My Lords, that was an interesting contribution from the noble Lord, Lord Harris of Haringey, on this series of amendments. I am pleased that the noble Lord, Lord Rosser, has drawn these amendments to the attention of the House again—they are in a somewhat changed form but really representing the same point as before—because it draws attention to the tasking responsibilities and the arrangements between the National Crime Agency and UK police forces. It is important to stress—and I think I can reassure the noble Lord, Lord Harris, on this—that chief constables head up the operational arrangements for police forces and that the director-general deals with the operational arrangements within the NCA. I am afraid that I take the view that he thought I would take. I am sure that these are perfectly proper roles. We will come on perhaps to talk about how relationships between PCCs and chief constables might develop. They are not part of the Bill but they are associated with the issues that these amendments cover. I will say that these amendments do not apply to Scotland or Northern Ireland, where they do not have PCCs.
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I am not convinced of the need to write requirements into the Bill. Tasking is an operational matter and the provisions for two-way tasking enable the NCA and its partners to draw on each other’s support for operational activities in the fight against serious and organised crime. These arrangements provide the opportunity for chief constables to draw on the NCA’s specialist services—for example, intelligence, overseas and cyber assets, and these sorts of things—and also enable the director-general of the NCA to draw on a partner’s assets.
I expect voluntary tasking between the NCA and partners will take place on a routine, day-by-day basis, based on shared priorities and mutual co-operation. I see no need for police and crime commissioners to be routinely notified, any more than they would necessarily be routinely notified when one police force provides mutual aid to another, which is a common enough occurrence, as the noble Lord will know. However, I accept that directed tasking, and indeed directed assistance, is of a different order. That is why we have included in the outline of the framework document a requirement on the director-general to notify the Home Secretary and the relevant PCC, as soon as feasible—which is rather similar to the wording in the amendment—if he issues a direction to the chief constable of a police force to perform a task or to provide assistance.
In short, I hope that we have paid attention to the points that have been made by the Opposition on this point and to the premise behind these amendments. However, the appropriate place to set out a requirement to notify PCCs of any direction to a police force is in the framework document. I believe that the relationships between PCCs and chief constables will be intimate and regular enough for these matters to be commonly discussed as a matter of information exchange between both parties on a day-to-day working basis. I hope, on that basis, that the noble Lord will feel able to withdraw his amendment.