Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill (Programme) (No. 2)

In the three minutes that are now available to me, I will have to try to explain why my hon. Friend's approach is interesting but wrong in relation to how the precept is dealt with. I explained in Committee the process following a veto, and the Home Secretary will set that out in regulations. They will require, as the amendment would, that the police and crime commissioner considers the panel's recommendations and then proposes an amended precept, which must take the panel's recommendations into account. This is where the Bill diverges from the proposed changes, however. Under the regulations that we propose, we say that, if the amended precept is ““excessive”” under the definition in the Localism Bill, the police and crime commissioner will set the precept but a referendum will be triggered. The panel will not be able to prevent that, but it will be able to propose an alternative precept with accompanying reasons that will have to be published. The public will then have to decide—having both sides of the story.