the use of particular types of agreement could impede an authority’s statutory duty to put in place the arrangements that are most efficient and effective in the circumstances. The amendment removes this limitation and reinstates the current situation that police authorities should be able to decide locally the most effective way of working together. It would mean that there might not be a standard approach everywhere; however, it is not the structures and mechanisms that matter, but better results for our communities tailored to local needs. It has been said time and again in policing that one size does not fit all, and that is particularly true of complex collaboration projects covering large geographical areas. Retaining flexibility is the best way of ensuring that meaningful results can be delivered. It would be disingenuous of me to ignore the impact this change would have on the Home Secretary’s powers to mandate or prevent collaboration because he has no such powers under local government legislation. That begs the question of why police authorities are not treated as mature partners in the same way as other local government organisations and why the greater devolution promised in the policing Green Paper seems not to be happening in practice. I beg to move.