My Lords, I support the noble Lord, Lord Bach, despite not liking regret amendments, which are a legislative equivalent of saying “tut-tut”. What is the point? I also do not like the police and crime commissioner system. It is not as well overseen as the previous system of local police committees and was yet another government mistake. However, I will vote for the regret amendment.
The Green Party was opposed to police and crime commissioners because we feel that police forces should be supervised and accountable to elected local government. It is more immediate and more responsive with councillors.
However, it could be said of most police and crime commissioners at the moment that, although it is an elected position, as far as politics is concerned, they are semi-skimmed—they are rather thin milk. They are independent—often former police officers, even a priest—and they have used their expertise to serve their communities. Transferring those powers to an elected mayor, especially over such a large, combined pair of authorities will turn these functions into the hands of one single full-fat politician. That is simply too much power in one pair of hands. The move towards directly elected mayors and these mega-authorities is already combining too many powers into one executive who is subject to very little scrutiny. That is one of the really big problems with this.
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As the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, mentioned, there will be a diluted focus on the police and what they get up to because we will almost certainly have a deputy mayor who has no public mandate at all and might not have the relevant skills. The policy is rubbish, the process is even worse and the timing is—I nearly swore —pretty rubbish as well. The Government are rushing through legislation.
This should force your Lordships’ House to think about our role. What other things might this Government force through? If your Lordships’ House and, in particular, the Official Opposition, decide not to stop any legislation from the Government, at what point could we say that while we might be unelected we are the only people left who can actually defend democracy?