Policing and Crime Bill

My Lords, I return to the issue we discussed in Committee and which, indeed, some of us seem to have been discussing for some years now. I thank the Minister for the response he gave me at that time, which was essentially that councils would implement the guidance which had been issued by the Home Office and that the guidance strongly recommended that a police authority member should be included on a local authority crime and disorder committee. I am afraid that I do not share his confidence that the guidance will be enthusiastically taken on board everywhere. As I have pointed out before, there are several councils across the country that, as a matter of principle, will not include external people on their committees unless legislation requires them to do so—and guidance is not legislation. It is important to say at this point that I have no worries about effective councils. They are deemed to be effective precisely because they understand the value of working appropriately with partner bodies. It is the less effective councils in general that, I suggest, may not follow Home Office guidance, thus compounding problems in some areas. I dealt with the history of this matter in Committee and will therefore summarise the situation only briefly. Crime and disorder committees were created under the Police and Justice Act 2006. They are effectively local authority overview and scrutiny committees when they sit to consider matters of community safety. The regulations governing how they should operate, however, were introduced only this year. When that Police and Justice Act was originally a Bill in this House, I and a number of other noble Lords raised concerns about some of the proposals. The issues centred on the subtle difference between holding crime and disorder reduction partnerships to account as a whole through these committees and holding the individual partners to account. In a policing context, I was concerned that these committees would overlook the subtle difference and try to hold individual police commanders to account, which would conflict with existing arrangements for police accountability. Local commanders are responsible to their chief officer, who is in turn accountable to the police authority. Crime and disorder committees might therefore be tempted to stray into undertaking the statutory job of other bodies. I was led to understand by the then Minister that, to overcome these concerns, provisions would be placed in regulations specifying that crime and disorder committees must include a police authority member. Alas, in the event this did not happen. When issued, the regulations included a provision that councils "might" co-opt external members, but not that they must. The guidance that was issued at the same time merely recommended this as good practice. The Minister expressed confidence in Committee that local authorities would ensure that police authorities played an active part in these committees, but he also mentioned that it was important to allow for local flexibility. Interestingly, when we originally debated this matter some three years ago, we agreed that it was more important to ensure that we got accountability right. I am not clear what has changed since then. One has only to look at some of the promotional literature currently being circulated, offering advice on implementing the new regulations. Phrases like "scrutinising the police" crop up all too often, demonstrating that there is indeed a widespread misconception about the role and remit of these scrutiny committees. This leaves me with significant concerns that, in areas where police authority members are not co-opted to these committees, the committees will overstep their remit and seek to hold local police commanders to account. That risks creating tensions between local authorities and both police forces and police authorities, which will have a detrimental effect on partnership working. Police accountability and how to make it effective is an important current preoccupation, and rightly so. We have to ensure that new legislation such as this supports and strengthens existing arrangements rather than offering any possibility of cutting across them. I would be happy if the Minister could tell me that the regulations will be reconsidered, but I fear that he will not be able to do so, any more than he was able to give me that reassurance in Committee. I beg to move.