Policing and Crime Bill

My Lords, as in Committee, we have some sympathy with this amendment. The noble Baroness, Lady Henig, is right to highlight the significant powers that the Secretary of State is taking over the constitution of the panel. We understand the need for some flexibility, but the failure to specify the number of members or the relative proportions of the representative members means that in future the make-up of the panel could be very different from the model envisaged or from what we believe we are putting through your Lordships’ House. I am sure that the Minister accepts that a balance needs to be struck between national influence and local interest in appointing senior police officers, but we are not at all sure that the Bill guarantees what we regard as an appropriate balance. That point was powerfully made by the noble Baroness, Lady Henig. On Amendment 5, we have sympathy with the need for the Bill to be more specific about the functions of the panel. There is a related issue: the power of the Secretary of State to confer additional functions on the panel. The Minister wrote to follow up a question that we raised in Committee about the scope of this power. He specifically mentioned that the Secretary of State might wish to confer a function in relation to the co-ordination of appointment rounds to the panel. I understand that the Government are still thinking about this co-ordination question and how it can best be achieved. It would be helpful if the Minister could say when he expects that work to be completed. We accept that the Bill provides flexibility for panel functions, which could be useful, but can the Minister say why any changes will be made by negative statutory instrument? In his letter, he said that any changes would be subject to parliamentary scrutiny. Does he consider that an appropriate level of scrutiny?